Disability Parking !

Having a disability parking sticker on a cars windscreen allows the vehicle being used to transport the holder to park in specially designated zones and shelters that person from parking time limits and the need to pay parking meter fees.

Getting such a permit is at the discretion of that persons doctor.  Basically, the doctor will authorise an application if the patient uses a walking frame, crutches, has calipers - or is detrimentally affected by any condition in walking a hundred meters.

Unfortunately, the scarcity of parking has caused many able bodied drivers to park in designated zones reserved for those with a disability and the fines have been steadily increasing in all Australian states.  They now exceed five hundred dollars as a bare minamum - and recently the loss of demerit points has been added to the penalty.

All councils are required to provide designated disability parking spots kerbside in areas with restricted parking and similar requirements are imposed on public parking at hospitals, near schools, in shopping centres and in all the wider public domain.   We are now seeing increasing use of these restricted spaces by able bodied drivers because the only policing seems to take place when there is misuse on public streets.

It is now common for the disability parking places near fast food outlets to be occupied by able bodied shoppers making a quick purchase, safe in the knowledge that this seems to be immune from the orbit of both police and council rangers.   It has become so prevalent that a "shame "movement has appeared on Facebook and we are now seeing vast numbers of pictures appearing of illegals occupying parking spaces reserved for the disabled.   There are mutterings that these provide sufficient evidence for a successful prosecution.

Of course, there are offenders on both sides of this parking debate.  That disability parking sticker only applies if the named holder is being carried in the vehicle at the time that it is parked in a disability parking space.  It is not uncommon for the sticker to be permanently displayed and parked in disability zones when being used by other members of the family, and this attracts an even bigger  misuse penalty.  These stickers specifically name the holder - and he or she must be present when the parking privilege is being used.

In particular, there seems to be abuse of disability parking by sections of industry involved in making numerous deliveries.  It is noticeable that often an able bodied driver in a vehicle with a disability sticker seems to be constantly moving from one disability zone to another - and often their trade can be identified as a courier or someone moving medical specimens from doctors rooms to pathology. That form of illegality solves what is otherwise an intractable parking problem.

When this legislation came into force it contained a provision that few seem to have taken into consideration.   It specifically allowed a time extension to less than fifteen minute restrictions by allowing double the posted limit.   For instance, some postal areas have a two minute limit and some drop off or pickup areas have a ten minutes limit - both of which are doubled for disability permit holders, few of which seem aware of this provision.

If a fine and loss of demerit points fails to deter those imposing on the disabled, perhaps the seizure of the offending vehicle for a period of time will bring a change of heart.