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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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

77 replies

CrazyRainbowLady · 23/02/2015 20:29

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?

OP posts:

BishopBrennansArse · 24/02/2015 08:19

I'm under no illusions by the way, I know this thread was started purely to be unpleasant.

I'm well aware that some people who hold blue badges park illegally according to the terms of the badge, but the thread wasn't started on that premise. It generalises about 'blue badge users' like they're some kind of homogenous group.

Yes some people who have blue badges park illegally. Just as some people who don't have blue badges park illegally.

ArcheryAnnie · 24/02/2015 08:19

Some drivers are inconsiderate assholes who make navigating the roads - as a pedestrian or another driver - more dangerous and difficult.

By the law of averages some of those asshole drivers will have blue badges.

The end.

Dawndonnaagain · 24/02/2015 08:22

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

pieceofpurplesky · 24/02/2015 08:23

A blue badge entitles you to park on double yellow lines unless there is a white line adjacent on the pavement.

Eminybob · 24/02/2015 08:27

I think it's a little unfair on the op. Her issue was with a guy who parked in the middle of the road, blocking the road off to pick up a takeaway, and refused to move on the basis of having a blue badge. That would piss me right off too!
And yes, there are people who park like twats in all walks of life, not just bb holders, and there are plenty of bb holders who park completely considerately. But the op wasn't about them. It was about a specific scenario she encountered.
I don't think that being disabled means that you can't get called on twattish behaviour.

Samcro · 24/02/2015 08:28

ffs what is all this "being disabled doesn't mean" crap
no one is being harsh or unfair on the op. but these threads cause hurt as as it allows people to post their jealous thoughts about BB holders.

BishopBrennansArse · 24/02/2015 08:31

Read the title. Does it say 'AIBU to think this blue badge holder was inconsiderate'? No it does not. It refers to them as 'drive and park anywhere badges'. Factually incorrect and attractive to a certain type of poster around here.

Unfair to the OP? Oh waah. OP has been incredibly unfair to all law abiding blue badge users.

Samcro · 24/02/2015 08:33

think it is called being goady. op new what they were doing.

ElphabaTheGreen · 24/02/2015 08:37

Does it vary from one area to another...? Surely not, because BB aren't just for use in one council's area. I'm sure the leaflet with DM's BB says in bold that it does NOT entitle the holder to park on double yellows. It facilitates parking in designated BB spaces and free parking in car parks that you would otherwise have to pay for. Parking on double yellows is, most of the time, dangerous and obstructive.

Eminybob · 24/02/2015 08:45

I disagree, the thread title is that bb's shouldn't be used as drive and park anywhere badges (true fact), not that all bb users drive and park anywhere.

zzzzz · 24/02/2015 08:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bluevanman · 24/02/2015 08:58

Ok everyone, on reflection I would like to apologise for the last sentence of my PP, and would welcome it being taken down, made me sound a LOT more nasty than I actually am.

I stick by the rest of my post though.
I have nothing against disabled drivers - or people. Infact I do all I can to accommodate all people.
ALL PEOPLE.

Just because you have a blue badge shouldn't mean that you can cause a danger in the road to everyone else! But yes as you point out, YOU CAN and I wouldn't like to change it for all the courteous BB holders

AND FYI My parents used to care for children with Downs Syndrome. They were out on a walk in the valley and one of the kids fell down a slope from the path, my dad climbed down to help child back up. He then fell further down the ravine himself and shattered both his knees, I have no memory of him ever being fit and well. He's not been able to walk more than 50steps since. I did however grow up with my DS friend Darren, who is 20 years older than me, but for a time we were at the same mental age. He doesn't remember me now :(

laughingmyarseoff · 24/02/2015 08:58

Yanbu op and by far the worst ones where I live don't need a blue badge, the two dangerous parkers here around my area use their parents bb to park where they like without their parent in sight. One of them is very vocal and boastful when in our local and has been reported several times but still does it!

I do wonder how often arrogant able bodied people missuse the bb and park badly after seeing how easily these two get away with it. I feel sorry for their parents, they borrow their car all the time and the bb with it.

