I think that we’re missing the bigger issue here, like how WCA with his accident-rich life is permitted to drive on public roads.

And why do you need parent and child spaces at a gym any way??

Maybe the gym is at a leisure center.

Ah yes, didn’t think of that!!

Used to happen a lot at the gym I used to go to; the gym was used by a lot of Peterborough United footballers who would park their X5s, Q7s etc. in the disabled spaces to stop them being dinged.
The only time I heard someone being tannoyed to move their car from the disabled bay was for a ratty old Mazda 323. I guess the footballers had a higher ‘status’ at the gym. 🙄

I can see the point of the parent/child spaces at supermarkets etc. and having them close to the entrance probably does make it safer, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing to get kids used to walking around in busy areas to get them used to potential dangers. How ever did people manage not to have their kids maimed in car parks before these parking spaces were common place?

Completely irrational annoyance, but the amount of mums without kids you see using these spaces does wind me up.
At my local supermarket you frequently see using them:

Mum with no kids, but a child seat parking up,
Mum with kids who stay in the car, as she’s only nipping in for a minute
Mum with ‘children’ who are in their early teens.

Almost as annoying as the **** who block the road outside the entrance so they can just ‘nip’ to the cash point, but have to park directly adjacent to it in the road, the lazy morons who park at the end of a row into the road where there is no parking space, again, just so they can be close to the shop and the ‘parking in the drop off zone’ morons who again, are usually just ‘nipping in’ for some bread, milk, oh and maybe a DVD…..ooooh, just need to queue for fags and a lottery ticket…..but I’m just nipping in…..

It’s not so much the act itself, but the sense of self-importance/lack of care about those around them that does my head in.

mark90 – Member

* but still come back to find the space next to me in the half empty car park occupied. Why do people do that?

Cars are sociable animals, it’s cruel to leave them alone

Unless it’s raining then I’ll use the blue bays near the store as the parent and child spaces are alwsys full.

Er, you wot?

Especially some chavved up car because the owner is worried about his/her abomination of a car.

I drive a chavved up car (according to some on here) and avoiding door bashes is the main reason I try to get the disabled / wider spaces.

It is a private gym, not leisure centre. The car park does have nice wide paved paths though so the valid point made about safe routes for children in car parks doesn’t really apply here.

I haven’t complained about the disabled (yet) as I can normally find a space a short hobble from the entrance

WCA with his accident-rich life
Mostly bike / house related. Apart from speeding and some interesting maneuvers in cars as a teenager my driving is relatively uneventful.

And another things ( 👿 😉 ) the number of unreturned trollies by the parent & child spaces….

Er, you wot?

Sorry typo, I mean ‘always’ 😉

I drive a chavved up car (according to some on here) and avoiding door bashes is the main reason I try to get the disabled / wider spaces.

but you have a legitimate right to use the spaces.

The drivers of the ones outside halfords and the cinema etc with no blue badges I suspect do not. And for most of them a few dents on the side would match the cracked splitters and spoilers.

Sorry typo, I mean ‘always’

Abomination! 😛

Heh registered breeders

Off to the gym for a lunchtime swim.

Will there be any spaces available?

Will I be attached by a raging mob of yummy mummies?

Will Tarquin be run over as he skips across the car park?

All will be revealed later today!!!

Will I be attached by a raging mob of yummy mummies?

If you are lucky, maybe.

I park in the parent and child spaces when I’m shopping with my mum.
I’m 33.

How ever did people manage not to have their kids maimed in car parks before these parking spaces were common place?

They didn’t.

Dude – you’ve got a blue badge – park right in front of the door regardless of what the markings say.

Almost got taken out by someone in the station forecourt this morning pulling out without looking. They’d ‘just popped in to buy a ticket’ – and wanted to avoid walking a whole extra ten yards from the short term parking.

I’m doing a bit of digging around on fraud at the moment for a work-related project. Exciting, I know. However, I did find that the government publishes an Annual Fraud Indicator report – the latest I found is from 2013. There’s a section on Blue Badge fraud on page 35.

Aside from able bodied people sticking their cars in disabled bays because it’s more convenient, and they’re lazy, self-important bellends, apparently there’s also a fair amount of fraudulent misuse going on – to the tune of £46m in parking revenue. That’s a shedload. Apparently it’s up to 40-60% in some areas.

I tend not to challenge people because someone who might well look able bodied may well not be. I’d be very keen to see some more rigourous policing of this sort of thing, though, and I’m pretty sure disabled motorists like you, WCA, wouldn’t object to spot checking if it meant you could actually use the bays. I don’t know the ins-and-outs of blue badges – would it be a case of simply checking your ID against what’s on the badge?

