To think some busy car parks have an excessive amount of disabled spaces?

[coffeeforone]

Every time I go to my local Sainsbury's, i very rarely find a free Parent & Child space, or any space that is not at the very far end of the car park. I've noticed this more recently as I'm heavily pregnant and have a 2 year old so would love a P&C space. There are only 12 parent & child bays, but there are 18 disabled spaces, the vast majority of them are always free. Given the ratio of parents with young children to blue badge holders in a supermarket at any one time, would it not be more sensible to have, say 12 disabled and 18 P&C bays, or even half & half? I've noticed this in places like IKEA and other big supermarkets too (but haven't actually counted the bays!)

Exactly, Claw. The very idea that being pregnant and/or having a young child is anywhere on par with being disabled. It's the epitome of stupid. And seriously, Mummy, oh the irony of whinging about having to drive around for a parking bay . . . at a gym/leisure centre. Woe is me! I'm visiting this establishment and paying for entry to go in there and exercise, yet complaining about how I have to walk farther to access it. The mind boggles.

That was in response to the leisure centre situation. There may be times when lots of bb parking is needed and they have decided that is the priority.

I would have thought busy Saturday mornings at a swimming pool would be a time most disabled people would avoid if at all possible

This thread just gets worse.

Of course there could be another time of the week where more disabled spaces are used but I would’ve thought Saturday morning would be one of the busiest times of the week

Maybe they have classes on set days and times for disabled people. Like the SN swim lessons my son used to attend. They tend to set these to their least busy times, so as not to offenf the eyes and minds of the ignorant able bodied or ‘NT’

It's astonishing, isn't it, Fairy. I had no idea that so many were going around in silent umbrage about disabled spaces; that so many waste time and emotional energy begrudging fucking disabled parking bays because they're pregnant or have children.

And the sheer stupidity. I thought 'Idiocracy' was only a film.

I'm a truly terrible parent (and person; I'm often told so on MN so it must be true) so I find keeping close tabs on a 2yo is hard work. Especially trying to cross a busy carpark. Heck, trying to keep myself safe in that situation is pretty stressful. I have sympathy with all the other ordinary (terrible) parents (& people) out there who also find this challenging.

I'm astonished at the horrible responses to a really simple question.

Stop projecting that OP is a goady heartless twat. It's a sensible question. Her issue is obviously with the car park designer not with disabled people, grow up.

We have a local multi storey. Not that big. A whole floor is disabled parking and it rarely has more than 5 cars on it. The other 4 levels are jammed. Often you can't park there at all and end up driving out, past the eighty odd permanently unoccupied spaces on level 2.

And before I get some idiotic comment about "well maybe you'd like my illness so you can have my parking space" don't be so immature to imply anyone is saying such a ridiculous thing.

The whole point is for all the general public to use the facility. If a whole level was for mother and baby, and was always like a ghost town, the point would be the same.

If a level is only ever 5 - 10% occupied, it does not mean thing other than it has been badly designed. Why shouldn't the permanently unused space be converted to spaces that would be used. There would still be ample disabled parking still with loads of empty spaces even if you halved the level.

I find that in my supermarket we have far too many mother and child spaces. Half of them are always empty. And I'm a mother with child that always uses them. There's loads though. Half could go there as well and there would still be ample space for everyone.

Lots of people on here need a cuppa instead of acting professionally offended and making mean projections about what OP clearly was NOT saying.

Surely anyone with any modicum of intelligence, however, realises that parenting a 2-year-old is in itself not a disability or anywhere on par with a disability .

The thing that gets me is even after it’s been explained, several times, by several posters, in several different ways, no one ever posts again! No ‘oh now I see’ or ‘I didn’t think about that’. No acknowledgement whatsoever!

The poster usually sits on the sidelines, waiting for another opportunity to snipe!

Why is disablism so hard to understand?

courtney Her issue is obviously with the car park designer not with disabled people, grow up

I suggest OP and you take the matter up with your MP, the supermarket, the car park owners, other parents who may have to walk etc, etc, instead of whining about disabled parking facilities on MN!

Disabled people will get offended. The clue is in the name ‘disabled parking’!

Courtney555 you’ve got a cheek talking about horrible responses, given you’ve just attacked a load of disabled people, for speaking up about life with their disability.

You and people like you make life so much fucking harder. It’s not us who need to grow up.

Why would they get offended. Please don't call me thick or goady, genuine question.

(plucking numbers out the air purely for example)

If there are say, 100 spaces for one type of user. Disabled. Mother and baby. Works either way, just 100 designated parking spaces. Now say it was shown over a month that the maximum occupied at any one time was 30 of those 100 spaces.

Why should the mothers be offended if the spaces were reduced to 50 and the rest made general parking? There would still be more than enough. Why should the disabled users be offended if there are still loads of free spaces, but the spaces that were never used are now being used.

