To want p&c spaces to be renamed "easy access" spaces?

[UndramaticPause]

This has been triggered by other threads but also by life events as a person with disabilities and reduced mobility who doesn't fit blue badge criteria.

We all know and love the p&c warriors and I have had the misfortune to be accosted by them in carparks and have had photos of my car plastered on Facebook parking pages as I will use these spaces if they are close to the shops to alleviate fatigue and pain.

Aibu to think there must be a large amount of people like me or with temporary issues like a broken leg or recovering from surgery who could benefit from the rebrand?

I'd scrap them all together

and YANBU

I am not a fan of p&c spaces.

But if the spaces you were talking about were created who would police them?

What would be the criteria? And who would decide if you fit that criteria?

They would likely be full, with people claiming they need easy access. Who would decide they don't.

Most p&c spaces are further away than disabled parking. So wouldn't provide easier access. At my local supermarket, many normal spaces are closer to the entrance than p&c.

I would put them at the arse end of the car park, as the extra space is nice but they don't need to be in spitting distance of the store. This could free up spaces near the door for some 'easy access' spaces as I think they are a good idea as well.

YADNBU

There is also no legal right to disabled spaces on private car parks they are also a courtesy provided by the store, something I learned which made me when I met my severely disabled MIL.

Probably a good idea. I use these spaces because I have a large car and three children which means I struggle to get my kids in and out of normal spaces plus a buggy. Also the safety part of having the buggy next to the car not out where other cars are driving.

Difficult to police that though, I wouldn't mind having parent and child spaces further away from the store if that meant there could be more.

Having two car seats in the car, I think the extra space is really useful getting the children in and out. It should also mean that less people accidentally ding the car next to theirs when opening the door wide enough to reach and strap children in.
I understand why other people feel they need accessible parking but surely trying to start a campaign for wider or more accessible spaces for other shoppers would be more useful in the long run. I also agree that putting the p&c spaces away from the store would help.

In a world full of lovely people that would be a great idea as they would only be used by people who needed them, we don't live in such a world and the great entitled would us them with the very weakest of reasons and there would be no room to argue.

(and I say that as someone who needs a mobility aid but doesn't qualify for a blue badge.)

I used to use them when I took my dad to the supermarket before he got his blue badge. In that particular carpark they were near to the store entrance, and being in his late 80s with Parkinson's, he needed to be able to open the door fully to get in and out of the car, as well as being limited in the distance he could walk (he is now in a wheelchair, and we have a blue badge).

I got an evil look on one occasion until the woman clocked my dad struggling to get out of the car, but I was never actually challenged - I was fully prepared to justify myself on the basis that we were a 'parent and child' and needed the extra space to get in and out of the car.

Scrap p and c spaces. Have wider spaces that anyone can use and stick them at the back of the car park with a safe walkway to the store.

YANBU, but, as a pp said - who would police them? I think the term Easy Access would leave the spaces open to abuse/misuse, which really wouldn't help anybody.

That said, I would never question a person with reduced mobility using a P&C space! Who are the twats that do this? In fact I would never question anybody, because it's just not worth it. If I don't know the person, I don't know their reasons for parking there. Practically the only time I'm ever annoyed by "unworthy" parking is when a young-ish able bodied man (able bodied enough to run from the car) parks his BMW in the one disabled bay outside the row of shops in the village and runs off into the gym.

It's the same man, he does it every evening. Someone else in the village did confront him and was told to "fuck off, I don't want twats like you scratching my BMW." The gym have been notified but refuse to say anything to him.

Apart from that, nah, I can't get that upset about where strangers park.

I've worked for 3 of the largest retailers in the country and they want family shoppers who have a higher basket spend. Hence offering them incentives like parent and child parking, trolleys suitable for babies etc. I find it perplexing at how these threads go in MN with people falling over themselves to begrudge families with young children these spaces and insisting they themselves used to park a mile away and hike to the store etc, etc.
The spaces are close to the store to encourage those valuable shoppers into the store, there is no way the retailers want them trekking from the back of the car park. Really, it's only MN that seem to have these views of parents being somehow grabby and lazy for having these bays and wanting to use them. I've sat through hundreds of focus groups where parent and child parking is an important part of customers decision on stores.
If you need to use them because you have a disability or a mobility struggle then knock yourself out, but you are being unreasonable to expect the retailers to ignore their own research and customer understanding and change a key part of their customer retention strategy because you don't like the principle behind it.

the problem lies with policing the spaces.

