One of my biggest pet peeves is people parking in handicapped spots when they do not have a handicapped tag.
I understand. You have a lot of stuff to carry inside. You were just running in for a minute. You couldn’t find a spot anywhere else.
Sorry…hope you get a thousand dollar ticket and learn your lesson!
www.handicappedfraud.org gives people a forum to report handicapped parking violations and tries to draw awareness to a problem that doesn’t get the attention is deserves.
Handicappedfraud.org was launched as a community service effort to end the misuse of handicapped parking spaces and placards. The disabled have run out of places to park, as their designated handicapped parking spaces are being taken by fraudulent individuals. Our cities are being robbed of serious metered parking revenue to to this abuse as well. The police are far too valuable and busy to stake out parking lots to ticket handicapped parking violators. The abusers go largely unpunished. It’s time for our community to become the ambassadors for our cities, and report handicapped parking violators when they see it.
Along with posting the who, what, where and when of violators, the site offers a blog, handicapped resources, articles and swag. Get your own “You’ve been reported” sticky notes to leave on the windshields of offending vehicles!
As tends to happen with online communities, rants and criticisms can run a little rampant in certain sections. The site administrators try to address this problem on the homepage:
Please Report Respectfully
Please report handicapped parking violators respectfully. Remember that we can not know somebody’s personal situation. Many handicapped people are hassled over their lack of a visual disability by well meaning citizens. Posting your handicapped parking violator report will allow the DMV to do their job, and keep you out of a personal confrontation. We have received hundreds of emails from handicapped individuals applauding this effort, and want to continue to serve them and our communities in a peaceful and positive way.
But it seems like some of the community members don’t follow these guidelines. There are a lot of accusations that even though someone had a handicapped placard they “didn’t look handicapped to me.” I hate to see commentary like that because so often the disabilities are not visible. As one responder wrote on the blog:
Just because one does not look disabled does not mean one is not. I have MS, a 21 month old, and graves disease. I have a hanging, but I do not use it all the time. The days I feel good I do not use it, the days I feel like crap I use it. I am sick and tired of being told that I have no right to park in the handicaped spot. [sic]
