The persons responsible for placement and maintenance of parking spots for drivers and passengers with mobility issues should take a moment and ride in their vehicles.
In fairness to the designers and maintainers, I would likely never have noticed the problems but now that I am acting as an uber driver for folks with some restricted mobility, some of the aggravations are vividly noticeable.
Regardless of whether we are going to the hospital, grocery store, banking institution, shopping complex or sporting facility, the spots designated for vehicles equipped with placards bearing the symbol for handicapped driver or passenger come with their own handicaps and challenges.
The winter months are especially challenging, what with snow and ice buildup around buildings and on the sidewalks leading from the parking spots to the buildings.
As we visited the parking lot of the health care facility last week, I was forced to abandon a designated spot for a second one simply because the maintenance folks had left a pile of drifted snow at the edge of the sidewalk. My passenger would have had to tread ever so carefully through the chunks of hard snow and then try to find solid footing while she tried to get onto the sidewalk.
As the driver, I weighed the options: find a spot further away so the passenger would have to walk a longer distance or hope she wouldn’t slip and fall in the original spot. If she had fallen, she might have taken me down with her and there we would have been until someone called 911 or a tow truck with a hoist to help us to our feet.
At the parking lot for my passenger’s banking institution, one of the designated spots was empty so in I wheeled. My euphoria was short-lived. The car in the other spot had access to the ramp leading up to the sidewalk. Our spot had plenty of icy pavement immediately outside the passenger door and then a large amount of equally slippery hardpack to get up to the sidewalk.
Both of us managed to navigate the hazards without face planting but it took some manoeuvring to ensure we both didn’t roll into traffic. The return trip took us down the ramp and carefully around the first car to the passenger side of mine.
No wonder my passenger said she absolutely did not want me to take her for a third stop that day.
It is wonderful that such parking spots are provided for use with proper placards, but they defeat the purpose when they are at the far end of the parking lot, are not shovelled and looked after properly to prevent injury, and in some cases are too narrow to allow for safe access for someone requiring a wheelchair or walker.
And the drivers who park in those spots but do not have a recognized parking permit should be ashamed of themselves. Someone who has the proper sign and legitimately needs one of those spots deserves more consideration than that oafish and boneheaded behaviour.
Before I go, just one more question: if a business has buttons to push to allow the doors to open without physical exertion, why isn’t someone responsible for making certain sure the buttons actually work — and if they don’t, maybe it would be a helpful gesture to have someone handy to open and close the doors for folks who might need that assistance. Just wondering.
Joyce Walter can be reached at [email protected]
The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Moose Jaw Today, the Moose Jaw Express, its management, or its subsidiaries.