Where is the offence to anyone?

Shatners - there isn’t nearby parking. It is off a main road with double yellow lines, which leads to an A road, which is a red route. It’s also nowhere near a public transport route so catching the bus is out of the question. If we can’t get a space we can’t go. Nowhere in my post did I blame blue badge holders or suggest non blue badge holders take their spaces. All I said was I understand some part of the OPs post but not relating to Sainsbury’s or P+C spaces
Left - how am I complaining about the walk? If we can’t park, we can’t go. I’ve explained we go for my DD swimming lessons. How do you suppose she goes swimming without going to a swimming pool? It’s our closest one. When I’m paying a small fortune for these lessons I think I’m allowed to be annoyed when there are times we can’t access these lessons due to parking. I’m not blaming BB holders, I’m blaming the local council who operates the centre.
Claw - I don’t believe they do disabled lessons as the teaching pool doesn’t have disabled access. I don’t need to be told that not all disabilities are in a wheelchair, I’m not stupid so I am aware that they could still offer lessons for different conditions without disabled access, however unless they’re secret lessons they don’t appear to offer them looking at the timetable I have. All lessons tend to be either weekend mornings or between 4pm-6pm in the week, all for the local swimming club.
Can I also add to this that despite there being around 30 BB spaces there are only 4 disabled changing rooms. These 4 disabled changing rooms are also family changing rooms. I’m not getting into who should be using them (they’re labelled as disabled and family changing), but they clearly need to arrange more changing rooms to accommodate the 30 BB spaces.

Why is disablism so hard to understand?

Because if it doesn't affect you then it isn't important

Some of the comments on this thread are astonishing and as for the poster suggesting we the offended need a cuppa can piss right off.suggesting disabled people and carers of disabled people are just professionally offended is truly offensive but I don't think the poster cares what I think.

Gosh, some of the people on this thread really shouldn't be parents. If you can't get a child safely across a supermarket carpark, how will you cope next to a main road? Or in a town centre? On holiday? When they need to go to school?

At our pool on a Saturday morning 100% of the disabled spaces are empty. Why? Because the gate to access them is locked! So I have to stop my van....send my visually Impaired child in alone to find the lifeguard on the desk to ask please open the gate for my mum.
If my child couldn't do that I would have to park my giant van in a normal space - or actually in the middle of 2 normal spaces in order for my children to go to swimming lessons.
This is what we call equality!

It's a sensible question.

Nope. It’s not a sensible question. OP proposed taking away BB spaces and giving them to parents. Only someone a bit thick would ask that, or think it’s sensible.

I became disabled when DS1 was under 2 and I was pregnant with DS2. I can guarantee that getting a 2yo across a car park is a piece of piss in comparison. Put them on reins, leave them for 30secs in a locked car while you get the trolley, carry them or hold their hand. The sky won’t fall in because you can’t a P&C space

Why can't a walking 2 year be put in reins to make sure they are safe just like you sometimes have to do with older disabled children to keep them safe.

Courtney because the LAW dictates how many disabled spaces are needed. If you and others have a problem with the Law, take it up with your MP etc.

I’m guessing, you or others cant actually be bothered to do that. Like disabled people had to. The fact it’s actually not that important to you, says it all really.

Thefairy - Why is it thick if they are permanently unused. That's where I'm getting lost. Of course, don't take away BB spaces if they are being used, that's just daft and no one is saying that. But. If there are 100 spaces, and like in my example above, close monitoring showed that the maximum ever used was 30, why would you deem it not sensible to change say half of the spaces to other use? Why is that silly or offensive? There are still 50 disabled spaces. Why is that not a reasonable solution?

mummy that probably explains why the disabled parking is empty then! Disabled people cannot access the facilities!

The solution is not to take away the parking. The solution is to improve facilities so disabled people can access them!

Why is it thick if they are permanently unused.

Who says they’re permanently unused? I can guarantee they won’t be. There’s loads of us on here, and society wide, who want to find one of these magic car parks with empty disabled spaces because we’ve never come across them. This is jealously. Nothing more, nothing less.

Claw - I don't know the legalities of it all. It's not something that I would complain about. If I can't park, I shrug my shoulders and that's about the extent of it. My personal experience local to me is that there are loads of mother and baby spaces sitting unused and loads of BB spaces sitting unused. Neither of which particularly register on a scale that I feel the need to complain. It's parking.

My comments are solely because OP was being jumped on and accused of all sorts that was just people being really nasty, because it was blindingly obvious what she meant, which was far removed from the nasty things she's been accused of.

Where people have been absolutely offended by quite a few posters, I don't see where they are getting the offence from, which is why I asked about the scenario above, with 100 spaces...