AIBU to be incredulous that this really does happen IRL?!

[ifyourehoppyandyouknowit]

Just saw a carpark skirmish between a car with a blue badge and a car with a baby, over the last parent and child space, at a big chain supermarket. All disabled bays were full, only one PAC space left, both car reach the space at the same time. Man in blue badge holding car waves blue badge from window, people with child in the car kick off and start shouting about how he should park in the disabled bays, saying that they don't care if they are all full that is a parent and child space. I just kind of stood there open mouthed. Plenty of space to park further back in the car park as it wasn't that full. Oh, and no one was going to dissolve because the carpark is under cover.

I'm just that this really actually happens in real life! I thought it was kind of a internet ranty thing and that no one would be dickheaded enough to actually challenge a blue badge holder's right to use a PAC space outside of the internet!

And now I feel like I should have said something, but the shouty parents didn't seem like they were the type to listen to anything except the sound of their own voices.

So am I BU and very naive?

Completely agree that disabled drivers take priority - that's surely a no-brainer.

However, I do get v sick of posters claiming that p&c spaces aren't necessary and those that use them are being namby-pambies. I drive a three door car and sometimes I just cannot get my baby out of the back if spaces are too narrow or cars parked too close together. I've had to leave car parks before now because there wasn't space to get out. Yes, p&c spaces are a marketing ploy, but they do perform a useful function.

It's not so much that they're not useful Alaska, it's that some of the bad behaviour they provoke makes it questionable whether they're really worth it. I agree trying to lift kids in and out of a three door car is a pain and can often involve a lot of manoevring but the solution is to provide P&C spaces somewhere towards the back of the car park. At them moment they seem to be creating a ridiculous sense of entitlement among some of the more ignorant parents out there.

Can you tell the supermarket if someone is using a space without a badge? Can they do anything?

They can put an announcement out over the tannoy and that's about it.

But if someone with a blue badge were to park at a right angle across the back of them so that it is impossible for them to move the car the manager can only really do the same thing.

I have done it more than once, when I get called and I'm told that I'm blocking a BB space I politely point out that the car in the space is the one actually blocking that space and my care is merely blocking them in.

If they have a BB then I will appologise and move my car, if they don't then they will have to wait for me to complete my shopping. Never had to appologise yet.

As well as moving the PandC spaces they should also move the cashpoint round the corner from the door.

Like a previous poster I've seen a car pull into the last BB space then the driver leave the disabled person in the car while she went to do her shopping.

That's taking the piss a bit, isn't it?

Surely the person who owns the badge should at least leave the car or the driver should park in an ordinary space. It wasn't a one off we see this couple regularly - we must do our weekly shop at around the same time.

We have done that but its because DH is going to then take DD out to go to toilet

I would imagine a tannoy announcement would be enough - quite embarrassing I would think!

A colleague of mine has pre-printed notes for people who park badly - she has a real thing about it. I will have to ask if she does the same for BB spaces.

I am getting so tempted to leave a note when we cant get parked at beach because people without badges use the spaces, so DD misses out.

But I don't generally like that sort of passive aggressive action.

Arabesque, I am enjoying the clarity of your posts.

I think as part of the curriculum everyone should have to spend a week in a wheel chair, a day blind folded, and have to go about daily business.

I don't think you should be allowed to be a builder/construction, architect, engineer, town planner, planning officer, politician, parish councillor, town councillor, designer, and many other professions , if you haven't completed a week in a chair and a disability awareness course,

Everyone should be expected to have this as a standard qualification.

I hate that we still offer up bad design solutions, and the so many people have absolutely no concept as to what it is to be disabled.

Fanjo I am now wondering if this could work. I suppose it depends how you word it. In your situation, I think I would leave a note.

You must have been delighted to see the traffic warden Fanjo.

Yes but also a section on invisible disability should be included, as not all disabilities involve wheelchairs :)

Sauvignon..I was so pleased and may have said "yes!" to DH.

I always keep buggy in boot so the width of a park matters not. I've never ever never seen anyone get a buggy out of the back seat, anywhere, ever.

Mine's in my backseat, because the whole back of my car (a 4WD ute with a canopy on the back) is built in as dog cages. I have a monster car, but the pram only fits in the backseat. Yet somehow, I still manage to get it out of the car in a normal sized carpark without causing damage to the car next to me.

Thanks Eyes

Has anyone been to kiddicare in Merry Hill? Apart from pregnant ladies and the odd grandparent, everyone there has a child. And the car park spaces are tiny. People cope. As they would if there were no P&C spaces in supermarket car parks. They are not a 'need to have', they are a 'nice to have'.

Morally I would give priority to a person with a disabled badge.

stop letting abled bodied people who don't shop or have children design supermarket car parks as most of the problems are with design

putting in walk ways that are raised into car parks would help

placing large spaces for people with needs of a wider space other than a disability - would help and put these space far away from the door and plenty of them.

Have some free disabled spaces near to the door at the front and sides of the supermarket

I agree a sense of entitlement has been created. The same has happenend on buses. For years parents with prams folded. Now they refuse to fold and wont move for wheelchairs.

quoteunquote - that's a very very good idea

P&C spaces are handy for the room but mostly I'm not using the buggy so I don't use them. It's just a matter of carrying baby and plonking her into a trolley seat.

I've been a bit miffed to see people in work vans a few times just eating their lunch in a P&C bay when there were other spaces around, but I can still manage.

I could manage better if all the trolleys had brakes on the wheels though as not all supermarkets have them! Sometimes it's a windy day, you get back to the space and someone has parked an inch from your door etc... It's a bit fiddly trying to get baby then shopping in while making sure the trolley doesn't race off down the street on its own :D

Thank you UniqueAndAmazing

Having been involved with all of the above, I have a mass rant about this often,

I really want this to happen, and very quickly everything will change,

I specialise in dealing with design solutions, I feel like banging my head on the wall, when debating with people who do not understand why we should design with disability in mind,

I have found the only way I can get people to get their heads around it, is to make them sit in a chair, I even gaffer tape legs, and then put them through the experience, once they have experienced for themselves, you never get anything but support for the solutions,

I've had such good instant results, I truly believe that no one should be allowed to have any responsibility for design until they have done this.

About fifteen years ago, I threw in the towel at attempting to communicate using words to people who hold the control over the permission to design of spaces, life is too short, and people are very bad at being able to comprehend the concept.

I insist they get in the chair before we have a conversation, it is the quickest way to change thinking, no one after doing so has ever objected to a single suggestion I have made, they are instantly on board.

The supermarket I use has p and c parking spaces closer to the store than some of the disabled bays, seems stupid to me.

Oh quote!
Gaffer tape.
That's just incredibly fantastic, how immediate and effective.

From an elderly person POV, they have always shopped in store and older people like routine. As well as not having access to the internet,or wanting to access it

We, as humans, get into patterns of behaviour

There isn't much to do, when you have limited mobility and funds, going out to shop, passes the time

Aware of and agree with all of that

LuisSarez was correct. I did mean the people that use P&C spaces.

I'll rephrase it, I don't understand why parents who can afford to run a car, *so I will assume can afford/have internet access, don't shop online.

The OAPs you mention are not the ones arguing over P&C spaces, so I thought I didn't need to specify I don't mean them.

*waits for someone to come along and say how they can afford to run a car but not internet!

You get the gist though.