Frustrated I didnt do more

janer1967 · February 2020

Hi all, I just want to share with you an experience I had yesterday and now on reflection I think I should have done more to highlight to this ignorant person the difficulty their actions cause disabled people. I was out with my son doing our food shopping. I was on my mobility scooter laden up with lots of bags. As I approached a road I had to cross aiming to use the drop kerb a car pulled up blocking the drop kerb. The lady then got out of her car, leaving 2 young children in the back and parking on double yellow lines. I said to the lady you are stopping me crossing the road, she said well either wait or go round and then she proceeded into the take away a few steps away from her parked car. She obviously thought it was more important that she parked close to the take away so she didn't have far to walk or take the kids out of the car than it was for me to cross the road. I went the long way round till I found the next drop kerb.

I wish I had said more or taken pictures of her parked car on double yellows with reg number and reported her to the police but not being a person to want trouble and being with my son I didn't do anything, I feel I should have in order to educate at least one person how selfish illegal parking affects others. I would be interested to know how you would have dealt with the situation ?

Tommyb92 · February 2020

Hi @janer1967, I'm one of the community champions, sorry to hear that you had this issue yesterday and I can sympathise with your frustration, It's a shame that in this day and age people dont think, they act and then dont realsie the implications they have on other people. I hope your day is better today!

janer1967 · February 2020

@Tommyb92 thanks for your reply. I am also a community champion in my 2nd week of probation. I think as disabled people we fear speaking out in these situations as it makes us feel vulnerable

Seanchai · February 2020

Atrocious from a member of the public to another member of the public ....yep , I think I would have took a photo of her car on double yellow lines and therefore blocking disabled people from using the facilities provided for that very reason . I hope the person concerned ( or her children) will never need to use disabled facilities for herself or her children .

Adrian_Scope · February 2020

I'm sorry she behaved so badly @janer1967. It sounds like it wouldn't matter what you said or did she wouldn't have listened anyway.

skullcap · February 2020

Sorry to hear of this.
I always take my phone out with me wherever I go. I photograph incidents like this and send them to the police with an email explaining the circumstances you found yourself in. Ideally get a photo of the driver and the reg number.
I also post the pic on the local facebook page.

It took over a year of doing this outside the local school with parents causing chaos every school day. I sent these to the police, council and facebook nearly every day.
Eventually the council relented and put down miles of double yellow lines down on both sides of the roads for at least 300 metres on every road in the area near the school.

janer1967 · February 2020

@skullcap thanks for the reply wouldn't have made any difference to this last she was parked on double yellow lines

Ails · February 2020

Sorry to hear of this @janer1967. I have also came across the same situation a couple of times when being out on my scooter and it is so frustrating. I too have never said anything to the people parked on the kerb where I want to get down as I have either been too embarrassed or for fear of getting a mouthful from the other person. Although I have went home and been mad at myself for never saying anything! So i sympathise with your plight. There are too many ignorant and lazy people about that don't think of their selfish actions and how in 2 minutes you can park around the corner and walk to where you are going to just let a disabled person cross the road without any stress or fuss! Thanks for highlighting this important topic to us.

soconfused · February 2020

Hi @janer1967

I once had a school kid help push me up the pavement on my Class 3 heavy scooter because someone had parked over the only drop in the pavement I could use and I couldn't get up. . Trust me people are very rude and arrogant in this world

@Ails

People block my driver every day when they could park anywhere on the empty street. Despite the signs asking them not to and explaining I need access and I am disabled. The council are now considering putting electronic bollards in front of the pavement in the road to stop it. But I doubt they will go ahead with it.

I will just move instead.

janer1967 · February 2020

@soconfused yes I agree and those that park halfway in the pavement. You don't realise these things unless you are disabled

JenCo · February 2020

Are there any petitions to make parking on drop kerbs illegal?
They should have ruddy big yellow lines along them.

How incredibly ignorant of that woman! She's lucky you're so patient, kids or no kids there's plenty of folks that'd have given her QUITE an earful (and she'll get that someday, don't you worry)

Such a negative experience @janer1967
I hope things got better from there.

I'm not sure what I'd have done except hope to name and shame on Facebook (I'm a member of a local FB Group) something like "If anyone knows the owner of this vehicle can you please advise her the I, and many others, need to access the drop kerb she's parked on... with her kids left inside... so she can nip into the chippy..."

