This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

Sorry, my stories come with long, detailed intros. The "How much would you pay" thread reminded me of this incident:

When I was 16 I had a job as an ice cream truck driver during the summers. I did this two years in a row, so by the second summer I knew enough to know that a certain park on July 4th would have a ridiculously massive throng of potential customers arriving to watch the display. Planning ahead for this event, I arrived at the park many hours in advance. I found the ideal parking spot, right next to the primary sidewalk entrance into the park, such that most of the crowd would pass me and see my wares. Well, it wasn't ideal, as it was an illegal spot, so I lived in fear that some cop might make me move. It was bordering the handicapped spots, over diagonal yellow stripes indicating the area was not to be parked in. My plan was to be there the next 7 hours or so. I had even called my parents in advance, and asked them to come by later, so I would be able to take a bathroom break. IIRC, on a normal night I might make $30-50... good for a 16 year old kid in the late 80s. On this night, I would make almost $400.

At the apex of the crowdedness of the park, right before the fireworks began, a man approached me. He indicated he was driving with a handicapped person and asked me to move my vehicle. I hesitated for a second and then pointed out: "This is not a handicapped parking stall". He pushed the issue no further, instead immediately storming off while saying something like "I hope you never have to know what it's like <something something>...."

How much of a louse am I / how guilty should I have felt?

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

If its not an handicap spot, you should feel good, because you prevented a crippled man from getting a ticket.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

Does being handicapped entitle him to more of a right to park illegally than you?

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

He thought it was a handicapped spot, but it wasn't? You're in the clear. Even if you had moved he couldn't have parked there.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

The diagonal stripes are for a the wheelchair user to get in and out of their car, you wipe.

The access aisle is part of the space. Bad play.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
The diagonal stripes are for a the wheelchair user to get in and out of their car, you wipe.

The access aisle is part of the space. Bad play.

[/ QUOTE ]
The stall next to me was occupied.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

Then, I guess technically you are OK, as long as you move when those people need to leave.

Either way you are parking illegally though. It's just funny that you would tell some guy that it's not a real space, while simultaneously occupying the "non-space".

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

This was a special event. If you were not parked there, someone wlse would have parked there long before these people arrived.

Why should they get special treatment for arriving late?

You had good reason to be there, you should have no regrets.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
Then, I guess technically you are OK, as long as you move when those people need to leave.

[/ QUOTE ]
They didn't ask me to move when they got in. They were either non-handicapped and should not have been there, or they were legitimately in the spot, but like the vast majority of vehicles with handicap symbols on the plates, were not a van with a wheel chair lift.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]


Either way you are parking illegally though. It's just funny that you would tell some guy that it's not a real space, while simultaneously occupying the "non-space".

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not what he told the guy at all. He simply told him it wasn't a space he was entitled to.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

If I am understanding correctly you were parked illegally in a manner that made the handicap spot difficult to access?

Sounds somewhat dickish but also pretty typical 16 year old stuff. I wouldn't worry about it all.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
If I am understanding correctly you were parked illegally in a manner that made the handicap spot difficult to access?

Sounds somewhat dickish but also pretty typical 16 year old stuff. I wouldn't worry about it all.

[/ QUOTE ]

Regardless if he moved the only spot the handicapped guy could have parked in would have been illegal. It's better if OP stays in the illegal spot so that he can move temporarily if he needs to allow the real handicapped spot easy access, than another person who is going to park his car and walk away, leaving the handicapped stall only half-useful.

Freakin

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
If I am understanding correctly you were parked illegally in a manner that made the handicap spot difficult to access?

Sounds somewhat dickish but also pretty typical 16 year old stuff. I wouldn't worry about it all.

[/ QUOTE ]

He said the HC spot next to him was already taken.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

To be clear, it was packed, so every spot was taken. If there were other places feasible to park within, even illegally, I'm sure those were taken as well.

I wasn't blocking access to anything, other than 1) the hypotetical van-chair-lift issue, and 2) the abilty to park exactly where I was parked.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If I am understanding correctly you were parked illegally in a manner that made the handicap spot difficult to access?

Sounds somewhat dickish but also pretty typical 16 year old stuff. I wouldn't worry about it all.

[/ QUOTE ]

He said the HC spot next to him was already taken.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right but isn't the part with diagnol lines there to allow easier access for people who are in wheelchairs etc. IMO parking there is a dick move even if think you can determine it won't inconvience anyone.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


Either way you are parking illegally though. It's just funny that you would tell some guy that it's not a real space, while simultaneously occupying the "non-space".

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not what he told the guy at all. He simply told him it wasn't a space he was entitled to.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, yet neither was he...and yet he's telling somebody that it's not a space. haha.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


Either way you are parking illegally though. It's just funny that you would tell some guy that it's not a real space, while simultaneously occupying the "non-space".

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not what he told the guy at all. He simply told him it wasn't a space he was entitled to.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, yet neither was he...and yet he's telling somebody that it's not a space. haha.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, be he is conducting a business. I see Ice cream trucks parked all day in No Parking/No Standing Zones all the time. The couple of $60 tickets they might get is well worth the money they will rake in with an excellent location.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

As long as he stays with the vehicle he's not really "parked" anyway.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
As long as he stays with the vehicle he's not really "parked" anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess if he's in the drivers seat its considered "Standing", but if he's in the back selling ice cream, isn't it parked?

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


Either way you are parking illegally though. It's just funny that you would tell some guy that it's not a real space, while simultaneously occupying the "non-space".

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not what he told the guy at all. He simply told him it wasn't a space he was entitled to.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, yet neither was he...and yet he's telling somebody that it's not a space. haha.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, be he is conducting a business. I see Ice cream trucks parked all day in No Parking/No Standing Zones all the time. The couple of $60 tickets they might get is well worth the money they will rake in with an excellent location.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not the point...the point is he has no more business parking there than anyone else, and yet he acted like an authority and told the guy that "it's not a space". If it was no a space, a car could not occupy it.

It's just as much a space for the other guy as it was for him. It's just funny that's all.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

If the car is running and he's dealin' from his window, then no, he's just idling.

Re: This is not a handicapped parking spot
 

[ QUOTE ]
tell some guy that it's not a real space

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
told the guy that "it's not a space"

[/ QUOTE ]
Is there some reason you keep mis-representing what I actually said?