Caughtya™
A "Hall of Shame" to expose cars parked illegally
in disability or mobility parking spaces.
A "Hall of Shame" to expose cars parked illegally
in disability or mobility parking spaces.
Not that long ago, I complained to a local supermarket manager that her staff did not monitor accessible parking spaces on store's parking lot. Her reaction was, unsurprisingly, less than enthusiastic. She eventually made a few valid points (discussed on another day and different blog entry), though at first she said:
"There's no point monitoring the spaces, people are not abusing them, or if they are, it doesn't happen very often."
Anectodal evidence tells us that a majority of people without disabilities (or without close ties to someone with a disability) believe that disability parking abuse doesn't happen all that often. Experience tells us otherwise. In fact, in the few years I've lived here, I have come across people parked illegally in every single disability parking space I am aware of in this city! Some spaces are favorites (supermarket, shopping mall, cinema) for parking violators. Most parking spaces see multiple offenses every day.
Yes, experience tells us that it happens, it happens everywhere, and it happens all the time. But if we say that to people, they only shrug, not really believing what we say.
And this is where this site can make a difference. By tracking parking infractions, by location, and time, we can build usable data.
Imagine if one person systematically takes photos and notes of parking infractions in one place. Let's pick conservative numbers: 1 person, 1 location. An average of 2 infractions per day (this estimate is done based on experience), 5 days per week. At the end of 6 months, this person would have tracked 250 infractions (we've even rounded down to an easy number to handle).
250 parking infractions in 6 months. That's with only one person tracking one location. If we have 10 people tracking one location each, we're looking at approximately 5,000 parking abuses per year. But we all go to several places in our travels, so we may end up tracking 2, 3 places. It's not possible to really estimate how many people will participate, how often or regularly they will participate. But one quickly realises that the numbers add up even more quickly.
We already have a handful of people who registered and have started to send us details of parking violations. Join us, help us show the world what it's really like out there!
[tags]Disability, Parking, Violation, Infraction, Data Tracking, Accessibility, Car[/tags]
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This entry was posted on Friday, July 28th, 2006 and is filed under Drive-by.
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Tags:
Accessibility, Car, Data Tracking, Disability, Infraction, Parking, Violation
Comment by: Webmaster
The taxi company was contacted and their general manager is going to look into it. He said:
"If you have any additional information on the date and time of this incident I would welcome the receipt of that so we can identify the driver concerned at the time and address the matter with them directly.
Comment by: Webmaster
I may not buy more in one go, but I guarantee you I spend as much, if not more, than the average punter does in a week.
Comment by: Dirk
By that i mean they have few issues pushing around large food carts.
@kendybay is such a genius. She figured out who @ScarlettProbz is!!! #caughtya #easyaspie
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