I have a real problem with people that park in the Handicap Parking slots without the right to do so! It's usually at a convenience store where they justify it by saying that they were only going to be a minute!
I'm sorry but FAT, LAZY and STUPID does NOT constitute a viable handicap! Here in California the fine is close to 300 bucks but it is rarely enforced.
My father had MS and was confined to a wheel chair the last years of his life so indeed had a real handicap. When I would go visit him he always wanted to go out to a certain restaurant near a Fitness Center and I noticed that 75% of the cars in the handicap slots did not have the placard and were in fact owned by someone just in for a quick workout!
The reason I bring this up is that I just ran out to the store for coffee and noticed not one but 2 cars taking up the handicap zone and both were driven by 20 something year old punks with no handicap. One got away before I could say anything but the other got an ear full and came close to a butt whipping when he started to crack wise about it. When he saw the look of seriousness/anger in my eyes he thought better of it!
Just needed to vent so I appreciate ya'll listening (reading)!

Mick

Maybe you should take along a camera.

Actually Michael, my wife just suggested at least acting like I'm taking a picture of the lic. plate and/or jotting down the number on a pad in view of the perp! Usually if it's someone who doesn't appear to be blatant about it I will just make mention of the infraction and the cost of the ticket. Hopefully they think twice about it next time!

I rarely see that to be honest with you. My wife is disabled (you wouldn't know it by looking at her by she has sever heart problems and defibulator/pacemaker and is on oxygen when she isn't out) and can only walk short distances. I'm also disabled but rarely use the parking spot unless my wife is with me and even if she is and we can park a reasonable distance for her we don't use them should someone with more dire need show up. One thing to keep in mind, you may run into someone who doesn't remember to put up the placard and not all disabilities are clear. Then again you can be like my sister and yell "must be a learning handicap" at them.

Sometimes even the handicapped misuse handicap parking spaces.

In the public parking lot of a beach in my town, there are two handicap spaces adjacent to a wheelchair accessible walkway. Last weekend a small camper was parked there. I checked and saw that they did indeed have a valid handicap placard visible. But they had set up their awning and were sitting in beach chairs under it all afternoon. They could have done that anywhere else in the lot and left the space open for someone who actually needed to access the walkway.

As long as I have my cane I'll avoid the spots with the stripes for the wheelchair unloading. Those folks can be screwed if they are not left that space, heck, my left leg doesn't bend right and I have to open the door all the way to get into the car with it and if a car is next to me often I don't have enough space.

Couldn't help but note that most of the people you noted in your post weren't all of those things at once. Yes, I'm fat, some may even call me lazy, but I don't park in handicap spots because I know better, despite having several problems that could possible qualify me for one of the spaces.

As for the person who deliberately takes a handicap space when they don't need it, I consider them very selfish and self-centered.

***I rarely see that to be honest with you.***

Huh?

***FAT, LAZY and STUPID does NOT constitute a viable handicap!***

That should have read OR rather than "and" and was meant as a bombastic generality. If you were offended by it I apologize!

When I am in public I always honor others by holding the door, I try to be the first to yield, it's how I was raised. Even though I think some business' have waaay too many HC spaces, I'd NEVER use the space. Those spaces are reserved to honor those with needs that my good fortune has provided me with, for that I am thankful.

Maybe it should be enforced more!
I read on many boards about American (and other nation's) people complaining about being pulled over for silly infrictions and getting fined. I sometimes think the punishment is too light. 300 bucks is fair if it gets enforced.

I remember seeing a guy trying to get through the side doors of a revolving door because he was in a wheelchair. I tried to help by holding the inner door for him, he started slapping my hand with his glove and cursing me out! I guess he didn't want to be dependent on anyone, even a stranger trying to help!

Since then, I ask if they want help.

More likely your attempts to help were not helping.

***Since then, I ask if they want help***

I think that's wise as I know my Dad was hypersensitive to his abilities and inabilities! Although he appreciated the help he did not want anyone to just assume he couldn't do something!

When my father used a walker, I learnt that the mentality of the handicapped tends to run along this line; If they tell you to use a cane carry a walking stick, if they tell you to use a walker use a cane, if they tell you to use a wheelchair use a walker, if they tell you to stay in bed use a wheelchair. Every effort to maintain more than you have for abilities seems to be instinctual - no surrender!
That being said, my fathers accidents happened whenever he thought he could do more than he could. I work for a commercial property, and we gleefully ticket people who park without a sticker in handi-cap stalls. Its fun to watch them explode.

As an officially certified handicapped person, I heartily agree with all of the above.

However, Ed Rhodes, the 'gentleman' you encountered was a jerk. A wheelchair-bound jerk. Yeah, jerks get handicapped too (can't seem to get them expelled from the club).

I'm not that badly off - use a walker - and I'm a bit embarrassed at the profusion of help (I don't want to be a bother) but, heck, folks were raised that way, and it's gratifying to see that gentility still exists. Even though, if the door's being held for me, I'd far rather have the door's push-bar to grab ahold of and steady myself over the sill, but no way am I gonna fly into an emo tizzy.

Mentioned the parking space issue at the restaurant-supply warehouse a while back - plenty of spaces, all of them full of non-stickered vehicles - and the manager said that they tried to keep the spaces clear but nothing worked. He said he called the cops once, and WHILE THEY WERE TICKETING THE OFFENDER another un-stickered vehicle pulled into the space and the driver just walked on in.

--Go figure--

I've always thought those who misuse the spaces were beneath contempt, just one rung above drunk drivers. After our run-in with the latter left my better three-fourths with a severe permanent limp and needing a cane if she is on her feet for any length of time, my opinion of both groups are at an all time low.
When the handicapped spaces first appeared I remember a group in Danville, KY were putting bumper stickers on cars that had illegally used the spaces. The stickers were blue with the wheelchair logo with the words, "Guess where I parked". The violators were, of course, stuck with having to take the things off themselves and couldn't very well complain to the police. Maybe it's time to revive those stickers.

There is a liquor store close to a Subway I go to. You can see these slugs pull in to the handicap spaces, jump out of their cars and run it the liquor store all the time. The fine for unauthorized parking in a handicap space should be $10,000.00!

How would that be? I was holding the door open and standing off to one side to give him room to pass.

I did not read the entire thread but there are some who borrow the handicapped parking passes. I watch them get out of the car sometimes and I do not think I could take them in a footrace.