Now tell me, does this strike anyone else as weird?

[ms.peachy]

OK so now that I've been back in the US for a bit, I've noticed quite a few times that when I go to the supermarket or any shopping center or wahtever, quite often in the handicapped spaces there are like gargantuan SUV's parked. Now they have the handicapped plates or mirror hangy thingies and all, but seriously, these are totally enormous elephant-hunting vehicles that just about any fully able-bodied person practically would need a ladder to climb in and out of. So tell me, what the fuck kind of disability do all these people have that they can't walk the extra steps from the parking lot, but yet they can clamber 10 feet in the air into the friggin' car?

[fucktopgirl]

maybe its because they are mentally disable!

[kaiser soze]

no, I've noticed these handicap Urban Assault Vehicles as well

maybe they want to make sure that whomever they run over becomes successfully handicapped as well

[miss_bhaven]

Hrmmm...What the hell :confused:

[jackrock]

maybe... just maybe... say the person is in a wheel chair, maybe they get someone else to drive, while they have the lift thing to set them outside, that might take up room? ... maybe.

[ScarySquirrel]

In my experience, it's usually because there is a lift or something inside of the vehicle. I've seen the people loading their electric carts in and out of the suckers on occassion.

I know also that when I've been to the auto show a couple times they had a special company there that actually made seats that would rotate, place itself outside of the vehicle, and lower itself to the ground making it easier for someone handicapped to get in and out of the car. I don't think a lot of people out there have this stuff, but it's possible y'know.

[GreenEarthAl]

Thanks for asking the question MsP; I've always wondered myself.

[Planetary]

maybe... just maybe... say the person is in a wheel chair, maybe they get someone else to drive, while they have the lift thing to set them outside, that might take up room? ... maybe.

maybe they feel, as americans, that they should own an unnecessarily large vehicle. they feel america is the greatest country in the world, so hell, i should the have the largest, uglyest, most gas-wasting, twice-as-dangerous-as-a-regular-sized-car-because-they-hit-you-in-the-head-instead-of-the-abdomen- car in the world.

or mayby the single mums with their one child feel they need such a car to get their child 200m to and from school everyday and nothing else, for protection.

[synch]

Loosely related, I saw two old ladies walking around a clothing store with a handicapped cart. I assume one of them should have been in it but instead they had the clothes piled in the cart in shopping cart fashion and were comfortably strolling with it.

Sure, she may not have needed it 24/7 and just wanted to stretch her legs or something but it still looked odd.

[jabumbo]

my neighbors at home have handicapped plates as well as a strip of the street reserved for them (its kind of funny since my block only has room for 4 cars on our side of the street, and 2 of the spots are yellow lined for that reason)

well, the reason they have this is because the father has had his problems and needs an oxygen machine. well, i haven't been around much, but...i haven't seen the man for about 2 years. and he never gets in the car anyway, so it sort of defeats the purpose.

[Qdrop]

it's pretty well understood that just about anyone can get a handicap sticker if you have a good repoire with a doctor.
handicap stickers and spaces are regulary exploited by those that do not need them.
it's the obvious outcome to a system that has virtually no regulation or checks.

[Rancid_Beasties]

Just like you can pretty much photocopy any melbourne residential parking permit, and give them to all your mates. Its all bullshit, the whole parking system. But on the other hand, it could well be one of those cars that jackrock and SS are talking about

[Qdrop]

. But on the other hand, it could well be one of those cars that jackrock and SS are talking about

what are the odds of that being true, for the majority of those cases anyway.

it's usually the same damn thing...
some has a sore hip, thier doctor gives em a sticker.
thier hip feels better....they keep using the sticker.
they loan the sticker out to thier friends and family....or just let them use the car.

i worked at grocery store when i was in high school and college, and i worked out in the lot collecting carts....so i saw this shit ALL fuckin day.

[Chad the Lad]

just because you are disabled, doesnt mean you aren't able.

and dont say handicap, its fuckin demeaning.

[Planetary]

I park there all of the time

that's some harsh shit

[ms.peachy]

and dont say handicap, its fuckin demeaning.
yeah, I'll stop saying 'handicapped' when you lot stop saying 'Oriental', mmkay?

[Freebasser]

Disabilities don't have to be obvious.

For example, diabetes might not stop you getting in a big car, but it might mean you can't walk very far without getting a lot of pain in your feet.

[ms.peachy]

For example, diabetes might not stop you getting in a big car, but it might mean you can't walk very far without getting a lot of pain in your feet.
So, it's too far to walk from the parking lot to the entrance of the mall, but you can walk around the mall painlessly for hours? Oh the miracle of retail!

[Freebasser]

Then they can use a buggy to drive round the shop can't they?

[Qdrop]

Then they can use a buggy to drive round the shop can't they?

but yet many don't.
i wonder why?


peachy on point.

[Freebasser]

Maybe because they can't get in one? My mum's diabetes is so bad that she finds it difficult to walk but she also isn't flexible enough to sit comfortably in a shitty little buggy for an hour while she shops.

