So many issues surrounding the Blue Badge!

My late parents both had Blue Badges, my father had hip/spine/bone problems all his life. He fought the problems hard all his life and at various times had to have walking sticks, crutches, wheelchair, invalid tricycle (blue 3-wheeled thing) and Motability cars.
My mother, in her last few years, found it very hard to walk and had to rely on a wheelchair.

Having spent years helping them with shopping, days out etc. I have seen many aspects of people's attitudes and reaction to disabled drivers:-

1) My father loved driving, he was never a 'Sunday driver'. Right up to the last time he drove he would always 'make progress'!

2) There were many times when people would see him use his Blue Badge to park where they couldn't. Some of the comments made when people saw him walk fairly briskly with "just a walking stick" led to many instances of him stopping me from launching at the ignorant morons who did not stop to think that he may me in extreme pain despite being dosed up on extreme pain killers!

3) Many are the times where he couldn't park in a designated disabled space due to some self-important white-van-man/taxi driver/lazy deciding that their mission gave them carte blanche to waive the rules.

4) From the other perspective, as a good, keen and courteous driver he would never use his disabled status to park his car where it would cause inconvenience to other road users (blocking access or creating obstructions) which, unfortunately, so many Blue-Badge holders seem to think is their right!

5) Also, if I was driving them anywhere, I may use the Blue Badge in the car while helping them in/out but I would always go and park in a normal space in order to leave room for those who really need it. Just because you can display the badge it doesn't always mean that you have to!

6) He also had to have regular checks in order to continue to receive his various 'benefits' when all around him (family, carers, doctors) could see the pain he had to go through day-in, day-out. Yet so many spongers were piling on the bullst to get more and more benefits when a little healthy exercise would cure all of their (physical) ailments.

So please, whether you are able-bodied, disabled, a car-lover, a car-hater or a benefits scrounger... Please think twice before you act. And put yourself in the other person's place before you generalise!

I would respectfully add that having a DISABLED road tax disc doesn't mean that the car's use will allow for the use of a Blue Badge on a specific occasion anyway... My late wife Wendy had the higher rate mobility allowance, and so I claimed the "free road tax" (sic) for the family car - perfectly legally. But there were times where I used the car without Wendy in it, such as for commuting - again, perfectly legally.

I used to park the car up on double yellows, put the Orange Badge (for it was 10 years ago now) on the dash, lock up and walk away. Oh, the abuse! As someone else posted, it's almost always the old 'uns for some reason - there are many twised old fruits out there . I only ever did this to go and pick up Wendy from wherever she was.

Walking back to the car, parked on double yellows with the Orange Badge on display, having dropped Wendy off, was usually similarly gruesome...

Wendy had "myotonic dystrophy" (google it) and appeared to be intoxicated (to be frank) in terms of unsteadiness on her feet, unclear speech and a couple of other things. Even walking down the street supporting her was fraught with insults of the "drunk at this time of day!" kind - again, usually from the old 'uns but always from those narrow of mind and wide of mouth.

Reading this thread is like travelling back in time and legitimately using her Orange Badge, all over again - grim.

The delightfully cantankerous old bugger that lived next door to us persuaded the council to designate the space outside his door as "disabled". A few weeks later he lost his license, due to his disability, and his wife didn't drive, so Motability took the car back. Despite not even owning a car he still ranted and raged whenever anyone parked in "his" space, waving his walking stick from his front door.

The biggest chuckle came when my wife, who has MS, finally completed the bureaucratic obstacle course and got her own Blue Badge, and started parking in the "disabled" space herself.

The old sod never did speak to us again, we did move the car to let the hearse park a few weeks later.

The space is still marked disabled:
http://goo.gl/maps/jtVH

Unfortunately that badge is likely to be removed from you on renewal as I don't know any criteria she would fulfill.

About 6mths ago me & the family went to small town for a bit of retail therapy and as we got there an old shogun parked in the disabled bay without a badge,Never mind i thought there are other places available and put the blue badge in the window and bought a ticket from the machine.
2 hrs later come back to see a sticker on the window stating that i had misused the blue badge as i was not in a disabled bay,The worlds gone mad i tell thee.........

Something that made me giggle recently was a low-life scrounger in the local housing association estate - had a motability car (brand new every 18 months obviously), a house that is paid for and no job. Obviously had a blue badge too and allocated parking outside his house with a fully marked DISABLED bay.

Anyway, never seen a wheelchair, limp or anything - neighbours being suspicious decided to inform the relevant people. Couple of weeks later the car went, then there were visits from people in suits and most recently the council have been around and burned the disabled bay from the road....

Ooops, seems he was a "benefits scrounger" and got busted. Still keeps the house though, but suspect there is more to it than that.

When i started this thread it was to justify why i would use the disabled bay,The ONLY reason is to make it easier for my son to get in & out of the car and that is all.
What did people do in the old days before there was lots of disabled bays?

what did people do in the old days before there were internet forums to rant on?

I know what he meant.

whoosh parrot for one!