Parking in disabled spaces when disabled person sitting in car

[Mokel]

If the blue badge holder isn’t going to leave the car, the car shouldn’t be parked in a disabled bay.

The purpose behind disabled bays is for disabled people don’t have to walk far to entrances to shops, doctors etc. If not leaving the car, there’s no need to park up there.

If a non disabled person is going to leave the car leaving the disabled person in the car, they should be parking in a normal parking space.

Great post @Elleherd

Thank you x

My local authority and local hospitals now run schemes where you apply to register your badge on their systems so you don’t have to display them all the time, given the risk of crime.

It’s no fun having your car window smashed and blue badge stolen, on top of everything else.

Don't know of any supermarket or shopping centres that do such schemes though.

A pity some of the p and c places police don't follow your chilishly expressed advice though one can have great fun with them. One yummy 'called me out' (the Heidelberg challenge as I call it) because I was loading my shopping parked in a sacred p and c spot, naturally I ignored her which made her even more angry. This went on until she actually kicked my car, wearing sandals, just before my daughter and her baby came out of the store.

And if someone has a disability which is a lot more debilitating and serious?

Elleherd, I am so sorry you have experienced this. How and why, if your disability is obvious? I find this hard to understand.

How sad and unfair. So if there is one space left, and I witness a younster speeding into the only available disability space, and you are left in your car unable to park, I should just leave you to it?

Sorry, but no. I am glad my parents educated me to care for others whenever I can. I need extra leg space due to one knee not able to bend well and very painful- but if someone older or clearly more in need than me, I will give up a priority space. Again, how my parents educated me.

Do you walk away and zip it when you see a child molested, an elderly person pushed around, a teenager bullied by others? And 'just mind your own business'?.

The thing is what is most debilitating and serious isn't necessarily obvious unless your a consultant. What is visibly disabled about me isn't actually the truly debilitating or dangerous bit for me.

I think it very much depends where you live, what you look like, what sort of times you are around, how much pressure there is on spaces in the area, and how many of a particular type are around at the same time.
But most of all it seems to be if you are or aren't behaving in a way that confirms other peoples ideas of what a disabled person is supposed to be and do in their heads.

IME it's women getting it far more than men. Don't look put together, be in paint splattered working clothes, be in a works vehicle, (big issue in some peoples minds) be moving large amounts of stuff, be visibly independent, leave adult offspring in the vehicle, or in the case of my acquired brain damaged daughter: be seriously obese. (the medications that grant life, create weight and accompanying hate.) all those things seem to invite trouble.

The further out I go from where I live, the less aggravation and actual decency exists. In some places I've never had any incident, in others it's been swings and roundabouts. Local to me it's a major problem.

I completely agree @Mokel but sadly I see this as a common occurrence! Someone I know is picked up from work in health care by her Mum who has a blue badge. The Mum/blue badge holder sits in the car waiting. Has never once left the vehicle. The other day I witnessed someone with a wheelchair struggling in a non-disabled spot and helped them while this woman sat in the disabled spot right by the door. It's not on.

I can't just about walk. Don't use aids as my arms aren't strong enough. I need to sit. I don't play disability top trumps. If I was there first the seat is mine. Just as I do not expect other disabled people to move for me.

But you don't know that the fast, young, healthy person isn't also entitled to the space.

I choose to assume the best and wouldn't want to make someone else feel rubbish by asking them to prove that their need is more or less than mine.

As I have said in a previous post, a hierarchy of disability helps nobody. I would be so annoyed if you came over to 'save' me and put another person through the embarrassment of being questioned on whether they really need the space.

Some days there are no spaces, so I can't go to the place I planned to go. This is not the fault of other 'less disabled' people filling up the spaces. This is a wider issue with society and public spaces not being designed with disabled people in mind.

Many places have only one or two disabled spaces. I know this when I plan my journey and aim for quieter times if possible.

I don't need saving, I am able to weigh up possible outcomes and make alternate plans. One thing disability teaches you very fast is to adapt.

I'm not trying to make you feel bad, I was also raised with manners and raise my boys the same. An important part of those manners is asking people "would you like any help" rather than rushing in.

