Disabled parking badges are for the designated places NOT where the hell you like

[lilmissminx]

Really need a vent! Am sick to death of seeing cars parked in the parent and baby/toddler spaces just because they have a blue badge, and not a child in sight The other way around and you wouldn't hear the end of it about inconsiderate parents etc. I fully agree with the need for the disabled spaces etc, but I don't like having to choose between leaving my baby locked in the car to return the trolley (especially if out of sight) and him getting totally soaked etc if I take him with me.
Disclaimer This is made more annoying for the particular store I am referring to as there are only 2 parent spaces, and more than a dozen disabled badge holder ones. Yet because the parent ones are in between the two sets, they use those and leave all the other badge spaces empty.

Mum in middle - I very often have to pay parking charges, at cheddar gorge yesterday for eg. That is not the issue for me, it is that the bb does sometimes give me the option to park nearer to venues which on bad days can mean the difference between going out or staying in.

Where I now live in Bristol, life would be very difficult without my badge. If I get home from work after 6pm I would not be able to park any closer than half a mile away from my house as all parking spaces have long gone. Luckily there is the next door street which has a weirdly long double yellow line and I perch on the end of that, no bother or obstruction to anyone.

On a bad day I just couldn't walk half a mile with my rucksack full of heavy papers. But that isn't even the test for the bb - they explicitly exclude the impact on your ability to walk when carrying heavy bags.

I think this is what so upsets me about the op. Apart from elderly relatives, she seems so utterly clueless about the impact of disability, which is with us every single bloody day. It was the angry face emoticon in her pot that really pissed me off. She actually got angry about it.

Spero - I don't know what the market for Blue Badges is like in Lambeth - I work in Brixton now and I haven't personally seen a blue badge prosecution at the local court - that might be because the LA are less pro-active than the noth London council I did work for, or it might be that it is less of an issue.

Or perhaps you were just targetted by someone opportunistic rather than organised.

Spero - can you not get a disabled space painted on the road outside your house? Does that cost money, or will they not do it in case your leg grows back?

slightlymad - you should point out she should look totally unshaggable at all times. Observant readers will note the frequent absence of usable mirrors/tampax/condom machines in accessible toilets. The baby change units are usually too high to use from a wheelchair. They and the nappy bins take up the space needed by a wheelchair. This is all explicable when we realise that the main sign of disability is the total absence of genitals. So it doesn't matter what you look like, hence no mirror. No sex, therefore no condoms or babies. You must ensure that your daughter never brushes her hair or teeth, and certainly never uses makeup.

Not sure of the answer then except more education of course so the younger generation are more informed about disability?

just took dd out(to get her haircut, she was as good as gold, once she made me leave the shop!!) anyways we parked in a pay and display and using her BB we don't have to pay.
please tell me know one begrudges a 16 yr old who cannot walk or talk free parking!!!

I'm going to stick my head up and agree with OP to an extent.
I can see the point if there are disabled spaces free when the BB holder arrives and they still park in the P&C ones - that's a bit out of line.

But if you just see them parked there in the P&C how do you know that they didn't arrive when all disabled bays were full?

Mind you our Waitrose designates the P&C spaces as available for disabled as well though. But there's always more disabled filled than p&C - must be the clientele!

BTW We hired a car in Jersey and had a friend with us who had a BB.

DH drove, I navigated and friend was in the back seat.

The number of dirty looks we got when pulling into disabled space and both jumping out ... but we were never challenged directly. People looked a bit embarrased when we went to the boot and got a wheelchair out though.

I never knew that my children were a disability.

PITA, yes. Nuisance, often. Drive me to screaming point, more than once. But a disability, nope.

You live and learn.

I nearly had a fight with a guy over a disabled parking space.I was waiting patiently for someone to come out of one (all full) so sat with my indicator on. This guy tried to get in before us, and I tooted at him, and then parked. My DH is the one that has a disability

Apparently we couldn't be disabled because

1.Our car was too big and posh (it's a Quashqi-not that posh and it's Motability)

1. We were too young and apparently trendy
2. My husband doesn't LOOK disabled.

4.He isn't in a wheelchair

He wanted to see our Blue badge-I told him to F Off and if he had an issue with my husband's disability then he could call the Police if he wished, and stomped off (well I stomped, DH didn't)

I watched Michael Mcintyre last night and apparently everyone watches when they see a car pull into the disabled bays, to make sure they are in fact occupied by bb holders and are not satisfied that they are disabled unless the occupant falls out of the car and drag themselve along the floor to the supermarket.

Cambridgeferret why is it a out of line? Having a BB does not restrict you to parking in disabled bays, it means you can park where ever is easiest for you. Do people really begrudge a disabled person having their life made slightly easier?

Bearing in mind, you have no idea what disability that person parked in the P&C space has. It could be anything from finding it easier to get a wheelchair out in that space or perhaps they have someone in the car with a severe mental impairment, who has a phobia about parking next to another car or being touched by something, as does my ds.

2shoes-iv'e been referring to kungfus post re fraud/stealing bb badges that's all.

cambridgeferret Enjoyed your post. Last year DW had surgery on both knees and was very immobile for a time - no BB, it did not last long enough. But while it did I stopped the car outside her DB's house in a narrow cul-de-sac and put the hazards on just as a woman was trying to get off her drive - there was a bend in the road, I had not seen her, otherwise I would have waited. She hit the horn and stayed on it until I opened the back door and took out DW's crutches . . . the out she jumps, all apologies, obviously feeling like shit and deserving to!

Thumb witch, I am interested in that parking space outside home option but I am only renting at the moment and hoping to move soon, so didn't pursue it. I see quite a few of those spaces round here - but how do they work? Is it just a courtesy thing? I can't see any signs saying you can only park with a badge, it is generally just a white marked out space saying disabled. I see cars all the time on my street parked in them without a bb: I assumed it wasn't enforceable or policed by anyone.

Andrewofgg you would be amazed at the number of people who beep at special school buses. If anyone beeps at ds1 I give them my hardest stare (arms crossed). Idiots.

saintly I've long stopped being amazed at anything anyone, male or female, does at the wheel of a car. Inconsiderate men at more or less any time, inconsiderate women especially when on the school run, which I suppose is when they will encounter special school buses.

I have my faults but I hope I get more enjoyment out of them than I would out of parking in a BB or indeed a P and C space when I am not entitled to. When DW was crook I stopped bang outside the door - and bugger the hooters and tooters - to let her out then parked in an ordinary space.

Spero, I was under the impression that they were policed by traffic wardens, same as double yellow lines and that, but I could be wrong.

Yep, I was wrong, they are courtesy only, at least in Surrey CC

a-HA! No, I wasn't completely wrong - if you live in Dudley, they are enforceable! Seems to depend on whether they are done under a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) or not - if they are, then they are legally enforceable by the police (and presumably traffic wardens) but like every other buggery thing in the UK, it's not standard across the councils.

Thanks thumb witch, I might try that when I move.

BUT! Scary thought - how long before op agitated for p and c parking on her own street? Or even a p and c street with forcible eviction of the non breeders.

What a good idea!

Ds2s previous driver was a massive bloke.
One day we had one of the occasional charmers who screamed fucking retards at ds2s bus.
Unfortunately for him the traffic then stopped with him stuck with no where to go and the driver getting ever larger in his rear view mirror.

Hilarious

People shout at buses carrying SN people

Why?

It is baffling isn't it?

Mostly it is because they have to, you know, stop.
Apparently a mini bus stopping in front of my own house annoys the crap out of some people

Because they're arseholes.