I didn't start driving til my children were to old to justify using the spaces. and tbh in never really use them now as I have one old enough to strap herself in who can also strap her sibling in so I don't really require the extra space. so I tend to save them.fir those who do.

however I did use one without the kids the other day. I was however carrying a passenger who needed to he nearer the entrance and who needed the extra space.

I guess there should he both really but it's a question. of how to police them.

I suppose it is only a problem because of a few parents mouthing off at people who need the extra width or closeness as much or more than they do.

Yanbu. It's beyond me why some people think reproducing makes you incapable of walking, and unable to solve the conundrum of removing a child from a car without a 4' error margin.

However, the kind of precious person who finds them important and necessary, is also the target market.

Elderly/ temp disabled/ injured/ deserve but don't have a bb etc as a whole don't tend to spend a ransom on organic asparagus flavour rice cakes, freshly squeezed kale juice, organic yak and olive puree, hypoallergenic baboon milk and the rest of the over priced and marketed crap that ensures healthy profit. People who care about p&c spaces do.

reproducing makes you incapable of walking, and unable to solve the conundrum of removing a child from a car without a 4' error margin

What a condescending load of shite. Thats without all the crap about baboon milk.

I would like to be able to get my 3 children out of my wide car (which before you say it, I need to get the 3 humungous cars seats the government require). Keeping them safe and away from parking vehicles, without knocking other peoples cars. Or another person arriving and parking so bloody close to my car we can't get back in. I don't mind where in the car park it is, what its called or if I have to share it with other easy access users. I just need the room.

Lurked, they don't become incapable of walking. It's the retailers who want their spend as you yourself identified and wants to reduce some of the issues they have such as getting kids in and out of cars whilst safe.
It's exactly the same principle as offering baby feeding rooms, family toilets in the baby changing rooms etc. Why should families turn down little time saving/ convenient offers that are being targeted at them.
Being pregnant doesn't make women incapable of standing but trains offer a convenience for them and you'd have to be a bit of a prick to resent it or nick it just because you don't have the same offer available.

lurked

I think.you are pretty spot on there.

we never had them when i was a kid. our parents manged. and this was back in the day where you didn't really have umbrella fold strollers or travel systems you could just clip the car seat in.

nor did you see so many cars the size you see now.

but the options for people who may have an elderly relative the take shopping or who are ill or struggle themselves but dint qualify fir a blue badge are non existent.

the safe walk ways though, they are a good idea. fir an able bodied person and a child in a buggy or a toddler who can sit in the trolly seat, distance shouldn't really be an.issue so the spaces can go wherever.

I do agree the general spaces should he bigger though. sone are really quite small and id struggle to get my back side back in the car

lurkedforever you're full of crap.

When I had twin babies I needed to be and to do a quick dash from the car to find a double seat trolley. I couldn't carry them both to the trolleys. I also had car seats both sides so needed to be able to open both doors wider. If I was just buying a few things and taking my big double buggy into the shop I needed to be able to out the buggy safely beside the car. Funnily enough I didn't feel happy loading one baby in and then leaving the buggy behind the car while I got the other baby out.

P&C spaces made my life a lot easier. I don't know why that makes me precious.

Not sure why someone who is capable of trekking round a supermarket would need use of a P&C space near to the store. The marginal difference in walking distance would be small.

I can see why someone managing a couple of toddlers and a family trolley worth of shopping would want a safe parking space close to the store.

That said I would never challenge anyone using a P&C space if they felt they needed it and I don't actually use the ones at my supermarket as I prefer the quiet part of the carpark with the walkway further away from the store.

"We never had them when I was a kid."

True. We didn't have car seats either tho- or even seat belts if you were particularly unlucky.