Handicapped License?
- Thread starter Keebler Elf
- Start date
There is an expiry date on the front of the permit. If the permit and date isn't visible from the outside, the car is eligable to be ticketed. Also, many people are not aware but if a person is found to be using the permit other than the name on the permit they are eligeable for a sizeable ticket.
You could get the permit registration # also on the front, ask the license bureau to verify its validity against their name if you know it. Tell them you suspect its a forgery, they will take it seriously because they even expect to have a police report filed in the event the permit is stolen.
It doesn't make sense to me that someone can take over a handicapped parking space for a residential complex 24-7 just because they have a permit. In effect, they get their own private parking space. What are guests supposed to use? If they're going to use the space 24-7, then they should have to give up their regular parking space...
With your additional info you provided does change the story a little, I understand that person with the handicapped permit requires a spot which has a ramped curb so it does make sense for them to be parked there. However you are correct at the very least they should give up their regular spot. It does create a problem for the complex in that they now don't have a handicapped spot available for visitors. This sounds like something you should bring to the attention of property management.
I've seen the woman and I don't think there's anything wrong with her. I think she's just lazy and fraudulantly got the permit. And I have no doubt she's in effect getting a free parking spot in additional to her normal one. And for other disabled people? Out of luck...
There was a story in the Star a while back about this. These things even allow you to park almost anywhere with impunity. Abuse central.
I think the licenses for non-permanent conditions/old people have been shortened, they used to be valid for obscene amounts of time relative to the reason they were issued in the first place. Then again, she might just be friends with her MD and will have that permit forever.
I think the licenses for non-permanent conditions/old people have been shortened, they used to be valid for obscene amounts of time relative to the reason they were issued in the first place. Then again, she might just be friends with her MD and will have that permit forever.
If you saw this guy park his motorbike in a handicapped spot, would you assume he was committing fraud?
Congratulations on getting your medical degree. I didn't even know you were in med school. You must have been at the top of your class with your abaility to diagnose people just by looking at them.
This a very separate issue. Is this an apartment or condominium complex?
My dad has a handicapped parking permit becuase of some issues with his legs. He's told me stories of people yelling at him saying "You're not really crippled where's your wheelchair", etc just becuase he seems to walk properly from the spot to the building. Just becuase someone looks OK doesn't mean they are.
My mother has arthritis in her knees and on some days it is very difficult for her to walk more than a 20 steps. Other times she is good for a walk up and down the street. She has a permit, although I have no doubt Keeler Elf would think that she is faking.
Does she take up designated parking spots on her good days, with the result that more severely handicapped people had to walk further?
Then on those days, I think she's faking too.
Give the Elf a bit of credit. It sounds like he sees this person every day and has formed an opinion based on regular observation.
I know two people, who have tags they don't actually need. One is a scum-bag, a psychic-healer, con-artist who parks down the street, and another, just a simple faker, a former 6-months on crutches, knee-surgery patient who is now perfectly able bodied but with a life-time tag, and proud to tell one and all how cool it is.
Frank Magazine used to do a regular photo series in which they outed prominent, or at least rich Toronto drivers with handicapped tags who didn't seem to need them.
There are lots of fakers out there, and lots of people abusing the ones issued to a family member, but one who is only occasionally or perhaps very rarely in the car.
I had a tag for a family member for a while. It didn't mean I could park my car with impunity at all, by the way. No parking in: no stopping zones, during prohibited times, by hydrants, loading zones or in paid parking lots. And dickhead parking enforcement types would frequently pull up behind the car, "legally" parked in a no parking zone, write the ticket, walk to the windshield, and see the tag - but leave the ticket anyway.
Too much trouble to cancel it, evidently, for these lazy pricks, necessitating frequent trips down to John Street to join the line up to have the ticket canceled.
It happened four or five times a year. I got more tickets in the two years I had that tag than all my driving years combined.
When I drove alone in the car, did I sometimes get away with parking in no parking spots, or in legal spots without paying? Of course I did.
Did I use designated handicapped spots at the mall when I was alone in the car? Of course not.
Did I get pissed off when we couldn't find a spot at the mall because they were all being used by phonys and fakers?
You bet.
I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on Terb, but I'm entitled to my opinion on whom I suspect is faking as well.
When you have owned a tag, you start to notice things about other tag owners.
One thing I like to point out to people is a class of asshole I call the "limpers."
They park by the mall doors in the wheel chair spot, get out of the car, and kind of limp-walk to the entrance. Keep watching some of them, and you'll often see the limp gradually disappear, like watching Keyser Soze walk away at the end of "The Usual Suspects."
Actually, Compromised, elderly people, seniors, like your mother, limping or not, I generally assume have some ongoing medical problem, and I don't fret about them. I'm less sympathetic to the growing number of obese people that I see tying up the limited number of designated spots, and using the handicapped elevators, and are gradually bankrupting our medicare system. Pretty soon we're going to have a 50% obesity problem like in some parts of the states, with all of them screaming disability and demanding hip and knee surgery, free parking and free motorized wheelchairs.
Well, I found out more to the story today.
