To wonder why there are always more disabled spaces than mother&baby spaces in car parks?

[Feierabend]

In places like Waitrose, John Lewis, etc. Surely there are more mothers with little children out there than disabled people?

Disabled badges arent handed out with free bus-passes you know saslou....

Older people are more likely to experience some form of disability, often invisible ones. A wheelchair does not a disabled person make.

My MIL has a badge because she has chronic emphysema and can't walk far without getting breathless. FIL has his own badge because he has chronic arthritis, is almost completely deaf, and has had cataracts which didn't go away properly when they were operated on. (Yes, i know what you are thinking - just shoot the poor bastard now, but seriously, he's actually quite a happy chap )

People with physical limitations, whatever they are, take priority over everyone else. Including parents with their PFBs. That's not to say that shops can't make life easier for parents by allocating wider parking spaces, and making them closer to walkways/the shop. I always really needed a parent/child space because my child had a propensity to escape from his harness/pushchair/whatever and dash across the carpark. He actually got hit by a car once (thankfully he bounced off, but unfortunately he now thinks he's invicible ).

I should have just said "get a grip" at the start of this though, really, shouldnt I?

but spooky what if it rains thier dc's might melt

Didn't the daily mail do this a fortnight ago

and ddint we have several lengthy threads on it

yawn

Actually I agree. My frustration is our local mothercare shop - which has 2 rows of disabled spaces outside it (which are always empty) and no M&B spaces.

I take the point that Mums can generally walk perfectly well and am happy to do so. I just wish that car parks had a reasonable allocation of M&B spaces so that I can open my car door wide enough to get a baby seat in and out.

M&B spaces don't actually have to be in front of the shop. Just available. Please.

Once your youngest child gets to about three, you won't care about P&C parking anymore. In fact you'll tut at the number of them. Honestly, there are millions of them!

2shoes.

OP just wrote a really long post but i can't actually be bothered so

I know why

Because children never grow up so will always need the space and people with disabilities do.................

I don't get it - I read the OP as saying more P + T spaces are needed, not downscaling disabled bays or taking some over as P + T. I would suggest making EVERY bay accessable to wheelchair users/blue badge holders/P+T but then the lazy twunts would nick the nearest ones which I guess is part of the reason of disabled bays..... maybe they should keep all the nearest as disabled only then make ALL the others multi-use and stop worrying about thier profits. Someone needs to do a survey about how many spaces are actually used at any one time and extra space of wider bays vs. standard bays... hmmm....

If you can't go shopping with your children without having to park in a M&B space then:

1. You are drving a car that is too big.
2. You can't park properly.
3. You are too bloody idle to park further away from the store where there are more spaces and walk.
4. Your sense of entitlement to have life made easy for you is greater than your common sense.

YANBU to wonder why. I did too, but this thread has answered it for me, they is a legal requirement for a certain amount of disabled spaces, I didn't know that and always wondered why Tesco had so many disabled spaces when (whenever I was there) there were only a couple occupied, but then the 5 P&T spaces were always full.

Don't be silly 2shoes. They don't melt in the rain. They turn into gremlins......

before and after the rain

Opps, 2shoes I forgot about melting children....

Don't see what I have said is so wrong. Am not saying that there sholdn't be disabled spaces, just that people should use the places allocated to them unless there is no choice and they have a genuine need. Before you judge me harshly do me a favour and next time you are parking in a supermarket just watch some of the people who take up the p&c spaces, who could park elsewhere. This is not a dig at disabled people, possibly at the allocation of disabled badges to people who can walk better than me and who then use their "entitlement" to park wherever they like irrespective of whether other people have a greater need. Anyway rant over

OP has not complained about the fact, she's wondering why

brain into gear
mouth into action

dearie me

disabled people ARE NOT MOBILE, my Dad would struggle to get from the other side of the car park

I could just about manage it with a child in tow

yes they do so melt - you should have seen DS3 the other day when we had to go out in the rain - thankfully turns out he's like one of those ones in the movies, you know the ones that dissolve but then grow back into normal again afterwards

OOH er Missus bet you wish you hadn't started that litle thread on mnet! A more cogent argument would be it would be nice to have a few more mum and baby spaces wouldn't it? We are not competing against the disabled for parking rights FFS.

Like my local Garden centre is hellishly crowded at xmas,and they are admirable in the no. of spaces provided for disabled people they provide a lot more than the giant tesco nearby so hats off. But I have asked if they could also do a few mums and babies too as the normal spaces are very very narrow. Impossible to put baby and toddler and compost etc easily, it involves reversing out and parking Iasked 6 years ago and they have done zilch so that is not so good for customer relations.

There must be too many disabled parking spaces though because there are always lots empty- It is frustating when you are trying to find an empty space in a full car park, yet there are lots of disabled spaces, which are obviously not needed, yet you can't park! and have to leave.

I shall tell my one legged mother to hop.

M&B are just useful not essential (very useful for a pisspoor parker like myself!).

People choose to have kids and choose to take them shopping, Im taking a wild stab in the dark and guessing that disabled people dont choose to be disabled.

sidge, I disagree. But only because I have a normal sized car, am very good at parking, and am an unusual sort who has an escapologist for a child who has no sense of danger (I'm bored of people saying they'll "grow out of it"). I always wanted M & B spaces nearer the shop because I could be more assured I could get my child safely into the shop. (See post below about him having been run over - in a car park!!!).

Men I am sorry parent and toddler spaces too lazy to type properly.

there is a very easy answer fo the people who are jealous of disabled bays and blue badges......
have a disabled child or become disabled
than you get a shiney blue badge and can park in disabled bays and P&t bays.
see easy

KimiGaveUpStarbucks4Lent :O