I hate to sound like I’m bragging about Cow Hampshire, because quite frankly I’m usually embarrassed by some of the things we do around here, but we have a new law that just kicked in this year that I just gotta boast about.
Until January 1, the fine for parking in a handicapped spot without a handicapped license plate or placard was $125.00. We just doubled that, to $250.00.
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I’m pretty sure they’re already that high in Illinois.
I hate the laws about handicapped parking spaces. If they were kept to a reasonable number, I’d be with you, but every store parking lot has dozens of the things, as is required by law. I have never seen a lot here in which even half of the spots were in use.
My experience has convinced me that this is probably not an area that the government is competent to legislate in.
My girlfriend saw an elderly lady pull into a handicapped parking spot. She has a handicapped sticker, but was obviously not handicapped, as she spryly exited her car and walked briskly towards the door of the store. A policeman who witnessed this remarked “That makes me mad… I’m giving her a ticket anyway.”
Rock on, dude.
Seeing people without obvious handicaps is vexing, but not our call to make. However, what really jerks my jaw is when Granny pulls into the spot, and grandson, sickeningly young and healthy, walks into the store while she waits. The space is for her ease of managing her handicap, not his. She should park out with the rest of us peons. Legally correct, morally reprehensible. Tom
Assuming the story is true, a cop who writes a ticket to someone with a handicapped sticker for “illegally” parking in a handicapped spot, could be opening himself up to all kinds of legal grief even if the lady in question wasn’t really entitled to her sticker. He would have needed some probable cause to believe she wasn’t entitled to it, and her being “spry” isn’t going to cut it.
Those stickers/placards/license plates get handed out for reasons that aren’t necessarily obvious to the casual onlooker.
I have to agree with McGehee on this one. People seem to think of people in wheelchairs and walkers when we discuss handicap parking placards, but there are many handicaps that are in no way visible to the naked eye.
I have on occasion parked my mom’s car in the handicapped slot and spryly jumped out and run to the door of the building to meet her and assist her back out to her car, but yes, I’m concerned when someone sees me getting out of the car to begin with and what they are probably thinking! It clearly is annoying when I see people unassistedly unloading heavy items and multiple bags from shopping carts and placing them into cars when they are using a handicapped sticker. As a physician, I have to fill out these forms, and yes, someone can have non visible disabilities that would make them eligible for a handicapped sticker, but then they should not be capable of loading the bags and heavy items into their car with these disabilities.
I am handicapped, but you wouldn’t know it to look at me. Please don’t judge a book by its cover.