Rant alert - - disabled parking badges

[Vultch]

Can anybody explain the criterion for getting a Disabled parking badge

Today I witnessed a fit and healthy young guy plus teenage son run to their car in the rain with no disability evident, parked in the disabled space with badge on display.
last week a newish BMW 320 alloyed etc parked in a similar spot perfectly healthy young mum gets in disabled badge on display.

A few months ago I spotted a genuinely disabled person in an adapted vehicle, wheel chair bound who could not park because the spaces were full of un modded cars all displaying badges.

[JUDWAK]

never judge
iam the same i can pull up looking well
with in 3 mins i may need to be helped by 2 people to get back to the car and i take fit people with me so they drive when i get ill

[Vultch]

Fair enough...they two examples I spotted thou did look in the peak of health

[Chillitt]

There is a Range Rover Sprout that parks in Warwick most days with a blue badge up, It does look a little incongruous, but why shouldn't a disabled driver have a 'nice' car? As for the able bodied parkers, maybe they have parked up to pick up a disabled relative that the pass was issued for.

[Vultch]

Genuinely disabled ...yes ..."there for the grace of god and all that"

I have no problem with what anybody drives, its abuse of the system affecting those who are genuinely disabled.

Today ..the two were perfectly healthy running to car, normal spaces only another 30m away why could they run to those leaving the disabled space for someone who really needs it. and in both cases they drove off... with no disabled relative

seems like if you have a badge its open to abuse

[Apache]

I have no problem with what anybody drives, its abuse of the system affecting those who are genuinely disabled.

Absolutely!

You only need to stand outside Asda by my mums on a rainy day and watch the amount of 'people' who park in a disabled spot and then run to the doors. I'd say most of them don't even bother with the inconvenience of popping a blue badge on the dash!

Selfishness is a seemingly acceptable trait nowadays.

[Mork]

There are loads of valid reasons why people could be legitimately in that situation.

An old friend of mine has a blue badge and seems to be fitter and healthier than me – but he has prosthetic legs*.
He's fine when it comes to walking and general mobility – but he needs to extra space around the disabled space to get into and out of the car.

Same with another mates dad with a false hip – fine to walk on, but he needs the space to get in and out of the car.

Nether of these people need to be close to the doors of the shop – but they do need wide spaces and can't risk someone parking right next to them.


However – it's probably more likely that these people are gits.

* One above the knee, one below. He sometimes worked as a bouncer where he wore extra long legs to make him 6 foot 3.
It's incredibly funny to watch some wannabe kick boxer kick someone in the shin when that someone has titanium legs.

[lord_flashart]

I worked with a guy in London for a while and when we went on callouts in his car to people's homes he took his Mum's disabled badge and put it in the window to avoid paying for parking and to park wherever he liked which I pulled him up on a few times but he didn't care.

I didn't work with him for much longer.

[Vultch]

I am not a Doctor... but one does have a degree of common sense... but these examples showed absolutely no sign of any disability, two males running at quite a pace and a young mum shopping bags etc....

Selfish couldn't care less attitude

[Sancho]

It's impossible to tell. There are certainly a lot of people abusing the system, but blue badges could be given, for instance, to diabetics or haemophiliacs who are outwardly health.

[slobodan]

I use one when I'm working in the UK.
Parking is much easier.
It's a good copied one.

If people are watching I sometimes limp a bit.

[Rustinho]

I remember being told about an incident involving a friend of mine and her mother.

My mate's mum suffers from MS and uses her blue badge on a regular basis. Someone took exception to this because she looked outwardly healthy and started an argument with her. Said argument ended up causing much distress to my mate's mum. It ended with a gentle push from the annoyed person (and defender of disabled parking bay abuse!) on the shoulders to my mate's mum who promptly collapsed and had to be taken to hospital.

Having said that, it does p*ss me off when I take my dad out to places and people are parked in disabled bays without using a blue badge. I also have very little doubt that people DO abuse the scheme 'cos some people will abuse anything if they can get something out of it.

Criteria for getting a blue badge are:

AUTOMATIC CRITERIA:
• A person who is registered blind
• A person in receipt of Disability Living Allowance** - Higher rate mobility component only.
• A person in receipt of a vehicle supplied by a Government Health Department.
• A person who has a severe disability in both upper limbs, and regularly drives a motor vehicle but cannot
turn the steering wheel of a motor vehicle by hand even if that wheel is fitted with a turning knob.
• A person in receipt of War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement.

DISCRETIONARY CRITERIA:
(applies to children aged 2-5, people not in receipt of the above benefits, people over 65)
Unable to walk:
• You need to show that because of your disability you cannot put one foot in front of the other.
• If your only way of getting about is to “swing through” crutches then you will be considered unable to
walk.
Virtually unable to walk:
Unable to walk very far without experiencing severe discomfort; discomfort can mean either pain or
breathlessness; extreme fatigue and stress may also be taken into account (It has been accepted that discomfort is subjective and that some people have higher pain thresholds than others).
Unless both your legs are missing then you will need to show that you experience severe discomfort even when using your artificial aid.

In assessing the above the following factors will be taken into account:
• Distance you can walk, without experiencing severe discomfort.
• Speed at which you walk.
• Length of time you can walk.
• Manner in which you walk.
The question is about walking out of doors not in your home.
Exertion required to walk:
This is to establish if walking would constitute a danger to your life or whether it would be likely to lead to a
serious deterioration in your health.
• The criteria is intended for people with serious chest, lung or heart conditions.
• Some people with haemophilia may also qualify.
• Serious deterioration does not need to be permanent but it should require medical intervention for you to
recover.
• People with epilepsy will need to show that any fits were brought about by the effort required to walk.

[shokenore]

Just a point of view from the other side.
My mother in law is registered disabled,and sometimes she needs to be taken shopping.I park in the blue badge zones
Now as the windows in my Surf are tinted it is difficult to see the passengers.
I am "able-bodied",people see me jump out of the truck and look at at me with the"what's that fecker parking there for Grrrr" look on their faces.
I then walk round to the passenger side and help the old dear out and get her her crutches.
Generally the same people then look away.

Even though I am using the blue badge zone for a legitimate reason I can sympathise with those that do question the right and wrong use of the blue badge zones.

I think I can remember very recently reading that the whole disabled badge/motability scheme was going to be investigated because of misuse.
Lets just hope the people that need these schemes are not going to be punished because of the minority that abuse this.

[Bogus]

On the same subject, It has often occurred to me that an alien spaceship visiting earth , and choosing to land in a supermarket or shopping centre car park, would get the impression that we were in a right state. The number of disabled parking spaces as a percentage of the total available makes us look like a nation that has just emerged from years of war.

[Mork]

The number of disabled parking spaces as a percentage of the total available makes us look like a nation that has just emerged from years of war.

I thought that, but then did some investigation.
There's a set % of spaces in a car park that need to be disabled spaces, and they need to be closest to the doors.

From memory it's around 5%, although supermarkets can go up to 7%+ to show how nice they are.
In a big out of town supermarket with 1000 spaces, that's 50-70 disabled spaces right next to the doors.

I think that when the laws were made they didn't really consider that we’d have carparks so big.
It makes sense to have 6 out of a hundred at disabled, but not 60 out of 1000.
It's not a huge percentage overall, but it's a lot when you see them all together.