To think there is not enough disabled bays for how many badge users there are

[thecherryfox]

I have been disabled my entire life, as a kid and even as a teenager getting access to a disabled space was a lot easier than it is now. I believe now with the intake of how many people can access a badge with many different conditions - the amount of disabled bays have stayed the same but the influx of badge holders have risen.

Between 2021-2022 there was a 25% increase in blue badge holders from the previous year, but there wasn’t a 25% increase in disabled parking spaces. It’s rising each year, but there is no increase in parking spaces.

I’m physically disabled and the difference between me not getting a close space often means I cannot physically go. I know people with ‘hidden’ disabilities like bowel diseases would feel the same about accessing a close space. I’m truly not blaming individuals for getting badges because if they at eligible they are entitled to one - but it’s within the government to know that an increase of blue badge holders should mean an increase of spaces for people to access.

YANBU and there should be more action on those misusing the spaces.

Maybe some of these disabilities make it unsafe for people to drive?

There need to be more spaces in general but also different types of disabled spaces so some ‘regular’ with a little more space around that would be suitable for those with hidden disabilities and some that are spacious enough for those in wheelchairs

My son has hidden disabilities so has a disabled badge. We only use those spaces when he needs them which isn't often but I find they generally are full of people without disabled badges. It should be an automatic £500 fine for people using disabled spaces without badges so those that need them can access them.

I went shopping yesterday and the car park was full, they were putting the barriers out to stop more cars coming in after me.
The only spaces available were the disabled bays and there were loads of them empty.
It's the same in town when I go, never anywhere to park but always lots of empty disabled bays.
I can only assume it must be area dependent, where I live we need more parking spaces but definitely not anymore disabled bays being sat empty.

Whenever I go past a lot of spaces seem to have the driver's sitting in them, isn't that an abuse too?

Many with a blue badge can drive, eg using hand controls. But, holding a blue badge doesn’t mean you are driving. My dad isn’t safe to drive due to brain tumour but has a blue badge so that when I’m driving him we can park near the shop and open the door fully to get him out and into his mobility device.

We couldn’t find a disabled space yesterday, we did find a space on the end so could open the door fully, but there was a kerb on the passenger side and I really struggled to get him out of the car, and up a step into his mobility device rather than pushing it right up to the door.

I’m not sure where you’re going but in 6 years of having a blue badge I don’t recall ever not being able to find a disabled bay.

Edited to add: I don’t think it’s right to use the disabled bay if the disabled person is staying in the car whilst the able bodied person is going into the shop. Eg I can’t drive due to my epilepsy so DH is the named driver on my motability car. If we nip to the shop and only he goes in then we park in a regular space. That should become more of a ‘thing’.

I find our local hospital is one of the worst offenders for having minimal BB parking and to add to the pressure they often have a mobile scanner on the limited spaces they do have.

BB parking can be an absolute nightmare. I also hate the way I have to unload into live traffic, I have had near misses with reversing drivers who can't see a small child in his wheelchair (it takes time to unclamp his chair so he has to sit in the middle of the lane while I do it), he's registered blind so the traffic around him can scare him, and a friend had her ramp destroyed by a driver who ran over it!

This is just what I was going to say. I need a wheelchair, no wide space and I can’t get out of the car. There are a lot of disability which don’t need that wide space but need to be closer ot makes sense that they have normal width spaces.

but there are also so many people who don’t respect them, able bodied who just don’t want to walk that little bit further. I know I will be shot down for this, but also parents who seeing all the parent ones full use the disabled. I know when you have little ones the wider spaces are so much easier, I’ve had children and so I’m well aware of this. But using a normal sized space is doable with children, for me it’s impossible.

its also people with these bigger cars, they struggle to park them in normal spaces so use the wider parent or disabled ones.

people on the whole are just inconsiderate these days, and with all this talk of racism / mental illness etc they should be more aware of physical disability. I can’t go to the shops in the weeks up to Christmas for the simple reason that I’m not accepted, I have actually been physically pushed away from what I was looking at because the person wanted to see !, he actually took hold of my chair and pushed me to the other side of the aisle! Just so he could get to the meat I went into a full blown panic attack thank god my daughter came back to find me. But that’s moving from the point.

disabled parking needs updating and monitoring

This is my experience too. I think it adds to the problem of people who aren’t eligible parking in them - “there’s no other spaces and these ones are always empty, so it won’t matter if I park in them.” I never do and I think there should be penalties enforced for those who do, but I think having too many for the demand is counterproductive.

Here there are very few disabled spaces, they are often full.

Where we live, the BB spaces seem badly thought through. The ones by the supermarket, leisure centre and library are always busy; those in the other car parks are often empty, perhaps because they are only of real use to those who need the additional access space around them to get in and out of chairs/scooters and can then travel in those chairs/scooters to where they are going but aren't of as much use to those with other disabilities who don't need the access space and so, if a BB space isn't available but a normal space is in one of the closer car parks, will take that normal space.

I agree OP my mum has a blue badge and we regularly can't find a space for her, more recently at our local hospital on 2 occasions meaning I've had to drop her off, run her in and find a seat then move my car to miles away and run back for her.

"Whenever I go past a lot of spaces seem to have the driver's sitting in them, isn't that an abuse too?"

The driver may not be the blue badge holder.

Yep same. I very rarely use disabled bays for my son unless there is no other option. For me the benefit is being able to park on double yellows for a few hours, which we do often, but I can’t remember the last time I parked in a disabled bay.

There's always empty disabled bays where I live, not so many empty standard spaces though.

It’s like most things access wise. Places to the very minimum to tick the boxes with no real consideration for the actual levels of need.

It also annoys me when car parks don’t have hatchlings on both sides of the car. Disabled spaces should come with plenty of space all around.

Same near me. I've never known them full anywhere.

Using a normal sized space is doable with OLDER children but not with newborns or often, with toddlers. It is literally impossible to get a car seat into the car if someone else is parked next to you and on numerous occasions when mine were very small I had to leave them in very dangerous situations while I reversed the car out far enough to then get the seat and baby in. There need to be far more parent and child bays though I do think they should lower the age of the children that you can park in them with and move them further away from the shop - they don’t need to be close, just wide and next to a walkway of some sort, leaving the space next to the facility free for disabled spaces.

Why would it be, if the person who holds the BB is in the shop, Doctors etc? The driver could be waiting for them.

Blue Badges used to be issued just for “severe breathing snd walking” issues. They have expanded the eligibility criteria to get a badge massively,🤷‍♀️

We regularly can’t find a disabled space round here. We find motorways service stations the worst.

Imo, it’s too complicated to say some should have extra width, but others don’t need it. How would anyone decide the ratio? Having the only free disabled space of normal width, would be neither use nor ornament to people needing a wide one!

There needs to be more enforcement - traffic wardens are red hot about parking beyond the time or on double yellow lines, but nobody cares about disabled parking spaces except the disabled!

And therefore need to increase the % of spaces accordingly

Not with the ability to have a car adapted. Plus it could be the passenger that’s disabled.