Area residents disgusted with parking cheats
The Post and Courier
For many people, their patience with handicap-placard cheaters has all but expired.
What Watchdog discovered
Many motorists use handicap placards as a perk to park for free at meters and garages in downtown Charleston, especially around the medical complex and City Market.
Government agencies lose hundreds of thousands of dollars a year because of parking cheaters and the free-parking perk.
The state Department of Motor Vehicles' lax record-keeping makes it difficult to identify parking cheaters and doctors who give out placards for inappropriate reasons.
People across the Lowcountry are fed up with parking cheaters and frustrated with the state's failure to stop these lawbreakers.
After a Post and Courier Watchdog investigation revealed widespread abuse of handicap placards, dozens of disabled residents reported how the abuse complicates their lives.
The newspaper also heard from disabled veterans, former parking-enforcement officers and transplants who wonder why South Carolina doesn't look at how other states have addressed the problem.
Ruth Jones, who is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair, even teamed with others at the Disabilities Resource Center on Dorchester Road and formed a citizen posse. They set out across the Lowcountry with cameras and notepads to document misuse of placards.
"Somebody has to do it," she said.
The city is considering a new crackdown on parking cheaters, said Janet Schumacher, an expert on disabilities issues for the city of Charleston.
But Schumacher, who has a form of muscular dystrophy, said the state also could do more to tighten rules for issuing placards and provide police with more information about placard users.
For more than a year, state lawmakers have been debating a bill that would do just that — but the legislation is stalled in a House committee.
Don Hurley, a family medicine physician in West Ashley, had a novel idea on how to crack down on lawbreakers: Target people who drive with placards hanging from their rearview mirrors.
Placard expiration dates are supposed to match a user's birth date. During license checks, police could verify whether they match.
The hang tags are a visual impairment and people have been in car accidents because the tags created a blind spot, Hurley said.
Some readers asked why people with disabilities are allowed to park for free in metered spaces and parking garages. Some activists for the disabled say this free-parking perk isn't necessary — that having a handicap doesn't necessarily mean you're poor.
The perk costs government agencies hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Last year, the Charleston International Airport waived nearly $200,000 in parking fees to people with placards and tags. It's questionable whether some of these people really needed free parking. A Post and Courier survey at the airport found expensive late-model cars in many spaces for the disabled.
Readers said people use placards to beat the system in all sorts of ways.
State law says that if handicapped drivers pull into full-service gasoline stations, attendants are supposed to pump gas for them at self-service prices, said Jean Michael, who owns a station West of the Ashley. "We do this with pleasure for the truly handicapped."
But he said he's seen people who are "fully capable of standing beside a pump and turning it on." How does he know they're capable? "We have observed the same people walk into the store for other purchases."
Some people with disabilities said they work hard to maintain independence — only to see perfectly fit people park in handicap spots and dash in and out of stores.
A 70-year-old woman in an apartment complex on Daniel Island told Watchdog that she can't go anywhere without an oxygen tank.
"There are two handicap spaces outside my apartment. If I go anywhere with my car, most of the times I return to no handicap parking space available."
One frequent abuser is a woman in her mid-20s. "When I asked her why she had a handicap card on her windshield, she said it was her uncle's and that he gave it to her. I asked if he lived here, she replied no, but it didn't matter. 'First come, first serve' was her reply."
Some were particularly frustrated by the cheaters who park all day for free at metered spots around the downtown hospital complex. If those spots turned over more frequently, people with legitimate disabilities would have an easier time finding spaces close to their appointments, they said.
Partly because parking cheaters hog these metered spaces, Mark Mathias, who has muscular dystrophy, says he leaves an hour early for his appointments at MUSC to make sure he's not late.
Mathias says he's asked state legislators why they don't make the Department of Motor Vehicles put photos on the placards. "I got no response, other than I will check into it for you."
Others asked why the Department of Motor Vehicles isn't doing more to stop parking cheaters.
Officials with DMV this week didn't respond to telephone and e-mail requests for answers to questions posed by readers.
