One of my biggest pet peeves is when people park in disabled parking spaces who are perfectly capable of walking. The perfectly-abled people that park in these spaces are lazy, inconsiderate, and/or self-entitled.
Case in point, we have a commercial office building that we protect. In this building is a drug and alcohol testing facility. The clients of this facility are all under court order and have to randomly come in to be tested. There all all kinds that come to this facility. Some are first time DUI offenders with no other blemish on their record, and some are career felons with drug or violence charges. Every 15 – 30 mins, one of their able-bodied clients will park or attempt to park in a disabled space.
We’ve always made it a point to enforce the disabled parking laws. However, we would only check the lot every half hour or so. Our main concentration was inside. Back in March, 2023, an elderly woman (probably around 90 years old) had to walk halfway up the parking lot (which is an incline) to get to the building because all the disabled spaces were taken. Half the vehicles in those spaces had no placards or plates indicating they’re disabled. Since then, and on every property we monitor, we provide strict enforcement of the disabled spaces. At the before-mentioned facility, we pay equal attention to the disabled spaces as we do the interior of the building. We’re not going to have another 90 year old lady walking up hill to get to the building again. If we catch you in a disabled space without the proper tags, you will be ticketed, booted, and/or towed.
Another issue I see is people who borrow the vehicle of a disabled person. They’re perfectly healthy and capable of walking, but because they have someone’s placard or disabled license plate, they feel they’re entitled to park in the disabled parking space. If the person to which the placard or plate is issued to is not in the vehicle, you don’t have the right to take the space that someone else might need. It’s against the law as well.
Before you take a disabled space, take a moment to think. What if your own grandmother needed that space? What if a relative or close friend is missing a limb or has a debilitating health issue and needed that space? Consideration for others is unfortunately a dying art in today’s society. I believe it’s time we got back to basic human decency.
Comments are closed.