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New blue badge rules
ridler1234
Member Posts: 1 Listener
My wife is in a wheel chair and needs a blue badge for her mobility.at the moment it is very difficult to get a dissabled parking bay. Councils will have to double dissabled parking bays to accommodate the new blue badge proposals.i cant see this happening .I think in future it will be nearly impossible to find an empty dissable bay.it is bad enough with people who are not dissabled using the bays ridler
Replies
It's been bad but now there will be even more people who can walk without being in pain blocking disabled parking bays.
We would now need row after row of disabled bays and only a small portion will be disabled people. The rest could have parked in any bay but no they will block a disabled bay and there will be disabled people stranded without a bay to park in disgraceful
Invisible disabilities are not ‘fictional’ and in some cases they cause a limitation of that persons movement so severe, that they never leave their home, leading to complete isolation.
I think if this forum doesn’t realise that there is not a hierarchy for disablement, what hope is there to challenge the discrimination most disabled people face.
I'm a Pain Warrior
A forum is a medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged. Which is why I used the term.
On a serious note though, with regards to parking in a non-disabled bay but still displaying the badge. I assume that is to qualify for the disabled rate of payment, as it's usually reduced or even free? You'd probably have to check the small print on the signs as to whether that's allowed or not though, I wouldn't just assume it to be the case across the board.
Most car parks near me still charge for parking in non disabled parking spaces even if you have a Blue Badge.
Also to add, some car parks will still charge you if you park in a non disabled space, but free in a designated disabled space.
As @poppy123456 has also mentioned check the small print as all areas have different rules regarding it.
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I always object to the wheelie logo. It confuses the public. A woman walks half a mile to the supermarket pushing a child's buggy. Another wheels half a mile to the same place, using an electric chair or scooter.
On arrival, they both notice that if they had come by car, it is assumed they cannot move the distance from one part of the car park to the door, so they can have special priority for the precious parking nearest the door. Mostly for kiddies but some for blue badge users.
Meanwhile, someone must park on the far side, who struggles to walk at all but uses a stick, crutches, zimmer or even nothing.
Suppose there are 5 blue badge bays within your physical ability to reach the door. Fifty other spaces are available for those who can move further, or who have no disability. Those fifty charge a pound an hour.
Straight choice, would you prefer to see choice One:
The 5 b.b. ones charging double, at 2 pounds, which means there is at least some hope you would be able to go to the building, at the time you need to?
Or choice Two:
The 5 b.b. ones are free, or half price, which means the world and his wife scramble to get hold of a badge and there is never, at any time, the slightest realistic point in you thinking you can go to that building, unless you pay for a taxi there and back?
You mentioned a place with three disabled bays , out of a car park for several hundred. In theory theres a minimum proportion. Enforcing equality law is up to the individual, so that's easy, just as long as the individual is as rich as Bill Gates, to employ lawyers bigger and better than the mega organisations to be battled against.
You mentioned correctly the probability of poverty is greater for disabled people. But it isn't cheap to be forced to take taxis everywhere. How else can the disabled person attend a given place at a given time, or at all? I wouldn't have an equal cost, for places near the door. The only way to reduce the attraction is to make it more expensive than alternative spaces. The same goes for time limits. It does need to be, say, 3 hours maximum in spots where others are expected to complete their visit in two hours. But the extra time shouldn't be free, or it is an incentive to misusers.
You rightly point out the particular need of a wheelchair user often is the extra room, for loading. Designing spaces could make use of, for instance, loading onto a wide walkway or a corner of the carpark out of the path of other traffic. Once the person is in the chair, he often doesn't need to travel a particularly limited distance.
Some walking aid users do need to open their door extra wide, some don't, especially if they use a very small car. In that case, they could use a normal sized bay, just needing it to be near the destination, so they don't exceed their walking distance before they get there.