Saturday 7 March 2009

Blue badge parking.

A couple of months ago I was advised that I should apply for a blue badge for disabled parking. I never considered myself to fit into this category but after some persuasion from the wife I applied. A couple of weeks later my badge arrives. I’m thinking things must be worse than I think but anyway I now have the option of parking in designated disabled bays and other places unavailable to the general public. I’ve tried to use the badge responsibly. On my good days I park as normal and don’t use the badge on bad days though I’m really happy to use it. It has made a tremendous difference to my life and what I can now do. What I have become acutely aware of though is the number of people who park in disabled bays without displaying badges. I recently went to a major supermarket that has a whole line of bays that are not supervised. All the bays were full and I had to park some distance away and walk along the disabled line, I noticed three vehicles parked without badges. They were all large 4x4 or SUVs BMWs or the like. I was having a bad day so felt a little miffed at their thoughtless behaviour. I suppose owners of these vehicles have difficulty parking in the small spaces we have at supermarkets but surely they must realise the difficulty they may be causing some disabled person. I’ve since monitored parking in an adoc way but pretty much always it’s a vehicle of that ilk. I wonder how long before I take one of them to task over parking?
What is a little more difficult to get used to though is the walking stick which is now a permanent companion in my car and a very well used piece of kit. This getting old ain’t a lot of fun.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bob- his lordship smashed his knee some time ago and got a temporary badge as couldnt walk very far.He became the disabled police.Mostly seemed to be young women with small children whose legs didnt seem towork!!!Shout at them Bob I do!

Bob the Black Country Brummie said...

Do you think shouting will do it?