Are there now too many disabled parking spaces?

[Ladywithabagonherhead]

I know I will sound like an entitled cow, but I wonder if I am alone with this. I am all for helping people who have disabilities in any way we can, that is decent - and if you are disabled yourself reading this, this is not against you at all.

I more and more think that we are overdoing the whole disabled parking slot deal. It's been happening these last few months everywhere I go, shops, high streets, supermakets, vet, etc.. Everyone is struggling to find a space, while there is a whole row reserved for blue badge holders, with one maybe two parked there. Meanwhile, there are fewer spots for family cars with small children, for example. Surely... surely there are way more families with kids than disabled parking needs (and I don't even have kids, just an observation). Not to mention the rest of us. Again, yes, we need dedicated parking spots, but aren't we overdoing it? As in, it's not really balanced. This is what I experience where I live, at least.

There aren’t enough disabled spaces in most places, but there are too many parent and child spaces. Parents and children can walk.

That is not really fair. (I go for regular checkups just to make sure I am fit enough to drive - and I can't say a lot of people my age give a toss about it). If there is a need for all the disabled spots, and are being used, that's great, I never once thought like I would deserve them more. I am sorry where you live it's not the case, but I can only talk about where I live, so there we have it. Both can be true.

lol.

fucking lol.

the official position on buses in my town is that they bus company try to provide a bus with disabled access.

what that means in practice is you get to guess whether it will be or not. And wait another hour at the bus stop if it isn’t

I'm not sure people have thought through the impact of regional variations enough (as well as the relative demand for that specific shop or service)

I expect most shops use the 6% or whatever the prescribed minimal formula is. But as a proportion of population there are twice as many blue badge holders in some places as there are in London. City of London it's 1.4%, Caerphilly it's 9.3%, so why are they using the same formula.

It also explains why those in areas with lots of empty BB spaces are baffled by those saying they are full and vice versa.

Not enough disabled parking spaces most the time in my experience. My husband needs those spaces to either deal with his wheelchair or on a good day when he will manage without wheelchair only have a short manageable walk to shop or doctors or whatever. However I am regularly having to wait for people to leave or using blue badge on yellow lines (which means time limit).

I feel the question should be are too many people without physical disabilities getting the blue badges. Obviously invisible disabilities are a thing but in some cases they seem to have badges when they can clearly do physical stuff pretty pigging well.

Also why are parent and child places so close to shops in a lot of car parks. When I had small children I couldn't understand this. You need space to get baby out of carseat etc but those spaces would make more sense at back less busy area of most carparks then they could fit in more spaces for disabled and parent places.

If you have/ are living with someone who has a mobility limiting condition then being able to use a disabled parking space is one of the (very) few positive experiences in what is generally a difficult and life limiting situation. I thank goodness for these small mercies. And there are generally never enough disabled spaces. Maybe there are at a few venues but the norm is that there aren’t. Especially at service stations where the max seems to be about 3 spaces per every hundred of able bodied car parking spaces. Don’t begrudge disabled spaces. I’m sure, as is the case for me, users of these spaces would trade never having to rely on disabled car parking spaces again just to be able to actually do things and go places for the relatively minor inconvenience of walking extra steps or not parking near to things.

I have been advised at work to do so, and did have to once in my old car, but then I wasnt worried about damage. Sadly they both managed to get out past my car. I currently have a Motability car and am a little more protective of it. But dont plan to renew with them so my next car, am more likely to be relaxed and do so again. But when I am on my own, I cant easily get out my car to check if they have blue badges, its only walking slowly past I can see the lack of badges on display.

In some places, yes. We struggle to park in the leisure centre car park when we go swimming, the car park is always full on weekends and holidays, except for for disabled spaces where only about 10% are occupied. But i also feel like that's what we want too... for those who need them to always find a space waiting for them. So I don't think I'd want them to change it, and if they did, to only reduce them by maybe two spots.

Sometimes I feel like there are too many old women who don't have kids moaning on mumsnet about nothing to do with parenting. But that's just me.

