From Mark:
This article claims that about half of the disabled parking placards in the UK are being used fraudulently; It estimates the cost (in lost revenue) to taxpayers at £14.7million a year (approx $19.2 million). In the UK there are about 2.5 million disabled passes, in the US we have individual states with that many placards issued. Wonder what the $ value of fraudulent use in the United States would be?
There is only one solution to this problem. Disabled Parking should not be free. The handicapped need access, not charity. Since Disabled Placards give free parking, there is an underground business in their manufacture and sale. Modern copy machines can make a color duplicate quickly and easily. Doctor’s notes are easy to come by, and expired permits are simple to change. If a disabled permit saves 10 or 20 dollars a day, they have great value.
The worst part is that people with the permits take spaces from the legitimately disabled. The person who needs the extra wide space, or the space near the entrance, can’t park and can’t get to work.
I would love to see the headlines in the UK if some monster like me suggested that they charge for handicapped parking. There would be rioting in the streets.
The cost referred to in the article above relates to legitimate parking fees that are not paid because folks have fake disabled placards. It reminds me of a story I told in these pages before. I was standing on a street watching an enforcement officer putting tickets on expired meters. There were eight expired meters on this block, she wrote one ticket. When I asked her about it she told me the rest had handicapped placards. Yeah, right, seven out of eight cars in one block were driven by the disabled. I don’t think so.
JVH
2 Responses
The issue is not just free parking but being allowed to park where normally it is banned. There are plenty of locations in the UK where having a blue badge does not give any discount on parking charges
The situation in the UK is as follows; disable drivers pay to park in the majority of barrier control public car parks whether privately or Authority own /run.
However most Local Authorities here in the UK provide the majority of parking stock without barrier controls using Pay & Display and on these car parks the majority of disable badge holders do not pay to park. Readers will be interested to know that due to the economic situation some authorities are also removing free parking for disable badge holders in Pay & Display car parks and I believe many others will soon follow.
See http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2076297_disabled_parking_charges_begin_in_epsom__ewell
The real problem here that makes badges very valuable is that disable badge holders are entitled to park on “yellow no parking lines” on street for up to three hours and I belie many badge holders in order to avoid payment in car parks, frequently park on street causing serious congestion, emergency access problems and even road accidents.
The ideal and simple solution would be to let disable holders have an extra hour free in car parks on top of paid time to compensate for the extra needs associated with having to use the car and to stop the concession of parking on street yellow lines. This will really bring under control the illegal use of badges and make a major improvement to ease congestion.