My OperaHandicapped Parking Spaces
Monday, December 15, 2008 3:51:56 PM
A neighbor across the way said that her brother-in-law had stopped by from Virginia to fix something in her apartment, had parked on Ninth Street, and had gotten a $250.00 ticket for parking in a handicapped space. The editor didn't even know that it was handicapped. And he's lived here a long time, has crossed that corner many times, and because of the street-cleaning Morris Dance has parked on that side of the street many times.
Here's a look at the northeast corner of Ninth and M:
and a closer look at the sign:
He's curious what "daily" means: every day, Monday through Friday, or through Saturday? The lawyers at DCDOT probably think it's obvious.
The parking meters contain no hint that this parking place has serious restrictions
And look at the street beyond the meters: No special markings on the pavement.
DCDOT's intention seems to be four handicapped parking spaces. But the lamppost to put the sign on was misplaced (where's a good traffic engineer when you need one?) so they just hung the other sign on the lamp post anyway. Question: is this parking place
handicapped or not? Or maybe just half and the fine is $125.00? Please don't comment that by rule if so much of a car is before or after a sign, etc. There should be no need for a question.
This is a tourist town.
The point is that it's easy to miss that these spaces are "handicapped". And a miss which costs $250.00 doesn't seem fair.
That's being nice. It's stupid. For a tourist town, this signage and pavement marking is ambiguous to many. As a tourist town, you have to be clear to the tourists: What does Rehoboth Beach do? The editor does understand when he parks on the street in Northern Virgina exactly which spaces are reserved for handicapped. You can see them a mile away. Here, you have to check the signs with their little three inch wheel chairs eight feet in the air to see if your legal. If your are new to the territory and in a hurry you would have no idea you'd parked in an entrapment zone.
How a Couple of Others Do It
From Monterey, almost as politically correct and caring as Montgomery County to our north, we have:
An on-street disabled parking space may be installed in front of a residence to accommodate a disabled resident with limited mobility. The on-street space is comprised of blue curb and a disabled stencil on the pavement in parking area.
And from the California Drivers Guide (they have a sense of humor; see the picture there) we have this:
There is a consistent state-wide color scheme for marking on-street parking areas in cities and towns: the curb (or sometimes the edge of the parking slot) is ... blue indicates a parking space reserved for cars displaying an official DMV handicapped driver placard or license plates.
Update! Update!
Lisa Amore (in comments) points to this, which has:
ADA/Handicapped Accessible Meters and Spaces
The District Department of Transportation is currently designating two (2) ADA accessible parking meters for every block face that is governed by parking meter equipment. These meters are designated by a blue dome and signify that they are compliant with the following criteria.
"Accessible parking meter" and "accessible on-street parking meter" shallmean a parking meter with the following characteristics:
All operable parts, including but limited to slots for payment, no higher than 48" from the ground;
The operable parts an meter face directed at an accessible route; and
A box of ground space free of obstacles measuring at least 30" x 48" posted for forward or parallel approach to the operable parts and meter
These spaces are not reserved for handicapped only usage. They are simple marked in a manner that easily identifies them as being compliant with the ADA standards.
So maybe those signs are for "accessible" notice and are not restricted to handicapped.
How then did someone get a $250.00 ticket? Or is what we have here a failure to communicate?
Here's a look at the northeast corner of Ninth and M:
and a closer look at the sign:
He's curious what "daily" means: every day, Monday through Friday, or through Saturday? The lawyers at DCDOT probably think it's obvious.
The parking meters contain no hint that this parking place has serious restrictions
And look at the street beyond the meters: No special markings on the pavement.
DCDOT's intention seems to be four handicapped parking spaces. But the lamppost to put the sign on was misplaced (where's a good traffic engineer when you need one?) so they just hung the other sign on the lamp post anyway. Question: is this parking place
handicapped or not? Or maybe just half and the fine is $125.00? Please don't comment that by rule if so much of a car is before or after a sign, etc. There should be no need for a question.
This is a tourist town.
The point is that it's easy to miss that these spaces are "handicapped". And a miss which costs $250.00 doesn't seem fair.
That's being nice. It's stupid. For a tourist town, this signage and pavement marking is ambiguous to many. As a tourist town, you have to be clear to the tourists: What does Rehoboth Beach do? The editor does understand when he parks on the street in Northern Virgina exactly which spaces are reserved for handicapped. You can see them a mile away. Here, you have to check the signs with their little three inch wheel chairs eight feet in the air to see if your legal. If your are new to the territory and in a hurry you would have no idea you'd parked in an entrapment zone.
How a Couple of Others Do It
From Monterey, almost as politically correct and caring as Montgomery County to our north, we have:
An on-street disabled parking space may be installed in front of a residence to accommodate a disabled resident with limited mobility. The on-street space is comprised of blue curb and a disabled stencil on the pavement in parking area.
And from the California Drivers Guide (they have a sense of humor; see the picture there) we have this:
There is a consistent state-wide color scheme for marking on-street parking areas in cities and towns: the curb (or sometimes the edge of the parking slot) is ... blue indicates a parking space reserved for cars displaying an official DMV handicapped driver placard or license plates.
Update! Update!
Lisa Amore (in comments) points to this, which has:
ADA/Handicapped Accessible Meters and Spaces
The District Department of Transportation is currently designating two (2) ADA accessible parking meters for every block face that is governed by parking meter equipment. These meters are designated by a blue dome and signify that they are compliant with the following criteria.
"Accessible parking meter" and "accessible on-street parking meter" shallmean a parking meter with the following characteristics:
All operable parts, including but limited to slots for payment, no higher than 48" from the ground;
The operable parts an meter face directed at an accessible route; and
A box of ground space free of obstacles measuring at least 30" x 48" posted for forward or parallel approach to the operable parts and meter
These spaces are not reserved for handicapped only usage. They are simple marked in a manner that easily identifies them as being compliant with the ADA standards.
So maybe those signs are for "accessible" notice and are not restricted to handicapped.
How then did someone get a $250.00 ticket? Or is what we have here a failure to communicate?
