IN the lead-up to the festive season, selfish, inconsiderate and arrogant drivers are illegally using disabled parking bays spaces. In recent weeks the practice has also seen some motorists take advantage of parking bays at various malls in the area, located closest to shop entrances. In 2015, the QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA) launched a whistle blowing service where residents were encouraged to take photos of drivers illegally using the spaces before sending it to a WhatsApp number.
QASA CEO, Ari Seirlis, said while it was impossible to measure how well the service has performed, more needed to be done by various law enforcement agencies and management of shopping malls.
He added malls have a number of ways to address the abuse of disabled parking bay spaces.
“There are a number of solutions that can be applied depending on the way they manage their parking service. If they have personnel on the ground they could encourage the personnel to engage with the public who are abusing the bays. Clamping is definitely an effective solution and quite often a shopping centre that implements clamping also donates the revenue to a disability organisation. We would suggest clamping as a solution.
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“Many people with minor ailments automatically believe that this parking bay is for the convenience. It is not so. The parking bay is 3500 mm wide to accommodate a wheelchair and thus only wheelchair users should be using these parking bays. They are not to save people distance they are to allow adequate space. Most people think that they have the privilege of using the parking in order to save distance. Most people do not understand the real purpose of the wheelchair parking facility. And some people don’t care at all,” Seirlis said.
La Lucia Mall recently introduced big blue cones in an effort to deter ‘illegal’ use of parking bays reserved for the disabled and the elderly and frail.
Wayne Shelley, operations manager said the one metre tall cones were to encourage able-bodied shoppers and our tenants to respect the needs of disabled and frail shoppers.
“We have had cases where shoppers and tenants have used the bays and we’ve addressed it with them immediately. The excuse often is that they were only a few minutes which is not on in any case. We hope these larger cones, which are more visible are more of a deterrent to any able bodied person trying to use the disabled parking bay spaces,” he said.
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