06 Jun Handicap Parking Laws
We all know the struggle of trying to find the perfect parking spot. During the summer months, it seems near impossible to find a good spot. The best spot is usually reserved for drivers with handicaps, and even then there are few of the spots still. It may be tempting to just park in a handicap spot for a moment while you go run inside to pick a few things up from the grocery store. However, unless you have a placard, it is best not to do that.
Parking your vehicle in the handicap zone will hurt you finically. You can end up with a hefty fine. The act of misusing a handicap placard is illegal under the California Vehicle Code. By taking a handicap spot when you’re not permitted to, you’re taking it away from someone who may really need it. While you may not want to walk through the parking lot on a hot summer day, they truly can’t. You have the ability to walk that far, they don’t.
In order to get a handicap placard you must have a doctor’s referral. It’s also important to remember that not everybody’s disability is physical. People can receive a handicap placard for poor vision, or they can be taking medication that may impair their driving ability. Not all diseases or disabilities are visible to the human eye.
The driver may not be the one who is handicapped, but the passenger might be. Drivers of the legally blind have handicap placards for their passenger’s safety. After all, it wouldn’t be wise to have a person walking too far through a parking lot. The handicap parking spots are located close to the door for a reason. They are also wider, and have areas marked off for safety reasons as well. This is why you can be ticketed for parking on the line of a handicap parking spot. These spaces exist for a reason.
California has been cracking down on handicap placard use. People have been miss using and taking advantage of the handicap placards for a while now. Not only that, people are parking in handicaps spots when they aren’t even handicapped. It’s been widely reported that 1 in 10 Californian drivers have a handicap placard. That is a lot of Californians that need that perfect spot.