If you have ever had a man rush in to help you or explain something you already understood then you will be able to relate to what I am saying.

I support those people by asking the carriage at large to please give up a priority seat for them.

I wouldn’t ‘challenge’ individuals, no.

@fungipie on another note, it's really disturbing to see you compare a child being molested with me not being able to park in a disabled bay at your local garden centre.

I won't be traumatised for life if I don't get to have a brew and buy a rose bush.

You are quite right that disabled people don't need able- bodied saviours. But we do need able-bodied allies so maybe don't bark quiet so loudly at someone who is on our side when so many people simply are not.

This is the type I’m talking about!

It's not barking to say "actually, this is my lived experience of the issue you are discussing".

Yes, lots of people are not on disabled people's side. That doesn't mean that we can't have a meaningful discussion with someone who is for fear of losing an 'ally'.

Being disabled doesn't mean that we should accept anything that anybody deems helpful without ever giving an opinion or expressing a preference for something else.

Meaningful discussion doesn't have to involve saying someone is virtue signalling and interfering does it?

I dislike the sense of charity that non-disabled people take towards us 'sufferers' of disability as much as you and don't want them speaking for me or patronising me. But changing attitudes is an uphill battle at the best of times and doesn't always need a bark.

I haven't used the words virtue signalling or interfering. I haven't called anyone an able-bodied saviour.

I've repeatedly explained in a calm and polite manner how I feel when I am accused of not deserving a BB space, how I would feel if someone was to intervene on my behalf and how I do not feel that the issue is other BB holders but the set up of public spaces and society that causes the issue here.

Each time this has not been listened to but challenged by the person who is determined to 'do the right thing' despite being told that this could cause a lot of upset in various directions.

Then I was asked if I would ignore a child being molested.

I don't feel like I have 'barked'. I have tried to have a meaningful conversation but will agree that this has not been met with a willingness to accept any opinion but their own.

I'm really surprised to see BB locks are available. Theft of them isn't a problem here AFAIK.

Are the thefts happening in high crime area?

They have been available for years, it is not a new thing. They could literally be stolen from anywhere.

Bark away if it makes you feel better.

I have been thanked for help and support many a time- and that will suffice.

And yes, if a young man drives at speed into the only disabled space left, and runs into shop to buy lunch, runs out again and drives away at speed- there is 99.999 chance is is not disabled at all. Last post as you seem determined to totally misread what I am saying.

Like I said, I don't feel that I am barking.

I'm not misreading what you are saying, I'm disagreeing and trying to have a conversation.

I'm glad tat you have been thanked, that must've been lovely for you. I was offering an alternate view. All disabled people are not the same, I accept that I don't speak for all disabled people.

I know of a few people it happened to within about a week, all outside their houses - nice suburbs of Edinburgh, so no, not high crime areas

Blue badge theft in some parts of London has been a big problem for at least 18 years. It's not as bad as it used to be but still pretty bad. My council allowed one theft and after you had to show proof of ownership of a lockable badge device before you could have a replacement.

Several councils now demand registration for e-badges etc, to be used when parked outside your home, and you effectively aren't supposed to use the actual badge. You can but are threatened with it wont be replaced if stolen from where you live because you're considered colluding with the theft even with a lockable device. Leading to people having to give false information to police. 🙄
You're also expected to keep it 'not easily visible or available' in your home in case of burglary or theft by carers.
In 20 odd years I've lost three permanently, one temporally. First to a break drivers window and help yourself in a neighboring borough when I didn't know it was likely to get targeted, another to a broken window and bolt cutters, been mugged for another by an angry smack head, and the other was in my bag during a home invasion/ burglary, but was recovered being used and directly returned by police instead of to the council, because I'd written my post code in smart water on it.

What a palaver.

I think I got my first BB the year after I left London. If this was happening it went over my head. I've never seen the locks, either, but then I wasn't looking for them. You live and learn.

Your local LA sound almost as much of a nightmare as the thieves @Elleherd

Blue Badge spaces are not for the disabled person to sit in whilst an able-bodied person nips into a shop. If you do this you can be fined.