True, however it is similarly likely they can’t do anything about them because the law. I unscientifically suspect that handicapped people who need to use demarcated parking spaces would be less frequent users of running and hiking trails and probably don’t bother people like large numbers of illegal parkers pretending to be handicapped before they go exercise.
Irony is the basis of comedy.
I still remember the first time I saw a motorcycle driven by a man in a wheelchair accessible sidecar. it was something I’d never seen before, different and kind of cool.
Of course my first thought was wondering whether or not he became paraplegic in a motorcycle accident. But I later realized that was only one of many possibilities.
This, a million times.Though using handicapped parking spots without having the right for it is obviously not cool, this kind of “hunting” leads to the actual disabled people being harassed if they are not in a wheelchair or at least using crutches.
One of my dear friends has cystic fibrosis, which causes mucus to build up in the lungs, amongst other things, so it takes real effort for him to walk long distances. A walk down the block is like running a mile for him. So just because he looks alright on the outside, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t need the benefit of the shorter distance.
The problem is that the people aren’t parking in handicap spaces. It’s a residential parking zone with an exception that people with handicap placards can also use it.
The whole idea of the show was to “catch people in the act of abusing handicap placards”. The misrepresentation is that they weren’t confronting other non-residents who didn’t have handicap placards but parked in the same area. These weren’t people abusing handicap placards at all; they were just people parking illegally in a car most often used by someone with a real disability.
I’m all for enforcing disabled parking laws (I gleefully use the Parking Mobility app), but I got a bit squicked out when the police started forcing people to submit to televised interviews.
My last clients office building has a TON of handicap spots. The rest of the close lot filled up early, and alternative was a parking garage that was behind the office … Close but a hassle. So yeah, handicap spots were primo spots. Not once did I see anyone who looked remotely unable to walk a normal lot distance. Woman in high heels, people speed walking into the building, a car that often had a surfboard strapped to top. Yes. I know sometimes you can’t tell – people who look fine, but are in pain or whatever. So you can’t always tell. But you also can never not tell.
holy lol. that was as good as OPs video. they even put out a sign saying “you need to have the placard-holder in the vehicle” yet everyone proceeded to the checkpoint anyway and then was like “ohhhhh really???”
This makes me wonder, if you use the parking space to drop off your handicapped relative and leave the car parked there, is it illegal to remove the car from the parking space without that relative in the car? 0ne would think just getting into the car with a handicap placard in a handicap spot is not proof that it is illegally parked.
You just reminded me of something I hadn’t thought about in years…
When my wife and I lived in Taiwan back in the late '80s I had a friend there who’d had polio as a child. This limited the kind of work he could do and the amount of money he could make, so his “family car” was an underpowered motorcycle, like many other people in Asia at the time.
His wife had contracted polio as a child as well, so they and their baby rode around on their motorcycle with two pairs of crutches strapped to it - which was probably as good as a handicapped sticker/placard, but at that time designated parking for the disabled didn’t exist there.
but she won’t be parking to go on a 5 mile hike though.
NANNY STATE, NANNY STATE!!
Oh, wait a minute . . .
Well, hypothetically, suppose someone has severe Meniere’s disease, and is prone to dizziness around loud noise. I suspect this could prevent driving, but wouldn’t prevent having a placard as a frequent passenger. I think someone with this condition could have trouble walking around stores and loud parking lots, but no trouble walking around quiet parks. (I have hyperacusis without Meniere’s disease.)
test
Runyon Canyon has permit parking now??? Is this on the apartment building street as well? (Fuller) Or just the rich people single family houses street?
And Runyon Canyon has valet parking now???
I was there from 1993 to 2011 and neither was the case all those years.
Also that Fuller Ave gate is where the final shootout in ‘Breathless’ (Richard Gere version) takes place. It’s amazing how it has changed since the movie was shot in 1983. Especially up in the park itself.
This is, sadly, another case of a few bad apples causing trouble for the people who legitimately need the accommodation. It could probably be solved by asking the person parking the question “Is the placard assigned to you or anyone currently in your vehicle?” If the answer is not “Yes”, book 'em, Danno.
I’m picking up my disabled family member?
LOL @ people getting in a car and driving somewhere to go run.
(To say nothing of then expecting to be offered sufficient space to store their car while they do so.)
Hmmm… TimeS? I don’t think I have seen the police in a parking lot more than 2 or 3 times in my 47 years. Let alone often enough that they are watching cars for handicapped plates, stopping them and directing them to unused handicapped spaces. I mean the whole point of handicapped spaces is that they go unused until an actual handicapped person needs one.
I won’t out right call bs on your friend, but that story just doesn’t pass the sniff test for me.
I remember a BBC programme that did a gotcha on people parking in disabled spots (at a gym, I think), and that was what one guy said.
So they sat there by his car and waited for him to come out with this disabled family member. Some time later he came back down and admitted he’d made that up.
I suspect that Diana Moon Glampers has some ideas about how the police could efficiently ensure that only handicapped people are using placards to park in handicapped spaces…
