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AIBU?

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Original poster

Parking in disabled spaces when disabled person sitting in car

497 replies

Mokel · 05/07/2024 14:42

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.

OP posts:
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5
wtfissummer · 05/07/2024 16:12

Aquamarine1029 · 05/07/2024 14:46

If someone has a blue badge, they are entitled to park in a handicap space, end of, and it's nobody's business what they do from there. You have better things to concern yourself with surely.

Well it is their business as having a BB comes with conditions of use

phishy · 05/07/2024 16:12

BodyKeepingScore · 05/07/2024 16:11

So you'd rather potentially inconvenience another disabled person than yourself?

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It's more about not inconveniencing my mother, and getting the job done and her home asap.

SkippysEar · 05/07/2024 16:13

greenpolarbear · 05/07/2024 16:11

If there are only 2 spaces left and 1 is blue badge and 1 isn't and there's one car behind waiting to park with no blue badge. Would you park in the non-blue badge space and leave them with no place to park? Or would you park in the blue badge space and leave the disabled person in the car?

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Of all the hypothetical nonsense Ive read on here this takes the cake.

Please leave spaces for those that really need them.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GvD5wbJ0wTQ

Bignanna · 05/07/2024 16:13

Elleherd · 05/07/2024 16:06

I'm sorry but I don't care if ignorant people think it's abusing the system when a mother in a wheelchair with a blue badge leaves their family sat in the BB 'for an extended time.' I'm parked there because I'm the badge holder and disabled driver and can't get me and my chair in and out of the vehicle in any other space!
I'm a lone parent and It isn't my job to hide either disabled or non disabled members of my family while I go shopping etc!
My use of the BB bay as a disabled driver means someone else with a BB is not able to use it, whether my family is sat in the vehicle or not.
I'm using it and my badge is covering me as the driver, or are you suggesting I should get non driving passengers to move the vehicle?
Or is there some requirement I've missed that I must employ a carer so I can go shopping etc without people getting themselves in a flap that 'it could be seen' the system is being abused when it isn't?

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I think you’ve got this the wrong way round. The holder of the badge can’t stay in the car while the able bodied driver does the shopping.

Ivyy · 05/07/2024 16:16

Agree it's wrong if the person with the bb plans to just sit and wait on the car, as the rules state. Thing is, how does anyone know if they planned to sit and wait or not? If someone is feeling unwell, weak, faint, dizzy, in pain, having extreme anxiety or panic etc. They might just need to sit and rest for 5 minutes, the other person might be about to come back to the car to help them inside? They might just have gone to get a trolley, or at the hospital gone to get a wheelchair?

I think I'd assume one of these rather than that they're just sitting waiting for the able bodied person to finish the shopping or whatever, and wouldn't know the reasons for them sitters there without directly questioning them, which I'd never do as it's not my business. To prove they were just sitting in the car waiting for the other person to finish shopping etc, you'd also have to stop and sit around waiting to see what happens, I couldn't get that worked up by it!

CatamaranViper · 05/07/2024 16:16

I think morally people shouldn't withhold things they have no intention of using. So if you have a BB and you know you will not and have no need to leave the car and you know that the person with you is using your BB just to get easy(ier) parking therefore knowingly preventing someone who does need the space from using it, then yeah you probably are a dick.

BUT, a lot can happen in a very short space of time. For example someone needing to return to the car during a shop because they are tired/in pain or they arrive at an appointment early so opt to wait in their car etc. It's not black and white unless every single person is grilled.

toppcatt · 05/07/2024 16:17

Soontobe60 · 05/07/2024 15:47

Whilst this may well be true, it could be seen to be abusing the system if they are sat in the car for an extended time. Their use of a BB bay means someone else with a BB is not able to use it.
At my local supermarket, there is a drop off zone directly outside the entrance. My brother drops off my SIL there, goes and parks the car wherever he can find a space. When she’s finished, she rings him and he collects her. She only uses the BB bay if shes on her own.
Anyway, regardless of that, challenging someone whom you believe to be abusing the BB scheme is a bit of a dickish move.

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Have I misunderstood? You are saying that the BB holder, who is leaving her children in the car while she shops, is abusing the system. That’s nonsense. The badge and the bay covered her. I think she said she was a wheelchair user so I’m not sure how she is going to get in and out of her car in a regular space. She can go off for as long as the time allowed for that space. Someone could park their car in a disabled bay, go to an appointment or even a class and leave their able bodied partner in the car. You can’t assume any passengers can drive so be able to park up elsewhere and drop off and pick up. That person needs to be able to access their car whenever they have finished their errand.

There is so much misunderstanding about disability and how it varies from person to person. People with mental health conditions can now be awarded blue badges. So you’d have no idea whatsoever who was the badge holder, same as with other invisible disabilities.

Elleherd · 05/07/2024 16:17

Bignanna · 05/07/2024 16:13

I think you’ve got this the wrong way round. The holder of the badge can’t stay in the car while the able bodied driver does the shopping.

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No, you have it the wrong way round. The poster I was responding to, felt that as the wheelchair disabled driver, I couldn't leave my family in the car while I shop because it could look as if the disabled person was in the vehicle.

Bellaboo01 · 05/07/2024 16:17

Mokel · 05/07/2024 14:42

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.

How do you know that the person that was sitting in the car was the disabled one?

I had a blue badge for my car as I had to drive my parents (who were both entitled to one).