Reach Tony Bartelme at tbartelme@postandcourier.com or 937-5554 and Ron Menchaca at rmenchaca@postandcourier.com or 937-5724.
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Comments
SomeTruthPlease (anonymous) says...
I think that the young woman, in her 20s, who told the truly disabled woman with MD that the placard was her Uncle's, and the spot is "first come, first served", should have her knees pummelled with a ballbat, so she truly needs the parking spaces she so desires. I would like to volunteer my services.
May 22, 2008 at 6:58 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Slick50 (anonymous) says...
Officials with DMV this week didn't respond to telephone and e-mail requests for answers to questions posed by readers.
Big surprise there, eh?
Do they ever answer the phone?
May 22, 2008 at 7:14 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hadenough (anonymous) says...
IM with Harpo on this one, Its hard to believe that the Police will actually enforce this law when there a bunch more that they routinely ignore. In addition to the P&Cs story on this issue, how about a story on the large numbers of folks that live here but continue to register their vehicles in other states beside SC. Take a good look the next time you go out and notice all of the OH, NJ, NC, and FL plates driving around and start to imajine the property tax lost .
May 22, 2008 at 7:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Paul (anonymous) says...
Give specially trained citizens the right to ticket these offenders. Florida has something like the Grey Patrol. Let qualified citizens use their camera phones, take the appropriate picture and follow that up with an official citation.
May 22, 2008 at 7:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
blueyes (anonymous) says...
Now as someone who works at MUSC I can honestly tell you that I see it on a daily basis, HOSPITAL WORKERS, more specifically the luncheon people using those placecards hanging from their mirrors and there is not a dang thing wrong with the person. They take up about 3 streets alone. It's insane. Then what ticks me off even more is when I park in the garage and I see the same thing happen except these are NURSES!
May 22, 2008 at 8:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Clemsurf (anonymous) says...
Do you know how many people illegally park in handicapped spots? Do you know how many people have the truck "P" tags that illegally park? If the police were to ticket all of those people, they'd have to do alot more paperwork. Who wants to do more work? Instead of having 3 cop cars in a parking lot lined up so they can all talk, or like the article a few months ago where they were all watching dvd's, go ticket these people are patrol crime areas. Instead you're wasting the taxpayer's dollars by wasting gas sitting in the A/C in a parking lot and not solving crimes. They could also come set up some speed traps in my neighborhood. Speed limit is 25 but people consistently fly down my street.
May 22, 2008 at 8:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Clemsurf (anonymous) says...
Also, what about the people who park in two spots because they don't want someone to door ding their car? Ticket those people as well.
May 22, 2008 at 8:52 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Larz13 (anonymous) says...
Make them pay. That will gave the police $$ to go after the cheats.
Fix the data problems and then mine it to find inconsistencies. In there is one particular doctor issuing the placards, go after them too.
May 22, 2008 at 9:13 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
512c (anonymous) says...
*worlds smallest violin*
May 22, 2008 at 9:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
abc123 (anonymous) says...
People here are lazy. There's always cars parked in fire lanes...Wouldn't want to have to walk an extra 20 feet!
May 22, 2008 at 10:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
theronce (anonymous) says...
Calls for more laws, private citizen patrols, electronic scanners...over a few parking spaces... I don't quite know what to make of all of this except that I don't like it for some reason... I am thankful for my birth year, because I did get to live in a freer and more self-reliant time. I can only imagine the all-powerfull society and ineffective but intrusive government of an American born this year when they hit my age. Yes, let's have some more laws and just flat out beat down everyone who does not think, act, and live just like we do.
May 22, 2008 at 12:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Just_Me_2 (anonymous) says...
I have a handicap placard for my daughter. It's not that easy to just drop the disabled person off and roam around the parking lot until I can find a parking space. My daughter has every right to have that disabled placard, and I will continue using it when she is with me. I have never parked in a handicap spot if I didn't have her with me. And actually, a lot of times I see a lot of OLD people with placards that might need the spot more, and I drive by, and we just park somewhere else. But she has just as much right to that spot as they do.
