Wheelchair-accessible parking

oscarBravo

I had a brief conversation with Adrian Weckler on Twitter today:

@adrianweckler wrote:

Is this your car? If so, you're a prick. http://twitpic.com/23fd3x

@oscarBravo wrote:

adrianweckler: at any given moment, there are between two and twenty pricks parked in the Tesco Westport car park. Nobody gives a damn.

@adrianweckler wrote:

oscarBravo I'm beginning to see that now.

It got me to thinking: why do Tesco mark out several wheelchair-accessible parking spaces, but do nothing about enforcing them? Are they required by law to make them available, and - if so - is there no corresponding law that requires them to keep them available?

Isn't there anything that can be done about the fact that, on a busy day, there are never any accessible parking spaces available in this car park, because able-bodied people are too goddamn lazy to walk twenty seconds from a space further away?

I'm an able-bodied person who never, ever parks in a reserved space, even if there's nowhere else to park, and it makes me mad. What must it do to people who need these spaces?

SerialComplaint

oscarBravo wrote: »

Are they required by law to make them available, and - if so - is there no corresponding law that requires them to keep them available?

There is no explicit legal obligation to provide these spaces. The Equal Status Acts say that Tesco can't discriminate against someone as a result of their disability. It's possible that someone could make a case that lack of spaces (either because they're not provided or not managed) is discrimination.

I'm pretty sure there hasn't been any such case at the Equality Tribunal to date.

Best option IMHO is to challenge on a case-by-case basis, i.e. tell each individual parking what you think of them, and to name-and-shame.

Rev Hellfire

What ever about supermarkets, its the feckers who do it at hospitals that get me going.

CathyMoran

My mother is a wheelchair user so I have a lot of sympathy - I do think that they need to tighten who gets a permit though and maybe give out temporary permits for those in need. My aunt seems to have recieved one just because she is in her early 80's but when I needed help due to chronic fatigue from chemo I was not given any help. We park in the parent and child spaces now as we have a young son but these are abused also...rant over.

SerialComplaint

New rules on issuing of disabled parking permits

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0710/1224274420851.html

Rev Hellfire

Excellent to hear.

plon

oscarBravo wrote: »

I'm an able-bodied person who never, ever parks in a reserved space, even if there's nowhere else to park, and it makes me mad. What must it do to people who need these spaces?

Sure makes me mad!!
I saw the following today:
A very fit looking chap parked in a disabled spot at the Park Carrickmines, hopped out and ran into TK MAX. He had a parking permit displayed, probably his Mammy or Daddy's. I'm sorry I didn't post a photo to shame him.
An elderly chap parked his Mercedes next to me at Dunlaoghaire in a wheelchair spot. He was legit as he had a permit and walked using a walking stick. However he could have parked in the nearby very obvious vacant ordinary space and not take up a parking space a wheelchair user would need.

I glad the whole scheme is being reviewed and the faster the better

kangaroo

CathyMoran wrote: »

My mother is a wheelchair user so I have a lot of sympathy - I do think that they need to tighten who gets a permit though and maybe give out temporary permits for those in need. My aunt seems to have recieved one just because she is in her early 80's but when I needed help due to chronic fatigue from chemo I was not given any help. We park in the parent and child spaces now as we have a young son but these are abused also...rant over.

The new rules are strict, too strict in my view. A doctor has to say that your condition is permanent. Not sure what they think other people are supposed to do. Think this came about because of the Irish Wheelchair Association complaints (see their website). They were also on the review panel.

One good part of the review is that the year of birth and gender of the blue badge holder will be visible. So some cases of misuse will be spotted. This is good however I think the IWA submission mixed up some issues up - in their submission, they seemed to imply that it was the badges held by people who were not primary cert holders who were misusing the system. While anybody's relatives/whoever could be borrowing the permits, not just non-primary cert holders.

NeVeR

I always wonder about this. My GF has a disabled parking permit so we park in them alot.

But I dont know how many time i've seen cars parked with no permits. Alot of the times there are drivers waiting on other people.. like its a pick up spot... A few times i took photos of the car in the shot with it's reg... but never knew of a place to send the pic...

Is there a place to report these people ?

SerialComplaint

In Dublin, you can call the clampers hotline, and they'll pop out and say hello.

oscarBravo

Only in public parking spaces. My original complaint was about a Tesco car park, where the council have no authority, and the owner doesn't care.

kangaroo

Letter in Sunday Independent complaining they weren't told when parking badge out-of-date - they ended up with a E120 fine:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/euro120-fine-for-disabled-oap-2307247.html