I have a hc permit and one day at Costco when I came out a policeman pulled up behind me and asked if the permit was mine, I said yes, he asked to see my id and my hc permit card, matched up the numbers with the hang tag, etc. Of course, everything checked out but I'd like the person who called to walk a day in my body!

I knew a husband & wife that both had an artifical leg. It was not very evident to look at them, so they were always having to endure people nasty comments about where they parked. One day the wife had had enough and pulled up her pants leg to show her artifical leg. Someone was surely embarrassed and she felt great for a long time after!

One of the large grocery stores here have placed a "Mother with Child" reserved spot for them. Not close but not far either. As for the pregnant signs; my opinion, walking for a pregnant lady is good exercise (unless there are problems then a HC sticker is good). My opinion only.

I get tired of people that park in handicapped parking!! As a handicapped person it just burns my butt.

Thanks! I did make it. Is AZ warm this time of year? How close are you to Phoenix?

I always wonder if they know how to read, probably not.

Five plates and 20 screws holding my left leg and hip onto the rest of my body has caused the doctor to write me a notice for one several times. however I still don't have one. I walk a little goofy some times but I can still walk therefore I will walk from the south fourty. If I don't one day I may not be able to walk at all and I will have wished I walked a little further when I could!

Don't judge a book by its cover, but at the same time books if your cover has a little rip in it its not always the end of the world. Suck it up a little bit and carry on!

I use to live in an apartment complex, and they had handicap parking spots but only at the buildings where they knew handicap people lived. Well the guy(mid to late 40's) that lived in the building down the lot had a hanger for his mirror no visible handicap not saying he didn't have SOMETHING wrong but nothing obvious. The woman that lived in the building next to us was paralized from the waist down and was in a manual wheelchair. If "his" parking spot (the handicap spot in front of his building) was taken no matter how many regular spots were open he would drive down to her parking spot park in it then walk back down to his building. Like it was the LAW for him to take up a handicap spot because he had a handicap hanger. There was nothing anyone could do about it because he was legally parked.

I'm not sure if this will be in all states, but here in SC our h/c placards are being given now with the photograph of the person to whom the placard belongs.
This will stop a lot of the abuse we now see. It won't, however stop those selfish people who abuse the spots with a placard. Those we have to rely on police enforcement---and yes, we should report them.

Roxanne

I noticed several of the comments interchange senior citizens with handicapped people. Handicapped people know no age bounderies.

At my place of work, the front parking area is for visitors/volunteers only. The administor placed a notice in our paychecks for all personnel to park on the side or back lots due to too many parking out front. No one listened because if he was not wiling to follow his own advice why should anyone else. He never enforced it. I have had visitors mentioned they had to park on the side lots because the front is full.

Seen a male park in an expectant mother parking spot I looked him in the eye and shook my head he just had a dumb look on his face. I wanted so bad to ask him when he was due??? the jerk

ya that bugs me too

These same idoits do it at the daycare & pre school. They park in the drive thru when everybody is dropping off at the door & makes a major mess. I would like to kick their behinds.

lol

I HATE it when I park the van with my DHs wheelchair in the back in one of those long parking spaces and someone parks right up to my bumper in the no parking lines behind the van. I can't get the W/C out or in the van. It is so inconsiderate down right illegal!

I did complain to the security cop at Walmart and he went out and looked at it and did NOTHING!! I have had to wait for that person to come out and move their vehicle to get my DH's W/C in the van.

Walmart's parking lot is not public property so the cops can't do anything about it unless there is an accident. That is what the security guy told me. I was so upset!!

I try to not park in them anymore because it just upsets me so much not to be able to get in and out of the van. I wouldn't be quite so upset if they at least leave room to open my tail gate and have enough space to move the W/C but no they park right up to within a couple of feet of the end of the van in a no parking space where there are clearly lines!! I so wish they would get ticketed and or towed!! I don't care if that person is handicapped or not. They are still being inconsiderate and illegal!!

We saw on TV where they are ticketing people for parking in a handicapped spot with the handicapped person in the car if that handicapped person stays in the car and doesn't get out. If the driver is the only one getting out then you can get fined for it. But I still park in them when Glen is with me because he might decide to get out. If we stop at Walmart and he stays in the car if he decides while I am in there to get out and go use the bathroom then he has a right to park close whether he does or doesn't get out. Just the fact that it makes it possible for him should be enough to make it ok to park there. I don't use his sticker if he is not with me. But his condition is that he can be fine one moment and not fine the next. Or he can feel not good enough to get out but it could change or he could change his mind and he deserves the opportunity to be able to do that.

Don't mean handicapped parking - even when my dad had the handicapped tag, when he got to the point of needing us to push him in the wheelchair, I'd park farther out, so someone who was not so moblie could use the Handicapped parking. I mean the chick with the 4" spike heels who is too good to park in the regular lot like the rest of us to get her coffee, and has to park on the curb. (well, I guess 'cause the walk in in those heels would be too much!)

When she gets a $250.00 to $500.00 fine for parking in the fire lane she might learn. We knew what you meant.

I can see parking in the fire zone IF the driver doesn't leave the car, just to load/unload people...less than a minute kind of thing.