The woman who I've been seeing is perfectly fine. But today I saw her taking her husband (who uses a walker) for a drive. Not sure if you can park in a disabled space if you're not the one disabled but I would imagine you can if it's your spouse.
Still, effectively she's getting two parking spaces in the complex and it means there will rarely be a space available for other tenants who might need the spot. Couldn't she just bring the car around???
Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem if she parks there from time to time. But she's using the spot like it's her personal parking space and everyone morning when I leave she's parked there and every night when I get home. Seems excessive to me and not what the space is meant for.
Oh well, what can you do...
The woman who I've been seeing is perfectly fine. But today I saw her taking her husband (who uses a walker) for a drive. Not sure if you can park in a disabled space if you're not the one disabled but I would imagine you can if it's your spouse.
Still, effectively she's getting two parking spaces in the complex and it means there will rarely be a space available for other tenants who might need the spot. Couldn't she just bring the car around???
Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem if she parks there from time to time. But she's using the spot like it's her personal parking space and everyone morning when I leave she's parked there and every night when I get home. Seems excessive to me and not what the space is meant for.
Oh well, what can you do...
Keebler Elf assuming that the law is the same in Ontario as in most other places in North America, this sounds like an issue to bring up with the managers of your appartment complex or the board of your Condo association. Certainly one solution would be to move her assigned space to the one next to the handicaped space.
In many jursidictions handicaped parking spaces on private property are not covered by the law regarding handicaped parking spaces, whether Ontario is one of these I have not bothered to research.
In many jursidictions handicaped parking spaces on private property are not covered by the law regarding handicaped parking spaces, whether Ontario is one of these I have not bothered to research.
Complain to your condo board would be a start. May not get you anywhere as they are probably already aware of the situation. But it at least has the possibility of accomplishing something.
Amazing. Without the benefit of a medical degree, you were able to observe a normally-abled person interact with her environment and conclude she did not suffer from any significant motor impairment... I wonder if we should prepare a monograph for the CMA?
Do you want to screw this broad over, or totally screw her over? I'd start with firing a warning shot, and leave a letter under her windshield
Dear tenant
We, your neighbors, are concerned that your selfish monopolization of our limited handicapped parking availability is causing hardship for current and future disabled visitors and guests of the complex.
A handicapped permit holder may use the permit in a designated accessible parking space only in a vehicle in which they are traveling.
Misuse of the permit may result in fines up to $5,000, and the ministry of transportation may cancel or refuse to issue a replacement permit if misuse is established.
We have documented misuse of this space over the last three weeks, and have video documentation of your arrivals and departures as the sole vehicle occupant.
We have been advised to contact the police, and make a complaint to the condominium association.
In consideration to other tenants, in the future, please use this parking spot in a responsible and ethical manner or we will follow up with an actionable response.
Yours sincerely
The tenants of blah blah
Condo boards can exercise some serious leverage if a tenant violates condo guidelines up to and including forcing evictions. The cops will investigate, and will likely scare her straight, but violations on private property may in fact be under a separate set of rules. I don't know, but I bet neither does she. If she blows you off, document and proceed.
I wouldn't suggest you follow her in your car someday, because that would probably be illegal, but if you just happen to see her abuse the handicapped spot at the local liquor store or something, and get her on your phone cam, the cops will probably issue a ticket.
Post a video of a "Handicapped parking scofflaw" on U-tube with her address, and disabled activists will probably come visit her vehicle some evening.
To hell with these scofflaws. The baby boomers are all pretty old now. Everybody is getting fatter. More and more people actually need these spots.
Do you want to screw this broad over, or totally screw her over? I'd start with firing a warning shot, and leave a letter under her windshield
Dear tenant
We, your neighbors, are concerned that your selfish monopolization of our limited handicapped parking availability is causing hardship for current and future disabled visitors and guests of the complex.
A handicapped permit holder may use the permit in a designated accessible parking space only in a vehicle in which they are traveling.
Misuse of the permit may result in fines up to $5,000, and the ministry of transportation may cancel or refuse to issue a replacement permit if misuse is established.
We have documented misuse of this space over the last three weeks, and have video documentation of your arrivals and departures as the sole vehicle occupant.
We have been advised to contact the police, and make a complaint to the condominium association.
In consideration to other tenants, in the future, please use this parking spot in a responsible and ethical manner or we will follow up with an actionable response.
Yours sincerely
The tenants of blah blah
Condo boards can exercise some serious leverage if a tenant violates condo guidelines up to and including forcing evictions. The cops will investigate, and will likely scare her straight, but violations on private property may in fact be under a separate set of rules. I don't know, but I bet neither does she. If she blows you off, document and proceed.
I wouldn't suggest you follow her in your car someday, because that would probably be illegal, but if you just happen to see her abuse the handicapped spot at the local liquor store or something, and get her on your phone cam, the cops will probably issue a ticket.
Post a video of a "Handicapped parking scofflaw" on U-tube with her address, and disabled activists will probably come visit her vehicle some evening.
To hell with these scofflaws. The baby boomers are all pretty old now. Everybody is getting fatter. More and more people actually need these spots.
