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!)

courtney why are you not thinking you are just typing stuff yes lets just limit disabled parking bays cos I say so people with children are far more important is what you are saying

Mrs Jay -

How on earth have you interpreted that ridiculous notion from anything I've said. Please show me.

the disablism on this thread is disgusting.
i do hope that the parents like the op and her like don't find out that their kids are disabled , or they become disabled.
you have to be as thick as shit to compare the daily trials of being an able bodied parent to an NT child with being disabled.

Courtney the OP is suggesting we take disabled bays away from disabled people and give them to parents with children.

You cannot see why disabled people would be offended?

I would say that if more than 75% of them are free most of the time and the rest of the car park is full that's quite a lot of wasted space.

Where do you live? most disabled spaces in my borough are taken up by lazy f**s that cant be bothered to walk a bit, with legs and ability to do so. (and YY I know there are hidden disabilities but they are fro BB holders)

from a disabled person.

The thing is, if there were not always empty B.B. spaces, this means there is not always a B.B. space available when needed.

If, for example a WAV comes along and needs the space to fully open doors, use a ramp and manover a wheelchair, they NEED that space.

My son has a B.B. and we are so so grateful for it, it makes life bearable.

I’ve been on MN for many years and this thread opener is one of the worst I have read.

OP you really think it is all about you, don’t you? You attitude is abhorrent. You choose to be pregnant, being disabled isn’t a choice. Get some bloody empathy.

Claw — yes absolutely, worded with no context, it's absolutely something anyone would take offence too.

But in the specific context here, if the spaces are predominantly empty, again using my example of 100 spaces. A month of the store monitoring the car park shows that at no point, more than 30 spaces were simultaneously occupied, why would users be offended if the spaces were cut down to 50? Forget who the new spaces would go to. Why would still having access to 50 spaces (where 20 still sit unused) cause offence because there are no longer 70 unused spaces? The original users are more than being catered for?

Spend the day with me, you'd soon open your eyes.

Can you imagine needing to pop into asda to get some milk and you can't, because every disabled space is filled. Half of them by people who don't have a blue badge and have no mobility issues, but think it's ok, because they're only using the cash point.

Unless you manage to get a disabled parking space you're unable to get out of your car at all. Full stop. You can't leave your car.

You can't open your door wide enough to put your wheelchair together.

There are NEVER too many things - parking bays or otherwise - to help disabled people.

I can't believe anyone begrudges a disabled person a wider space.

You clearly have no idea how privileged you are.

courtney your 100 spaces scenario is pointless. As I said the Law dictates how many spaces!

If people think this Law is not correct or unfair or whatever. Start a campaign! Take it up with Parliament, get the Law changed!

And yes it is offensive, disabled people have fought long and hard for their inclusion, access rights etc.

If able bodied people feel it’s unfair, do something about it!

A months monitoring means shit! IF a space is not available, it means that person has no other options.

It’s about making life easier for vulnerable, excluded people. Not quibbling about parking.

Presumably there should be enough BB spaces that even on the very busiest day there are enough? Which might in your case mean there are many that are usually empty. Either way its the choice that the retailer has made and nothing to do with anyone else as long as their legal responsibilities are met.

I have to say as well, that in contrast to some really poor behaviour from able bodied road users (using disabled parking for cash machine access is shameful) where many posters are having bad experiences of the parking being overused and exploited, where I live, we have rows and rows of both BB and mother and baby parking, always really empty.

I think in the sense that some posters why to know where these "magical" unheard of places are, it would be equally bizarre for me to drive in and see all the user specified parking full for once. Not even full, I've never seen them half full. And I'm a mother with child who's lived here 12 years.

If the law specifies a certain percentage of spaces, perhaps it should be more tailored by location? Could that work? Because it would seem that they're not getting it right anywhere.

It’s strange the only people who believe there is such an excess of disabled spaces are those who don’t need to rely on them!

There are plenty of car parks we use where it’s unlikely to get a space. Hospital being one which is fun. Yesterday a wheelchair services van was parked in a disabled space, strangely he didn’t have a badge on display!

