to think that blue badges should not be used as "drive and park anywhere badges"

[CrazyRainbowLady]

I work in a pedestrian zone. The sign at the top of the road is a no entry sign with exception for permit holders between 4pm and 10am. The road is wide enough for one car or van to pass through, but not much more.
There is a takeaway place just down the road from where I work, and every day at the end of my working day at 5.30pm, I get the car to load equipment in I need to take home, then I have to, at times, wait up to 30 minutes for various people to return with their takeaways before I can drive down through the pedestrian zone and go home.
Today a guy was driving in front of me, stopped right outside the takeaway place in the middle of the street, got out of his car and walked to the door.
I asked him politely to move as he was blocking the way through, and that it was a permit holders acces only road, and he told me to "come off it, love, I have a blue badge, I can drive and park wherever I want."

This is not the first time I have encountered this attitude since I started working there a year ago.
I get tutted at when I roll dowm the road at 2mph, with my permit on display, but this is ok because they have a blue badge?

And you are allowed to park on double yellows but not where it's causing an obstruction i.e close to a junction.

Fantasising about ramming the cars of blue badge holders. .if they are legitimate. .how lovely.

My post was not directed at OP but at bluevanman

People should indeed park considerarely st all times. But what a horrible thoughtless rant.

Agree. When mum had her bb she said she was happy to pay for parking as long as the space was big enough to get the wheelchair out and close enough to the shops etc. never understood why bb meant you could park on double yellow as its double yellow for a reason. Plenty of places to park with a bb which doesnt effect traffic flow.

Well..it does. .so people shouldn't really direct their ire at blue badge holders who park on them..if not causing an obstruction like example in OP. . But campaign for a change in law

I was going to say what the others said, a blue badge still means that you cannot block traffic or cause an obstruction. I used to care for a child with a BB and had various rules about it drilled into me. I'm still surprised that resident permit bays are off limits to BB holders though, yet a double yellow beside resident bays isn't

The thing about double yellows is that sometimes they are put in places where it's perfectly safe to park, but they just don't want people parking there. So whilst I agree to a certain extent, that most DYs are really not the best place to park, BB or not, I do get pissed off with the extension of DYs and the amount of them that seem to have no purpose.
My local council has gone overboard with DYs recently and they're everywhere. One particular road is actually significantly more dangerous now that they've double yellowed one side of it as the side that has the DYs had a solid verge that was originally there specifically for parking on and now they all park on the road on the other side.

Glad I am off to work so will miss this thread.

Not sensible posts like the OPS and most others.. but nasty rants like bluevanman's. Who doesn't know he's been born tbh.

And we have never caused an obstruction

Yanbu. It's not being being entitled to a blue badge - op has not even commented on this. But a blue badge is designed to make life for people who have disabilities more accesible. To be given a chance to park somewhere suitable and have the same opportunities as their peers.

It is not, in any way, designed for someone with a disability to hinder the lives of others. That actually, imo, is the massive irony.

And yes, I have a child with a disability (no blue badge) so I do perfectly understand the difficulties with finding somewhere to park that's suitable.

Yes OP is NBU

I didn't think you could park just anywhere. A member of the family has had loads of fines for 'just parking where she wants' she's still abusing that badge though.

Blue badges do allow you to park where loading is prohibited (denoted by two vertical stripes in the kerb) or to park causing an obstruction. Breaking either of these rules means parking enforcement at the local authority can take appropriate action - ticket or tow.

But well done OP you're going to attract the small section of posters here who begrudge disabled people getting 'summink fer nuffin' or who have some bizarre envy.

Spot on bishop

And people who object to that small section will be called "entitled"

Do not allow you (wrt loading bays)

And yes I have parked on double yellows next to permit spaces as I wasn't causing an obstruction yet wasn't allowed to use permit bays.

Otherwise it would have meant parking over 500 extra yards away from the doctors surgery.

Agree with others who have said that people with a blue badge should obey the road rules which apply to blue badges

So obviously it's no problem parking on double yellow but blocking the road or parking too close to a junction (which is the one and only time I have ever encountered any sort of "misuse") is dangerous

Top of our road it's delivery vans which block the junction while parked on double yellows

Not a blue badge between them

I wonder how long the claims of people who have blue badges who don't need them come into things.

but the way people here believe that they can park wherever they like because they have a blue badge baffles me

One person parked badly. Not all blue badge holders are irresponsible.
When you get a blue badge it comes with a booklet telling you where you can park, an no you're not supposed to obstruct the highway.

oh gosh I was a bit harsh.... maybe years of BB being slagged of on mn makes me "harsh" poor op......

Fanjo I think that bluevanmans rant was aimed at people who park dangerously (making it necessary to drive on the pavement in the example given) not just all BB holders.

OP, YANBU. Having a disability doesn't give you a right to become an inconsiderate numpty.

No i think bluevanman's rant showed a deeper resentment of blue badges personally. Especially with the wee dig about not being able to walk 10 yards because it's not free. Straight out of the DM comments page.

I don't care who bluevan's post was aimed at it was Disablist and I've reported on that basis.

There are so many subjects that could be discussed on MN.

Long rants about disabled people and their parking are not very nice IMO.

A rant about gym goers with no badges who constantly use all disabled spaces in the evening as they can't be arsed to walk 100m to their workout and think its fair game as they wont get caught in evenings would be far fairer I think