This is about a man who is "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore." Read the story here
Our hero is handicapped and has begun accosting people who are able bodied and take handicapped spaces. Seems reasonable to me. I wonder at the fact that the enforcement people in New Zealand can't enforce handicapped parking rules on private property. Can they her in the US? We need some clarity here. If the state is going to require a certain number of handicapped spaces, it would seem that they should be able to enforce their own rules. The fact that its private property doesn't stop building inspectors or those checking for vermin in restaurants.
By the way the store manager described in this article is a wimp. "We ask them very politely…" Indeed. Maybe some backbone would get these cretins to move.
Peter Guest and Jolyon Porter call you office.
JVH
3 Responses
Yes, they can and do enforce disabled parking in private lots here in the US.
Jonathan is right – at least 50% of our HC tickets are written on private property. The federal ADA and state law, backed up by a city ordinance give us jurisdiction over handicapped parking and fire lanes on private property. And we take great pride in catching these abusers.
We’ve even got a fraudulent use fine of $500 if we catch anyone with a placard not issued to them or if someone is displaying one that has been altered or fabricated.
For those interested in catching some of these people, we use the social security death index, which tells us if someone is deceased. The only catch is they had to have received social security benefits at some point in their lives. It’s free and public. Here’s the link:
http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
The law around private property must be different in here in NZ than in the US. Local Teritorial Authorities have no mandate to enforce parking compliance around Mobility car parks. There are moves afoot to change this.
Some surveys indicate around 50% of Mobility car parks are abused by able-bodied drivers. The goodwill toward “disabled” drivers seems to be diminishing due in part to the relaxation of the rules and “disabled” drivers are seen to have no difficulty walking some distance to shops and around the mall.
Shopping malls are reluctant to enforce parking issues as it is bad for business and are generally keen on LTAs to do it for them. Having the LTA do it removes them from the process and critisism.