It may not seem like a big deal when you pull into a handicapped parking space to wait for someone who is just running into the store. Those spaces are never full anyway and they are right at the front of the parking lot where you can see your friend when they come out of the store. If you could figure out a way to get one of those tags to hang from your mirror it would be great to park there in the handicapped spot all the time!
That's a pretty common way of thinking these days. I used to think that way myself until Fran came into my life. Fran the big ole van is what we call our minivan with the wheelchair ramp. The challenges of parking that I had before Fran were all about proximity to the entrance of the store. I live in Texas and the time spent walking across a hot parking lot in the summer needed to be minimized at all costs. Parking close to wherever we are going is very important to us all. Nobody wants to trek a long way either to or from the car to get into the mall or the movies. We ladies have the additional burden of worrying about how our hair and makeup might be affected the longer we spend wandering in the parking lot in the weather. What if we are planning on buying something heavy? We can't be expected to carry something heavy very to the car if it's very far.... None of that has changed for me either, but now I have the added challenge of finding a place where the ramp (and the wheelchair) will fit.
I never imagined the parking issues involved when there is a ramp to be lowered and a wheelchair to be rolled down it. The ramp is on the passenger side so I can only park in handicapped spots where the striped off section is on the passenger side. Additionally, the stripped off section has to actually be big enough to accommodate the ramp and the wheelchair.
You might imagine that the spaces are all a standard size but they are not! At most public places there are handicapped parking spots but if they are not big enough for the ramp then crazy things have to happen! In the case where there is not enough room for the ramp I have to pull into the space as far as I can and then stop and drop the ramp, roll the wheelchair down it, find a safe place to park the wheelchair with my daughter in it while I fold the ramp back up and pull all the way into the parking space. Whew! While I am performing this dangerous feat there are cars whizzing around us, sometimes honking and gesturing. It's even more exciting when my 4 year old is with us too. I always try so shrug it off not wanting my daughter to feel like she is the cause of such a scene, but it makes me very uncomfortable each time I have to do it. The ramp is a standard size, nothing out of the ordinary and the wheelchair in question is smaller than most because my daughter is only 7.
Sometimes we find a space that is large enough and we get in just fine, but when we come back out someone has parked on the striped off area and we are stuck again. I have some suggestions that might help my fellow ramp van drivers:
- Park between the lines in your space!
- Learn to back into a space if the striped off area is not where you need it to be.
- If you don't have ramp/lift don't park in the spaces with the larger striped off area.
handicap ramps for vans
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