Until we get those big yellow lines and other folks get some common sense and decency that's all I could think if it were me

janer1967 · February 2020

She was parked on double yellow lines . But like the idea of shaming on fb x

Si_Obhan · February 2020

I’ve had mixed experiences of “shaming” people about this. Every day on the school run someone parks over almost every dropped kerb I need to use. To the point where I am paying someone else to collect my children as I often can’t physically get to school.

I have tried waiting for the people to show up to tell them politely that it’s causing a problem, but it embarrasses my children and isn’t nice when the drivers get defensive.

One day I was stuck on the path for almost an hour as the kerbs are very steep and someone had parked up behind me and left their car with no dropped kerbs between. I eventually lost my temper and called the police who said it wasn’t an emergency and put me through to GMP control. They didn’t answer. I emailed and got a faster response and they said there were no officers available. I couldn’t call a wheelchair taxi as there is 48hrs notice required in my area as most are on school runs. Eventually a cyclist went past and lifted the chair into the busy A road and stopped the traffic. I just never go out alone any more which means my husband left his job to care for me or I can’t go out. I’ve always earnt more so when I go back to work he will help me with public transport to get to and from work. Without his help I would be stuck in due to selfish people.

What annoyed me about the above is that the same day an elderly lady had posted online that she had been blocked in her garage by someone parking. Someone called the police for her and posted photos of 3 officers reversing her car out of the garage. “All in a days work” with beaming smiles. Her car wasn’t even blocked in she just wasn’t confident reversing it out in a tight space. They came out within 30 mins, 3 officers. Yet nobody available to help someone blocked on the pavement in the rain by people illegally parking.

The police just replied to me saying that I need dash cam or similar footage of the motorist committing an offence capturing 3 mins before and 3 mins after, so I would need some kind o body cam or use my phone to video things as I approach them. They didn’t see it as a problem as I waited and someone helped me... eventually.

The other problem is that I live on a giant hill. My battery should do 12 miles but we live 2 miles from school in a straight line. I have to get to school and back twice per day so that’s about 10 miles but half uphill. My battery does what I need it to do in a day and then I’m housebound. My husband is also disabled and cannot push me but without these kind of obstructions we would manage. If I can’t go the right way and have to detour it massively cuts down the amount of distance I can do in that day.

When we have paid off some debts he is going to learn to drive as I will support him mentally and it means he can take me to the door. The school have said I can use their car park to get my chair out and go round the back to collect my children. in the meantime I have to deal with these people. The police won’t do anything so my next tactic was posting photos to Facebook when I was on there... let’s just say people can be very nasty online. The majority of people were nice but some of the comments people made were horrible. “You shouldn’t be allowed out on your own if you can’t cross a road”, “yeah and the majority of people aren’t disabled so this affects us how?”, “how do you know that they aren’t disabled and parked next to the dropped kerb because there was nowhere else to park? How dare you make assumptions”... etc.

Cant wait until we have a wav and leave these worries behind

pollyanna1052 · February 2020

Hi, appalling that selfish and abled people can do such things.

About a month ago, I couldn't get into my doctor`s because an elderly lady had parked on the access pavement.

My carer went in and asked whose car it was. The owner said she had told reception where she had parked, as if this made the situation go away!

My carer persisted and the lady came out and looked most put out. She could see my predicament and tutted. I told her it was inconsiderate to park across the access to the surgery. She said she was a considerate person.

I said `How?` pointing to her car. She moved.

janer1967 · February 2020

Thanks to everyone sharing your own experiences it just shows how un educated some people are . What bitherd me the most is if we point the issue out to them the are often very defensive or argumentative and make us feel we are to blame

pollyanna1052 · March 2020

Yes, sadly some people will only ever think of themselves....abled and disabled.

soconfused · March 2020

I got slapped in the head once by someone who mistook me for another person who almost ran them down on their scooter. After the Police had dealt with them they apologised and I let it go.. But I mean how can you do that? When I ride my scooter I find it more exhausting than driving when I am constantly on the look out for pedestrians. I don't go fast unless there is opportunity to (i/e no one around and then it's 6MPH anyway) And although I have insurance I hope to never have to claim on it.

janer1967 · March 2020

@soconfused thanks for sharing . Some people need educating. The person wasnt even run down just nearly totally inappropriate.
Insurance on scooter is good idea

Frustrated I didnt do more

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