I would sometimes sit in the car whilst they went off and had some independence. One couldnt walk far before she passed away (bone cancer made it difficult to walk far) and the other had dementia before he passed away so would need to know where i was.

SkippysEar · 05/07/2024 16:19

How do you know that the person that was sitting in the car was the disabled one?

The concerned passer by/OP would need to reference the face on the badge with the face of the person in the car.

LavenderPup · 05/07/2024 16:19

You don’t know if driver or passenger is disabled so how does that work?

Thought this post was going to be about all the inconsiderate drivers to with no badge that park on disabled spaces……

Hobbesmanc · 05/07/2024 16:19

Gosh. Just back off and let them be. You've no idea of the challenges they face. Just be grateful that you don't have a disability.

AutumnCrow · 05/07/2024 16:19

FloofyBird · 05/07/2024 16:05

@AutumnCrow forgive me if if being dim but why do you need to go with someone to collect your meds? Why can't they park where all the other pharmacy customers park and get them without you? Especially you feel unwell and don't want to go.

You're not being dim at all, it's the perfect storm of madnesses!

There is no regular parking in this area at all;
With a Blue Badge, DP can park on a 'safe' stretch of double-yellows for a brief time;
He himself has rheumatoid arthritis and cannot walk for however far other customers presumably walk (I think most of them are very local, but we travel across town);
He doesn't have his own Blue Badge;
I need to use this independent pharmacy because it's the only one in out town that can obtain my essential meds (we have tried Boots, Lloyds, Rowlands, online, etc);
We cannot get them delivered because they have to be checked at the counter;
I can't drive any more.

Now I'm wondering is there is a special dispension letter the council will give us?!

phishy · 05/07/2024 16:20

SkippysEar · 05/07/2024 16:19

How do you know that the person that was sitting in the car was the disabled one?

The concerned passer by/OP would need to reference the face on the badge with the face of the person in the car.

Except the badge has to be placed photo-side down so they can't.

Only Parking attendants and similar powers can ask to inspect a badge.

godmum56 · 05/07/2024 16:21

Trallers · 05/07/2024 14:52

Yes, that does seem a waste of a space on the face of it. These things are very difficult to get the full story as an observer though - what if the disabled person might need to get out and use the toilet while they wait? It's no good being on the other side of the car park What if someone's coming back for them for the second half of their shopping trip? I think you have to hope people use in good faith as its not possible to police in a way that accounts for this level of detail.

I agree with this, also there is the safety issue of having to get a disabled person out of the car in an emergency. There is a limitation placed on allowing a non disabled person to take advantage of the badge by having the diabled person just sit in the car but I think that's arguable. I used to work in the NHs taking people with illnesses and disabilities on home assessments. I would sometimes have to briefly leave the person in the car but always with an escort, and I would never have left the car anywhere where it would be impossible to get the person out if it was needed. We used an organisational Blue Badge.

LavenderPup · 05/07/2024 16:21

SkippysEar · 05/07/2024 16:19

How do you know that the person that was sitting in the car was the disabled one?

The concerned passer by/OP would need to reference the face on the badge with the face of the person in the car.

The photo isn’t on display it’s on the reverse of cars. No one else’s business.

SkippysEar · 05/07/2024 16:22

LavenderPup · 05/07/2024 16:21

The photo isn’t on display it’s on the reverse of cars. No one else’s business.

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Oh I see, however it is critical to OPs argument. You would need to know the full facts before you got wound up by it.

AutumnCrow · 05/07/2024 16:22

SkippysEar · 05/07/2024 16:19

How do you know that the person that was sitting in the car was the disabled one?

The concerned passer by/OP would need to reference the face on the badge with the face of the person in the car.

And you don't see their photograph. That's on the face-down part. Only a police officer or CEO, or other authorised official, can ask to see that.

LadyKenya · 05/07/2024 16:23

LavenderPup · 05/07/2024 16:19

You don’t know if driver or passenger is disabled so how does that work?

Thought this post was going to be about all the inconsiderate drivers to with no badge that park on disabled spaces……

Edited

The OP has no idea, otherwise, they would have come back to say so, I would have thought. How anybody would be able to know, by just looking, unless they knew the people involved, is beyond me.

Bellaboo01 · 05/07/2024 16:25

You also don't have to display your blue badge for everyone to see.

SkippysEar · 05/07/2024 16:26

In that case the OP would need to ask to see, or draw their own conclusions which would likely be inappropriate.

Sahara123 · 05/07/2024 16:27

LolaJ87 · 05/07/2024 15:29

If the disabled person is in the car in the normal parking space and then there is an emergency, they may not be able to get out of the car.

There are always lots of empty accessibility parking spots in my area. Are they in such short supply elsewhere that this even needs to be a debate?

Absolutely yes!

AgnesX · 05/07/2024 16:27

Morally, they should leave but there's nothing to say that they should as far as I'm aware of (especially at motorway services when it's rammed, rather than sitting there feeding their faces).

LavenderPup · 05/07/2024 16:28

LadyKenya · 05/07/2024 16:23

The OP has no idea, otherwise, they would have come back to say so, I would have thought. How anybody would be able to know, by just looking, unless they knew the people involved, is beyond me.

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Exactly! Not sure of the point of this post at all, rather odd.

Sahara123 · 05/07/2024 16:28

Bellaboo01 · 05/07/2024 16:25

You also don't have to display your blue badge for everyone to see.

Yes you do ..,
Also the right way up so that you don’t get a parking ticket. Speaking from experience 😐