I think we need a mememe syndrome badge, gives you the right to park anywhere you f***** like.

You should go into the gym and tell them that she isn’t allowed any pudding for a month.

I think we need a mememe syndrome badge, gives you the right to park anywhere you f***** like.

There are many. Here are some of the most common:

😉

Keeping one child under tight control is relatively easy. Two less so.
And once you have more children than you have hands then you just have to pick your favourites

Chapeau! That’s how I work anyway, varies from day to day who’s less likely to get hit with the ‘making progress’ hammer. Although I’m thinking of leaving the smallest free range, as I’ve invested less time there.

A regular poster on here parked his car in a parent an child spot and sat in the car with the children whilst mum did the shopping pre race weekend. They are sponsored by a company that sponsors other saints on here so it must be Ok 😉

I’d be very keen to see some more rigourous policing of this sort of thing, though, and I’m pretty sure disabled motorists like you, WCA, wouldn’t object to spot checking if it meant you could actually use the bays. I don’t know the ins-and-outs of blue badges – would it be a case of simply checking your ID against what’s on the badge?

I am not sure of all the details but ID on badge against personal ID seems reasonable UNTIL I say I don’t have any other ID on me. What then? [DAILY MAIL MODE] Traffic Wardens targeting poor innocent raspberry ripples!”

The badge is linked to the individual and not the car so it will be difficult until the Torys get their “ID Tattoo” bill through parliament

Oh, forgot the disappointing result from the gym visit. All the diabled bays were free and only one car parked in the yummy mummy section and even that was parked within the painted markings.

Just when you want some good fuel to reignite the thread…

🙁

I hope you smeared faeces under their door handles regardless. You can do that if it’s a condition you know.

GrahamS – Member

They didn’t.

I knew someone would pull up a ‘death graph’.

How many of those are ‘children killed or seriously injured while being supervised by their parents and walking across a supermarket car park’?

Without splitting it out, it’s meaningless in relation to my comment.
Are stats for car parks even included in that graph?

I used car parks with two young children before they’d invented special spaces for us – unsurprisingly, my kids survived, and more than likely learnt about looking out for traffic as we walked. Too much bl**dy namby-pamby-ing these days!

I knew someone would pull up a ‘death graph’.
..
Without splitting it out, it’s meaningless in relation to my comment.

Granted there are lots of reasons why pedestrian mortality has fallen so dramatically since 1979 (pedestrian crumple zones, better pedestrian facilities, roadside barriers, less people actually walking etc) so yes, it is impossible to pick out one factor.

But it does rather knock on the head this rose-tinted idea that “it never did us any harm”.

It blimmin well did!

7,794 of the pedestrians casualties in that 1979 figure were children under 16.
And over five thousand of them were children under 8.

That fall is even more dramatic if you consider that in 1979 there were only 18.6 million registered vehicles on the roads. By 2013 that had nearly doubled to 35 million.

Too much bl**dy namby-pamby-ing these days!

The 15,000 children who were not injured or killed on the roads says otherwise!

So not only are people struggling to park near the shops because of parent and child places they are also directly contributing to the world over population and global warming.

Ban them now!

The real reason for parent and child spaces, seems to be, as soon as people have kids, they buy huge Chelsea tractors which don’t fit in normal spaces.

OP, can you say why you have a blue badge?

hels – Member
I think folk who park in disabled spaces when they aren’t disabled should be knee-capped. They are almost begging for it.

Hmmm.

I never park in disabled spaces (despite being exempt from these regulations by reason of driving an Audi) except outside our local Halfords/Maplin where the ratio of disabled spaces to non-disabled is not equivalent to what I would think is the ratio of disabled people to non-disabled…

Some balance required to make it all work.

I never park in disabled spaces (despite being exempt from these regulations by reason of driving an Audi) except outside our local Halfords/Maplin where the ratio of disabled spaces to non-disabled is not equivalent to what I would think is the ratio of disabled people to non-disabled…

😆

Good point. All this drive to reduce child deaths is clearly totally misplaced and should be abandoned immediately (if not wound back).

I park in the parent and child spaces when I’m shopping with my mum.
I’m 33.

I do that occasionally. In my defence, my mum is recovering from a stroke and can’t walk very far (she’d probably qualify for a blue badge, but doesn’t drive).

OP, can you say why you have a blue badge?

Are you new here?

Cougar – you can have a blue badge even if the person doesn’t drive. My mother applied for one to be used by me when I had to take her for hospital appointments etc.

Edit: if disabled spaces were taken, and they often were, then it was parent and child obviously.

There’s a clue in the title

Well it started like this and didn’t get much better

I didn’t realise that blue badge holders were entitled to use the parent/child spaces..

That explains a lot.. it used to infuriate me when my kids were tiny