Placards

[paramoto]

Everytime I travel back to the US I find that the abuse of handicapped parking placards gets worse and worse and no one seems to care or do anything about it. Abuse is blatant and abusers don´t even pretend anymore. It is such that hardly ever you see someone with a hint of a limp and even less frequently a wheelchair or walker.

I throw out the idea to organize some sort of effort to combat these freaking people. Yes, I know some disabilities are hidden, but come on, all disabilities are NOT hidden.

Is there some ongoing effort that we can join? Any proposals or ideas out there to help? We have to at least make an effort to increase the chances of catching these people and to make abusers think twice through stiff penalization to those involved.

[WheelieMike]

One idea I have is a picture on the placard. That way, lazy ass Billy (fictional name) can't use Grandma's placard. I would also like to see changes, but the politicians aren't too interested in handicapped parking changes. Maybe if we had a wheeler as a politician, they would pay more attention.

[WheelieMike]

I'm glad you brought this up too. I emailed my congressman last week or the week before and hadn't heard anything back, so I just called his one of his offices. The lady I spoke with explained that emails go to the Washington office, are sorted, given to someone and then they will try to get a response back to the constituant. Obviously this will take some time. Calling is much faster. This lady said she would call the Wash office and try to speed thinks up. Let's see how things go.

[paramoto]

Maybe we can organize so that as many of us as possible dedicate one specific day to call local, state and national politicians about the issue. Perhaps the greatest impact can be had with a local effort. There are so many subscribers to CC that we can at least be a pain the arse for one day if we put our minds to it.

[SCIfor55yrs.]

As of January, South Carolina parking placards are going to have the photo of the legitimate user on them. They are being phased in as old one expire. The local sheriffs departments also have volunteer handicapped parking patrols.

[paramoto]

This sounds like at least South Carolina is heading in the right direction. What authority do these volunteers have??

Originally Posted by SCIfor55yrs.

As of January, South Carolina parking placards are going to have the photo of the legitimate user on them. They are being phased in as old one expire. The local sheriffs departments also have volunteer handicapped parking patrols.

[paramoto]

By the way, I think the problem extends way beyond the lazy brother using the placard. I think most times it is the legitimate user being given a long term placard for a temporary injury, or simply that the standards to meet to obtain a placard are way too low.

[SCIfor55yrs.]

Originally Posted by paramoto

This sounds like at least South Carolina is heading in the right direction. What authority do these volunteers have??

They take a photo of non-placarded vehicles in handicapped parking spaces with the license number showing. The photos are emailed to the sheriff's dept., which mails out tickets and starts a record to enable honing in on chronic offenders for bigger fines or jail time. The sheriffs dept. provides cameras and training. They are unarmed and trained to avoid confrontation.

[kel13]

I always just ask people what their disability is...since mine is obvious with my ramp and wheelchair. When asked most ppl get pissed then I usually say something like that sucks that you are mentally challenged, perhaps you should ride the short bus instead of using someone else's placard and hogging ALL of the parking spots that ppl like me need. Or I tell them that I'll pray for their recovery, that one usually leaves em speechless

[thehipcrip]

This is a state issue, not a federal one, so your efforts are best spent lobbying your state legislators and the DMV directly. It would be risky since we need their care, but it could get a lot of attention for the issue if we also targeted doctors and urged them to stop handing out placard authorizations to every old person who asks.