What annoys me? Motorcycles parked on the sidewalks. I've yet to see one get a ticket, but I'd sure like to!!

i hate when people park inthe handicapped spots, worse yet, when the cops do

sometimes, some of us limp, sometimes our meds kick in and we can almost walk normal
some of us are sever asthametics and use air cond in the winter to breath,(a friend of mine had a severe condition, and died from not being able to breath in the hot air)

I wish they did this in my state it would make the looks more tollerable. I am lucky I know all of the police in my area so when I pull up to the HC spot in my grocery complex they say Hi and I don't get the looks. I know just stare them down my kids alwasy say I had the meanest stink eye stare :) I will say I really only go to one store and I have one couple that are always there that i just want to go up to them and ask if they want to see my card!~

[quote=lynnie]sometimes, some of us limp, sometimes our meds kick in and we can almost walk normal

This happens to me all the time. I take my meds before I have to go anywhere so I can function. and it always happens the meds kick in and I feel like I can run a marathon. It is not fun really sorry this is hard for me when I don't look sick to get the awful looks. I am the type of person that WILL Say to them what is their issue. I have no fear and my kids say :) OK I will step down from the soap box!!

Am I the only person who parks as far away from everyone as I can get? I like my car without digs in the door, scratches down the side and shopping carts resting against it.

My pet peeve is the handicapped areas used by people who are not handicapped, then get out and practically run to the store. I have yet to see the law enforce them.

I have a standard half hour rap I give to folks who give me the attitude about HC spots. It covers "invisible illnesses" such as heart disease, lung disease, my own illnesses CFIDS and fibromyalgia...

I usually just look for a sticker and don't challenge if I see one, even tho I know many who have them for others use them for themselves, including my husband's ex-sister.

I saw a woman once park in a handicap spot and then start running in the store. She did NOT have her daughter (wheelchair bound) with her. I was angry as she had been speeding in the parking lot where I had just been walking with my 3 children under 4. I rolled down the window and yelled at her that mental handicaps don't count. Everyone out there was looking at her when I did that. She turned back to the store and took off running again. I still laugh when I think about that! Lord she was mad at me. Small town, she was a repeat offender and everyone knew it.

Oh, that burns me up, too. When we lived in Germany I worked at the Base Exchange. One day there was smoke coming out of some of the vents and the local fire truck (local service) quickly arrived. There 2 cars parked in the fire lane which the truck proceeded to not so gently move them out of the way. The drivers were rather verbal with their displeasure, especially when the police issued them a ticket for parking in the fire lane and causing damage to the fire truck.

Fortunately there was no fire, but the heating system did overheat and smoked.

As I read these posts I'm thinking about when my 2 kids were born - both emergency c-sections. I was so sore and had to walk such a long way into stores, and several times I'd have to reach out to catch the door as the person in front of me just let it go. Ouch! I'm so glad shops have added parking spots for expectant and new mothers!

I often wonder if their disability is a cognitive one...but then if that is the case, perhaps they should not have a driver's license! :thumbdown: (I used to teach a self-contained special education class for children with cognitive deficits...taught them how to use public transportation because I knew driving was NOT in their future!) I think their actual disability is an overly-inflated belief in their own superiority and thinking they are entitled to anything they want!

I have a handicapped hanger, but I only use it on my bad days. If there is an open regular spot close by, I save the handicapped spot for someone more handicapped than myself. If my kids are with me, they just drop me off and then go park elsewhere and then when we finish shopping, they go get the car and come back to the front of the store to pick me up.

I'm not sure about police not enforcing in private parking lots - DH and I once stayed in a motel, the room we were in was for disabled (last one left) but the clerk said we could NOT park in the HP spot right outside the room. He said the police came through the parking lot and would ticket us. This was before DH got the tag.
We also learned, after DH got the tag (stroke survivor, problems walking) that where there are meters on the street, you can park at any of them without paying. You notice HP spots on the street do not have meters. This was in NH, not sure about other states.

Sounds like Wal Mart is not enforcing their HC accessability or they do not care except for the bottom line. $$$

It bothers me also cause I had seven children and I never got treated as handicapped.

It bothers me also as I had seven children and was never treated as if I was handicapped

What bugs me; Making a parking spot at the end of lanes, parking in the loading zone while waiting for someone, taking up two parking spaces and my biggest one is people leaving shopping carts in the parking lot.

[quoteAND the Handicapped parking. I absolutely despise the healthy people who park there, with or without Grandpa's parking pass hung on the mirror. And then they get out and trot to the store. When I get angry they merely shrug and say that it was the only close parking space there!! I've pushed my late DH's wheelchair half a block in pounding rain to get to a doctor's office, and in the sun and wind when he wanted to go to a special store, while younger healthy people parked near by in
the handicapped parking spaces.
Once when I was chewing a young man out a meter reader came along and asked if it was HIS parking pass. And he got an expensive ticket while several older people and I stood and almost cheered. I think the ticket at that time was about $170 or so, YEAH!![/quote]

I live near Laughlin, NV. The police there have assistance regarding the handicapped spots at the casinos. They have people who volunteer to be "parking police" and issue tickets for people parking in handicapped without tags.

By the way, I have issues with my heart so I have a handicapped tag but I am not obviously handicapped (in a wheelchair, on crutches, etc.) Please bear in mind that some of the people who "look" healthy may have a severe health problem that isn't that apparent.

Oh, you really should have asked. And pointed to the sign. Afterall, this would have been noteworthy news.

I usually do also. Depends where I am.