I have actually had a few people confront me about why I was parking there. I had pulled in, and had JUST got out. My daughter wasn't even out of the vehicle yet. I put them in their place REAL FAST. I drug my daughter over to them, introduced them to her and said SHE is why we are parking here, thank you! I put up with comments and people looking a few times. Then I decided to be just as rude as them, and go ahead and answer their question for them, before they could ask!
May 22, 2008 at 12:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
outrage (anonymous) says...
Harpo - I have enforced all the laws you have mentioned. The noise ordinance is $440.00, and I have written dozens of those! Including a least 8 H-placards confiscated.
Have you never seen a cruiser on a traffic stop? When you did, did you know the violation involved?
Just because you witnessed a violation, doesn't mean an officer witnessed it. Most people drive really well when they see a cruiser, yet I have witnessed some incredibly bad driving while in my cruiser. Those people were cited, trust me.
When we do drive unmarked vehicles, there is a public outcry of entrapment, so we are d***** if we do and d***** if we don't.
I guess you didn't mean me when you were blogging earlier. I do concur, there are lazy cops, but the majority are not!
May 22, 2008 at 1:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
AHLeland (anonymous) says...
This issue burns me up too. My 28-year-old sister has a disablity that serverely limits her mobility and has every right to a handicap placard but she hates to use it because, other than what appears to be a swagger to her walk, she looks perfectly fine. I once towed a car out of my reserved parking space downtown that had a handicap placard because I knew he just used it for parking spaces (and in this case thinking I wouldn't tow a car with one.)
I agree with outrage. People complain about the lack of enforcement with all sorts of violations but it is often very difficult to catch someone in the act. I see some of the worst driving on the planet on my daily commute from McClellanville to downtown and back but never when a cop is near. Now that this issue is getting so much publicity, the offenders are going to start being more careful.
May 22, 2008 at 2:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Just_Me_2 (anonymous) says...
seriouslyb4real----so you are one of the ones that abuses the placards? You are one of those that use the placard that belongs to your mother, father, uncle, grandmother? Just asking, since you say WE citizens. Cause I am NOT included in that WE. I only use my DAUGHTER'S placard when she is with me!
May 22, 2008 at 2:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Tammie (anonymous) says...
scnative, not all of the "minorities" do this because I have seen quite a few "non-minorities" do this as well, and I am an MUSC employee. So please quit with the generalizations, you honestly make yourself sound like a racist. Kthanksbye.
May 22, 2008 at 4:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
luvmydogs59 (anonymous) says...
Posted this in the other thread and it applies here as well:
I have a placard because of severe arthritis in my knees that affects my walking and because of back problems that also impair my walking. I've had back and knee surgery, but it isn't a cure-all. There are some days where I can walk better than others and if I know it will be a very short time that I have to walk (in a store or wherever),those days I try to be considerate and park in a normal spot. At Wal-Mart I usually try to park in a handicapped spot because when I go there, it's usually going to take me a long time to do what I have to do in the store and it involves a lot of walking. By the time I get done, I can barely stand up, even holding onto the shopping cart. I'm in pain just from standing too long as well. The line at the pharmacy is killer for me. For a store the size of Wal-Mart and the fact that it's always crowded, there are precious few handicapped spaces, no matter which one you go to, so that leaves many of us that have to park further away which only serves to aggravate the physical problems.
I'll sometimes get looks from people when I'm unloading my purchases into my car because sometimes I have to get heavier items. People aren't going to realize the pain I'm in when I have to lift something like a 12 pack of soda, or a bottle of detergent. I don't have anyone to help me, I have to do it myself.
There are also those handicaps that aren't visible. I have a friend with severe asthma, and when she has to walk too far, it will set off an attack. So just because you see someone get out of a car in a handicapped spot that doesn't have obvious physical disabilites, don't rush to judge what you can't possibly know.
I have parked in the garages downtown and at the airport and have never asked for, nor been offered, free parking. I didn't even know that you could park for free with a placard. Even though I know now, I'm still not going to ask for it. For the somewhat short times that I park there, the cost is not very much, so I see no point in exploiting it.
I have my placard, legally, for a reason, and I will use it in the manner intended.
May 22, 2008 at 6:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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