[ScarySquirrel]

it's usually the same damn thing...
some has a sore hip, thier doctor gives em a sticker.
thier hip feels better....they keep using the sticker.
they loan the sticker out to thier friends and family....or just let them use the car.
I don't know how other states work, but here in Michigan we have two types of handicap stickers for people's windshield. A blue one means that the handicap is permanent and isn't going anywhere... therefore they usually don't expire for a couple years. A red one is issued for people who have temporary problems like a broken foot, sprained ankle, whatever.

Forget about getting a license plate if you're not really handicapped either. The secretary of state's office didn't even want to give my dad one even though he had a blue windshield sticker. I can't really explain that one, but whatever.

[THRILLHO]

There are a lot of assholes in this world.

[ms.peachy]

Maybe because they can't get in one? My mum's diabetes is so bad that she finds it difficult to walk but she also isn't flexible enough to sit comfortably in a shitty little buggy for an hour while she shops.
I think you are missing my point. I am quite happy for people who legitimately need those spaces to have them. And yes it's likely that at least some of those large vehicles may be ones that are specially adapted with a lift and such. However, in the two weeks I have been back here, I have noticed like never before how virtually ALL of these spaces now are occupied by superhugegigantor vehicles, and yet when I go into Home Bed Bath Lowes Linens and Beyond &Things Staples Pier Depot, I don't seem to see anybody buggying about or what have you.

[Ace42X]

Sod special parking. They should have special shops. And special vehicles. And special houses in a special village made specially for their special needs.
In France or somewhere.

[Qdrop]

[I]Home Bed Bath Lowes Linens and Beyond &Things Staples Pier Depot,

haahahhahh

[Documad]

Forget about getting a license plate if you're not really handicapped either. The secretary of state's office didn't even want to give my dad one even though he had a blue windshield sticker. I can't really explain that one, but whatever.
This was true in Minnesota. My dad was in a wheel chair for a long time and then graduated to a walker and crutches, but they would never give him a license plate because I guess he could maybe get completely better? He had a succession of hang tags for 10 years till he died.

PEACHY: My sister-in-law is almost completely paralyzed with ALS and she has a fully automated wheelchair and has a huge expensive vehicle with a lift inside. They also have a lift in their home.

[ms.peachy]

PEACHY: My sister-in-law is almost completely paralyzed with ALS and she has a fully automated wheelchair and has a huge expensive vehicle with a lift inside. They also have a lift in their home.
That's cool. I'm willing to allow that the possibility exists that every single gargantuan vehicle I've seen parked in a marked spot over the past 2 weeks contains lift equipment or is otherwise legitimate. However, the number I've seen just seems staggering to me, because for most of the trip here we've been running around to appliance centers, hardware stores, lumber centers, home fittings places, tile places, et al in an effort to get everything sorted and finalised on the renovation project and it's, like, everywhere we go I see these big things, and yet no people in wheelchairs, or using buggy things, or even walking with a can. Once I saw one guy with a crutch. But more than once, I saw one of these gigantor mobiles with women like 5 feet tall climb in or out of them. So it makes me go, hmmmmmm.....

[Documad]

Last week at my coffee shop, a woman in an SUV without any plates or hang tag parked in the only handicapped spot. It's the maddest I've been in a long time. I thought about talking to her but I was already having a bad morning and didn't trust myself to keep my cool. I watched her like a hawk and she just got coffee and left, but I couldn't see any reason on earth why she couldn't park 40 feet further away.

[WhoMoi?]

The guy who lives in the apartment next to me has one of those tags and a designated accessible parking spot in our lot, so he gets to park right next to the front door. Yet we live on the third floor, and there is no elevator. Seems weird to me that he needs a parking spot a foot away from the building's front door but doesn't have a problem with walking up three flights of stairs to get to his apartment after that.

There are actually quite a few of these parking spaces in our lot, and the building isn't accessible whatsoever; there are no ramps or elevators, and even if you live on the first floor you have to walk up quite a few steps to get to the front door. It's always made me wonder.

[Mr. Boomin'Granny]

Just because they are handicap doesn't mean that they can't stand up, get in a SUV and drive off. My dad did it all the time when he had a SUV and he only has half of one lef and less than a quarter of the other.

[ms.peachy]

My dad did it all the time when he had a SUV and he only has half of one lef and less than a quarter of the other.
Mr.peachy's dad also had 2 prosthetic legs, and he used to bitch and moan about getting out of the damn Chrysler. I can't imagine the symphony of cursing that would go on if he had lived in the age of SUV's.

Of course, he did really enjoy cursing a lot and was quite good at it, so maybe he would have liked it in a twisted way, who knows.

[Sarky Devotchka]

when I broke my foot, I rode around in a motorized wheelchair in a very tiny city grocery store and I kept bumping into things and laughing and people were not very nice to me. maybe it was the laughing. or maybe it was because I knocked over stuff with my crutches.

although...after my surgery, my mom took me out to the suburbs to go to the mall for fun, I had a wheelchair and people treated me like I was retarded. We'd go into stores and the salespeople acted like an elephant just walked in. It was really disturbing.

anyway, I'd venture to say that disabled people might have a lot of equipment to travel around with or something. but, I also think that if someone is buying a huge obnoxious SUV in the first place, they might be asshole enough to not care about lying to get a handicapped sticker.