THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: OPINION
SOURCE: By BRUCE FRAZER
LENGTH: 82 lines
The intent of handicapped parking privileges is to give access to those whose ability to walk is impaired. Few would deny this need. Access for the disabled is at the core of the Americans with Disabilities Act. But people who walk without difficulty are using ``borrowed,'' counterfeit or fraudulently obtained handicapped plates or placards to park in spaces reserved for the disabled. Cars with handicapped plates or placards can also park at meters without paying. The abuse is rampant, growing and causing raging controversies in Virginia and most other states.
The ADA's unfunded mandate that businesses set aside spaces for handicapped parking doesn't cost the states or local jurisdictions money. Most of the cost is borne by businesses, such as shopping malls or individual proprietorships. These are places where the public sees obvious abuses, but that's not what bothers municipal tax collectors. They are justifiably rankled because the ``park free at meters'' privilege is so widely abused. Many communities agree that at least 50 percent of cars that park without paying are driven by perfectly healthy people. This costs millions of dollars each year in lost revenue.
There are four ways the abuse problem can be rectified:
1. Curb the issuance to and use of handicapped plates and placards by unauthorized people.
2. Increase penalties for using unauthorized plates or placards.
3. Make strict enforcement of handicapped parking laws a high priority.
4. Revoke, or severely curtail, handicapped-parking privileges.
Virginia is years behind most other states in solving handicapped-parking abuse. The Department of Motor Vehicles is finally tightening eligibility requirements for plates and placards, but by its own admission, it has no idea how many are in use. The DMV is strangely reluctant to recall, or even invalidate, those issued in the past.
Tragically, the state legislature's joint subcommittee currently examining the problem is poised to take the easy way out, recommending that handicapped-parking privileges be severely curtailed instead of concentrating on abuse as other states are doing. The main reason is monumental lobbying by Francis X. O'Leary, tax commissioner of Arlington. He has for years advocated abolishing the free parking privilege, and he has the ear of the subcommittee. O'Leary contends that disabled people are just as capable of generating income as those who are physically fit. Maybe.
O'Leary shows no real concern for the big impact this change would have on the tiny segment of disabled Virginians - he says less than 4 percent - and the even smaller number who are mobility limited.
O'Leary's ultimate solution is the ``Parkulator,'' a device which, somewhat like a postage meter, lets you buy parking time in advance. The driver places this device on the dashboard and meter attendants electronically debit it from outside the car. He would sweeten the pot by designating handicapped parking spaces on the streets as requested by the disabled people who need them.
A big problem for the disabled is that hospitals, doctors' offices, old-age centers and specialty shops, not to mention residences and a host of other destinations, are located on streets guarded by thickets of parking meters. It takes disabled people longer to get places, and they frequently have to make repetitive, long-duration visits to medical providers. While it is usually possible for disabled people or their care providers to feed the meter initially, it is often difficult for them to return in time to avoid a ticket. For this reason, all 50 states allow free meter parking for cars displaying handicapped plates or placards.
O'Leary's reasoning is seriously flawed. Every state and most smaller jurisdictions grant handicapped parking reciprocity, including free meter parking. If the free-handicapped-parking privilege is revoked, cheaters from other states and jurisdictions could park free, but legitimately disabled Virginians could not. Parkulators would create more problems for disabled people they would have to replenish the prepaid time at remote locations. This would be gross discrimination against people with impaired walking ability and it would give rise to class-action suits.
Julie Shaw, government-relations director of Paralyzed Veterans of America in Florida, has written sweeping legislation to curtail handicapped-parking abuse without taking privileges from the disabled. It was recently signed into law by Florida's governor.
Shaw would be delighted to testify for the joint subcommittee considering handicapped parking. The legislation she drafted is fair but firm. Should Virginians settle for anything less? MEMO: Bruce Frazer, an Arlington resident, is executive director of
Americans for Fair Handicapped Parking. His wife is wheelchair-bound
with multiple sclerosis. by CNB