Courtney could that work? If disabled people have trouble with lack of spaces. I’m sure they will campaign as they always do.

If parents have trouble parking with children, I suggest they do the same! It’s really not the disabled persons problem!

sunstrokecity
Tbh op does have a point. I have never, ever seen all of the disabled bays full, regardless of day or time

Where in the UK is this amazing supermarket with all the free BB spaces?
Time after time after time, day after day, we can't park as there are NO available BB spaces in our local supermarkets.

@DebbysMum Brilliant post.

i went to ASDA today. EVERY SINGLE P&C BAY WAS EMPTY
(cos it was early) so lets get rid of them.
well no cos thats stupid.
i do wish the disablist posters would fuck off. I really do (having a really shit day here)
If the law specifies a certain percentage of spaces, perhaps it should be more tailored by location? Could that work? Because it would seem that they're not getting it right anywhere.

no it wouldn't as disabled people are allowed to move freely around.
they can go anywhere. so there would never be a true picture.

people are so bloody disablist.

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.

My local pool is the same. Except the timetable doesn't include sessions which aren't open to the public. Such as the physio training sessions run by the health centre physiotherapy department. They also bring a huge wheelie hoist thing out of the cupboard. I go to one of these each week and there are usually 20-30 people there. All with disabilities which affect their mobility.

Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't happening.

But it's not wasted if someone who is disabled comes along and needs to use it.

But the premise of the question is that the spaces are never all in use.

At my Asda there always 40 or 50 free disabled spaces, but it's a non-issue as there is plenty of other parking, and although the disabled spaces are nearer the store, you have to drive further over more speed humps to get to them, so the vast majority of drivers don't want to go anywhere near that part of the car park anyway.

^i went to ASDA today. EVERY SINGLE P&C BAY WAS EMPTY
(cos it was early) so lets get rid of them.
well no cos thats stupid.^

Did the OP say when she went? I can say with certainty that my Asda has more spaces (of every kind) than it needs, because I shop at peak times.

Still no answers as to where these miracle car parks where every BB space is free actually are...

Some people are so hard of thinking. In order to ensure disabled people have access the ratio of disabled spaces to regular spaces is set by law. The disabled posters on this thread make it abundantly clear that they frequently encounter situations where there aren't enough spaces for them. Yes there may well be places where disabled spaces are always empty (never come across one myself mind).

But, and here's the bit that some seem incapable of grasping, the only way you can reduce the number of spaces in these imaginary empty places is to reduce the legal required ratio. This would then apply to ALL carparks INCLUDING THE BUSY ONES WHERE DISABLED PEOPLE ALREADY CAN'T PARK and all future new carparks.

So what is being advocated will result in the loss of essential provision for disabled people. IT IS DISABLISM.

There's nowhere that the blue badge spaces are empty most of the time (unless other problems like disabled people can't access the building anyway so what's the point of parking there).

I think anyone who thinks those spaces are empty most of the time is either stupid (because they can't work out the spaces are used when they are there but are at other times. You've been told this 100 times on this thread) or they are liars.

Don't let the experience of many many disabled people guide you. You keep ignoring us and telling us how it is. And of course just how unfair it all is. They really should spend god knows how much time and money on monitoring these disabled spaces and taking away that 1 space that is never used in the 3 carparks that exist with too many spaces.

You're not being reasonable nor do you have a point. Stop telling yourself that. Also stop telling us we're offended or if we are in fact even allowed to be offended.

Can't believe I missed a bit of my rant...

I bet you never ever notice when all the paces are full. I bet you've been a thousand times and not noticed that all the spaces (or just a few are empty) are in use. No thought about disabled people then. No wish for more spaces for them.

You only notice when it's empty as you are thinking how nice it would be if you could have that space and how it's so stupid there's so many spaces as clearly they don't need them.

You'll have seen the spaces full more time than you've seen them empty but it's only when you feel personally affected that you take note. Store it away so that the next time it happens you can tell yourself that every time you visit this happens.

Try to wrap your daft little brains around that and don't just dismiss it.