Today I ask you to do something. Actually, NOT to do something. Or let your family or friends do it without your saying something.
Full disclosure: I have a disability that keeps me from walking more than a few steps, and I use a handicap scooter, which I carry in my van, to free up my life for such “fun” (?) things as appointments and grocery shopping, and for getting together with friends. I need space to open my van’s driver’s door or passenger door when someone else is driving. Also, I have friends who use ramps to get them and their wheelchairs into and out of the side of their vans. Those handicap parking spaces are what allow us to be independent and not house-bound.
I thank all of you who don’t park in the handicap spaces, even for a “quick run” into the pharmacy (“quick,” which is usually not really, doesn’t help when the spot is taken at the time we’re searching for one).
We need people to go a step farther and not park in the cross-hatch section next to handicap spaces. Even a motorcycle, which doesn’t take up much space in that cross-hatch section, prevents a van’s ramp from being used. You might park there and leave some some space between your car and the one in (or soon to fill) the handicap spot, but that still means my not being able to open my door all the way, so I can’t manipulate my body either in or out of my van. Or it means that there isn’t enough room to put out a side ramp and get a person in a wheelchair down it and off the end. Many times we pull into a spot we then realize we can’t use because of someone in the cross-hatch, and have to pull out, search for another, and, not finding one, go home instead of shopping, meeting an appointment, or socializing with friends.
But there are so many of those spots, people complain. Could be because there are over 36 million American adults with functioning disabilities. All are drivers and/or passengers who are affected by the problem.
That’s my request, and the reasons why I’m asking. Some people just don’t understand why.
Please, pass it on.