There is a service station on M42 that has converted a lot of their accessible parking into EV charging points, to the extent they are closer to the entrance than the disabled spaces (and more of them than disabled). I struggle to walk far and my mobility scooter is often packed solid with holiday stuff when we park there I really struggle to get to the loo.

was absolutely not my point. Nobody said anything about begrudging these spaces or not appreciating the fact that I don't need them. Where there is a need - absolutely, I think it is more than needed! But places where these spots sit empty the vast majority of the time, then it's just not a good use of space, plain and simple. It has been pointed out that businesses use the same number to determine the number of dedicated spaces everywhere, which is not effective, given there will be places with a lot higher need, and places where you don't need as many

I understand that, but the spaces are there for a reason. Being disabled isn’t easy to navigate, it took me two years to accept my condition and grieve for a life I once had. Where I live they’ve actually reduced the amount of bays 🤦‍♀️, all they do is allow us to be closer to where we need the access 🤗

My dad is in his 80s, has congenital COPD (through no fault of his own as it’s genetic), can barely walk 100 metres and has always refused to get a blue badge.
If ever anyone could benefit from one it is him and it makes me sick that people who have conditions other than actual physical disabilities that stop them walking are getting these badges meaning more places need to be made available.

I think we all know what they are for, there is no argument there. But when clearly it is not being used almost at all, then it's safe to say that the number was not determined well enough at that specific spot. And again - the same applies where there are not enough of them

🙄

Yes and No. The fact is we have far too many disabled people in this country. No Im not talking about people born with a disability or one as a result of an injury etc. I mean as a nation we are one of the unhealthiest and most inactive in Europe if not the world, which in many cases can lead to some form of disability later in life - and the need for more disabled parking spaces.

My dad, a paraplegic, used to have this issue. He can’t just get out in a random space because there’s no room to open the door wide enough and bring a wheelchair around to slide onto.

People forget that while there could be too many spaces sometimes, demand rises and falls and there needs to be enough availability to cover the vast majority of times, hence there being some empty spaces. For some disabled people it is a huge effort just to leave the houses for a trip to be wasted because there weren’t enough spaces would be a travesty

No, there are definitely not enough Blue Badge spaces! However, I think you should only be able to get a blue badge for physical disabilities. That might be an unpopular opinion, but I can't understand why adults/children who are neuro divergent or have mental health issues, need a wider bay nearer to the shop etc

What about all the younger than retirement age people who get behind the wheel suffering from the effects of drugs, alcohol and more increasing with poor eyesight.

If we are going to get dangerous drivers off the road it needs to be across the board. Lets mandate compulsory eye test for everyone, every 2 years. Mandatory drug testing too whist we are at and more frequent breath testing. Or do you only care about getting old people off the road?

Give your head a wobble.

No where near enough in the Noth west where I live, it's always a struggle because standard spaces are not wide enough to accommodate getting in and out of my vehicle.

I sort of agree with you, our big shopping centre has got rid of so much parking.. Sold it off to developers, Starbucks, a we buy any car stand. Even a massive entertainment plot. Now there's less and less parking for cars and yet there seems to be a massive car park just mainly for disabled and the EV chargers. Right outside M+S ironically 🤣 in the day the disabled spots are busy but come late afternoon most of them are empty.
I generally don't think we have enough car parking on a whole. There's way too many cars to parking places.

I don't know what the answer is but you do find the parent and child spots abused frequently so even if there were more of them, they will always be full as you don't need "proof" Like a disabled badge.

Far too many at my railway station, about a third of all spaces. I wouldn’t mind if they were used, but there are usually only a couple of cars in the fifteen or so spaces, and parking is difficult for everyone else at peak times.

Elsewhere in the town centre there are probably not enough disabled spaces, it’s hard to get the right balance I guess.

Anyone who wishes they could park in an accessible parking space is more than welcome to my blue badge. You'll have to take the disability to go with it though. Primary progressive MS.

To get a blue badge in my local authority, everyone gets sent for an assessment. Essentially can you walk along a corridor of the council building between 2 points. On a good day I can stand and transfer between 2 chairs. On a bad day (which totally outweigh the good ones) I can't even support my own head, let alone stand. Yeah, that assessment was......fun. All so I could get my magic blue parking ticket.

What is equally as much fun is the people who seem to think they are entitled to be the blue badge police in car parks. I've been shouted at more than once because people think I am treating it as parent and child parking (I've got kids). On one memorable occasion someone called the police wanting to get me arrested for 'benefit cheating fraud'.

In general and in the last 5 years I have found attitudes towards disabled people have changed hugely. With the weekly 'too many blue badge parking spaces' threads on MN symptomatic of this. Because all disabled people are fakers, benefit cheats, in it for the lolz, free cars or magic blue park where you want parking ticket, innit.

Anyone want my badge?????

Quite often my DH has had to go home and not attend not attend an event in our town because there is nowhere he can safely park with space to get his wheelchair out.
its difficult though as I do think people abuse the blue badge system.