Unless an emergency, no car should be an obstruction due to dangerous parking. A fire truck must be able to get down the road and if you park badly for whatever reason and block that then your cat will come back dented and scratched if access is needed.

ThatBloodyWoman · 24/02/2015 08:59

No one should park anywhere that causes an obstruction for emergency vehicles.

laughingmyarseoff · 24/02/2015 09:01

Cat? I meant car

And op talk to the council if its an issue, it's their job to make sure it's an accessible road and isn't being blocked illegally.

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 24/02/2015 09:19

YANBU OP. You were slightly delayed so no major harm done in the long run, but what if an emergency vehicle had needed to get through? Of course people can't just go blocking access willy nilly.

I can only really think of one road in our (small) city centre where people regularly park on double yellow lines, but it's pretty easy for anyone else to avoid, which I generally do. We do spend quite a lot of time in Devon during the summer, and car abandonment in dodgy (dangerous) places does seem more noticeable there. I suppose as the car parks are so busy at that time of year. Even that is a different situation from totally blocking an access road though.

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 24/02/2015 09:20

x-posts with several re: the emergency vehicles!

LostMyBaubles · 24/02/2015 09:28

Ds has a bb.
We do park on double yellows sometimes as its not safe for us to park further away from the place we need/want to go too as he is hooked up to a machine and if he falls while on the machine he could pull his tube out and end up needing emergency surgery.

We dont park where we like and would never block a road. If im unsure I will double check the booklet I was given and if still unsure will make sure im not blocking anyone from passing.

Ive never seen a bb holder park where evee they want so that they are obstructive.

But yanbu.
And just want to say we dont all do it I promise

Purplepoodle · 24/02/2015 11:29

Er hate the attitude of I have a blue badge and I can therefor park dangerously and obstruct traffic. Local council here has now put yellow lines up most curbs to stop the blue badge parking as literally the whole town centre was jamming up due to inconsiderate blue badge holders.

Bly badges are brilliant for those who need them but there's always a minority who ruin it for the rest

TravelinColour · 24/02/2015 11:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheFairyCaravan · 24/02/2015 11:48

I've got a blue badge. I do park on double yellow lines where it is safe because I am allowed to and sometimes it is the only way I can go about my business. In one place where I park there is a car park (free for bb holders) about 200m away, but if I park there I can't do what I need to in the shops in the vicinity.

One bloke had a right go at DH once for parking behind him on the DY's. He claimed he couldn't get his car out of the space, he jolly well could have had he have been a competent driver as there was plenty of room behind him. He was ranting and raving that we shouldn't be parked there and should show some come consideration! Ironically he was parked closer to the car in front of him than we were to him, iykwim.

On Sunday DS2 and I went to Tesco. The Police patrol car was in the car park. They would have just had to have driven through an obstruction caused by around 15 cars double parked, half on the pavement, blocking the High St. Not one had a BB. Traffic was stacking up, pushchairs and wheelchair users weren't able to use the pavement, but a blind eye was turned!

BeyondDoesBootcamp · 24/02/2015 11:49

Yanbu, but luckily its it the terms of the blue badge that using it in certain places will get it taken off you. So yes, anyone would be U to use it as a 'park anywhere' badge, as it isnt one.

Cobain · 24/02/2015 12:06

Where I am the blue badges spaces are ideal for the local shopping centre but the parking charges are huge so many of the people with badges who also happen to be poor use double yellow on streets while the bays are left empty. I can walk into town they are left with not only having to pay parking but usually more as it takes them longer to shop. Some councils are just crap at planning.

Samcro · 24/02/2015 12:12

TheFairyCaravan see that all the time, you have to take the WC out into the road.
but much better to slag of BB holders, than just inconsiderate parkers.
school mums/dads being the worst.

laughingmyarseoff · 24/02/2015 13:10

There's a double decker bus here that often got stuck by the school because parents parking on both sides of the roads when there's double yellows on one. The number has lowered in later months and I wonder if it's proportional to the number of wing mirrors I now see at the side of the road. The bus just scrapes through when someone parks there but scrapes is the right word and it's on the offenders side.

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