To think it takes a special kind of arsehole to fuck up wheelchair access?

[CatThiefKeith]

Apologies in advance for the rant, but I've had a particularly bad couple of days with arsehole parkers.

Yesterday I took a lady who has a history of strokes and heart attacks to hospital, where she got some fairly bad news. Our local hospitals disabled bays have one yellow box between every two spaces, and you drive or reverse in, depending which side the wheelchair user needs to get out.

Got back to the car with a very emotional lady to find some Arsehat had parked right over the box on my passenger side, leaving a 4ft gap next to his car where there was no box. Had to leave lady halfway down the car park, pull my car out with the hazards on, get her, get her in, reverse back into my space, then take the wheelchair back to customer services. Wanker.

And now today have taken a different lady to a mobility aids clinic and some utter twat has used the dropped kerb/wheelchair access as a fucking parking space. Both of these fuckers had a blue badge themselves btw.

To top it all off this afternoon took my favourite sweary nonagenarian for afternoon tea in the village and 3 fuckwits had parked over drop kerbs or across pavements. Tossers.

I think all new drivers should have to volunteer to take wheelchair users out and about before getting their license, just so they can see what a monumental pain in the arse it is when ramps are blocked. AIBU?

Maybe instead of having to assist someone in a wheelchair before passing a driving test, new drivers should have to spend a week in a chair themselves.

Bikers have been saying for years that the roads would be a safer place if car drivers had to pass their CBT...

ADisappearingDreamOfYesterday

I may have completely blocked in a car that is in a disabled bay with no badge, then gone in to the supermarket and said at the customer service counter thatif the person has a badge then I will appologise and move.

I may then have had my reg number read out and been told by customer service I was blocking a blue badge bay, my answer is, "No the car parked there without a badge has blocked the bay, I have blocked them. If they have a badge and have forgotten to put it out then I will appologise and move it but if they haven't then I will finish my shopping first.

And I have certainly phoned the number on vans to ask why their worker is in a disabled bay. Particularly fun on a Saturday morning when some workers have the use of the van over the weekend but the owner is having a lie in.

Op I get what you ate saying but take the person at a& e parking g in the yellow box? What are they supposed to do if taking a disabled person with a medical emergency to hospital and there is no space near enough the door for them to manage? Surely ethically their right to get that person in so they can access emergency treatment trumps your right to get you car out so you can go home?

Spring - firstly, the car park is not outside A&E. secondly, had they reversed in they could have presumably used the same yellow box to disembark their passenger, as per the bays design.

Do I need to draw a diagram?

Hatching is yellow boxes, blank rectangles are disabled bays. Tosser parked over yellow box to allow passenger out on the side there is no yellow box, between him and the next parked car.

I do wonder why people can't just agree that yes, people without disabilities shouldn't use facilities provided for disabled people, instead of making up various hypothetical scenarios where they could possibly maybe have an urgent random need to use them? And then questioning disabled people why they have a problem with these unlikely hypothetical scenarios as though we are being unreasonable.

I seriously do wonder why. I think perhaps it's to justify their own appropriation, in their own heads?

It's just much easier, surely, to think "that space is provided legally, and morally, for a disabled person, I wouldn't use it" rather than "well what if I had a stomach upset and couldn't hold it and wouldn't feel comfortable jumping the queue for all the other toilets I could use...it would be OK then and I would only be a minute".

I do wonder what peoples' reactions would be if men just started using the womens' toilets routinely as they had upset stomachs or other emergencies which meant they didn't want to wait for the mens' toilets to be free, but of course they would only be a minute and it was unlikely a woman would come along whilst they were using it...I don't think it would be accepted, but yet disabled people can't expect the same courtesy of their own spaces because top trumps and all that...

I think there are many people who would benefit from having to use a wheelchair for a trial period or accompany a wheelchair user on trips out just to see what an absolute pain in the arse it can be. All drivers, town planners, architects, refuse operatives who obstruct the pavements as the abandon empty bins....... the list is endless.

I used to have a wheelchair accessible vehicle for my DD with rear access. I rarely parked on a road as the chances of being blocked out of the vehicle by someone parking too close to the back were quite high - inspite of the sign in the rear window asking peope to leave space. This meant that in our county town we were not able to make use of the free on street parking afforded to BB holders but had to park in the very expensive short stay car parks whose only concession was to allow 1 extra hour free to BB holders.

On the rare occasions that I have parked on the road I have ensured that the back of my car was next to the start of double yellow lines or a dropped kerb to reduce the risk of someone parking behind me - but even doing that I got caught being unable to load DD into the car on my return as some inconsiderate to**ers parked behind me.

I've been dreaming lately about all this angst about whose right it is to use what. If we all showed compassion and understanding, took only what we need. If the disabled toilets weren't disabled, but accessible, if people only used it when they couldn't use the other loos. Or seats on buses, tubes and in restaurants with inaccessible areas, people who could easily access all seating should automatically leave the easiest seats empty. If shop managers didn't blindly follow the legal minimum aisle width and let customers move freely round their shop. If people who can open doors manually or stand on an escalator left the lifts empty. If town planners actually used their brains and considered wheelchair/buggy routes round their towns. If we all only took what we needed, none of this I'm more needy than you competition, wouldn't it be so much better, might there be enough to go round? Then I remember MIL, uses FIL badge and leaves him at home, refused to get him a wheel chair unless he got rid of one of his two walkers, rather than get rid of the old GC toys or her crap, or keep the corridors clear of rubbish on the floor so he can move about, picks day trips that are inaccessible to him. And then I remember I only ever pushed a buggy, tried to use a carrier mostly made life much more accessible, but MN rules are I can't possibly have any concept of what it must be like to live with a disability so can't show any compassion, understanding or empathy towards how hard life must be for some.

I haven't read the full thread but
I did actually think it was illegal to park on the pavement?
And
My personal bugbear is gutters by dropped bloody kerbs
WHY?!