Ok, time for me to step up on my soapbox again. I haven’t just noticed this once lately, but an alarming number of times. It’s time we call attention to able bodied people parking in handicapped spots. I’m not talking about fat people that park in handicapped spots- although I could go off on a soapbox about that as well. [You’re not handicapped, you’re fat.] No, I’m talking about people who are younger and in fine health parking in handicapped spots because they are closer. [Read: lazy]
Here are my two most recent examples. I was at a softball game, parked in a normal spot and was walking to the fields. A young woman, around my age, pulled in to the closest handicapped spot and parked there and walked in to meet up with her friends. She had no cane or limp and definitely no handicapped sticker. Now, maybe you’re thinking that no one who was handicapped was going to come to the ballpark. That’s why I have another example. Today I went to the post office to mail a few letters out. I drop them in the blue post office box and don’t usually walk in unless I have a package. I usually pull in to the closest spot- which is handicapped- drop the letters off and drive off. My car is running the entire time. I couldn’t do that today. As I dropped my letters off and was walking back to my car, a mom- maybe in her thirties, got in to her car, which was parked in the handicapped spot. Now ok, she was just running in to drop off some mail. No one really ever takes THAT long at the post office. But there are old people who need to go to the post office who wouldn’t be able to park and walk as far away as I did. (It wasn’t that far- but if you’re old you shouldn’t have to walk those extra steps across the entire parking lot.) THAT’S WHY THERE ARE HANDICAPPED SPOTS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
So, I want to know where this mentality changed. Are we in such a rush that we don’t want to walk those extra steps? Are we so lazy that we don’t want to take the extra steps? Do we feel so entitled that we feel we deserve to park in a handicapped spot?
I’m not sure what the answer is but I feel like it needs to be addressed. I’ve never seen this be such a problem before. Let me clarify that neither of these women were fat nor pregnant. I can’t say with any certainty what their reasoning was but I do know that we need to address it and knock it off. I don’t want to be that person but I do want to call people out on this and see what they have to say.
At the end of the day I feel like it is just a rude gesture if you are taking the parking spot of someone who actually needs it because of their age or a physical disability. Seriously, walk the extra 20 steps that you’re too lazy to take so that someone who can’t comfortably walk those steps doesn’t have to.
xoxo