Iowa Tries to Stop Abuse of Handicap Parking Permits

posted on Apr 12 by in the Advocacy, Disability Law, Disability News, Wheelchair Accessibility, Wheelchair Accessibility Laws, Wheelchair Accessible Vans category

pp

State Republican Rep Dave Tjepkes teamed up with a partner to figure out why all the handicap parking spots seem to be full on a regular basis. Their research has lead them to the discovery of nearly half-a-million handicap parking permits in use in the state which turned out to be about 10 percent of Iowa’s population.

“The numbers kind of speak for themselves,” Tjepkes said.

This high percentage of permits clearly shows that some citizens are abusing the system. Tjepkes and Democratic Rep. Jim Lykam have proposed a new bill to help bring the number of permits issued down. After five years the individual will have to renew their permit, therefore if someone dies or is no longer in need of the permit they cannot continue to use it or pass it along to others. “The joke we have is they pass them down to the future generations,” Tjepkes said.

There are approximately 460,000 permits which exist in Iowa, and of course they are all not legitimate.  Officials are concerned about the new bill due to the expenses it will cause, predicting around $100,000 just to mail out notifications.

Director of Disability Rights Iowa, Sylvia Piper, says she does have concern that the new proposal will “grandfather” in the old permits. However, the permits still need to be managed better. “We have serious violations of those spots for people who truly need to have those parking spaces available to them. It could be your mother. It could be your grandfather who is eventually going to need this,” she said.

Tjepkes knows the state can’t take back any permits already issued, but they can help the situation from getting worse by spreading awareness and possibly guilt trip people out of abusing the permits. He says, “Hopefully, their conscience will bother them to a degree that they will refrain from doing that.”

5 Comments

Iris McCoy, posted this comment on Apr 14th, 2011

WHAT BOTHERS ME IS THE FACT PEOPLE TAKE THE HANDICAP SPOTS THAT CAN GET ALONG FINE & THEY DON’T HAVE A PERMIT LIKE AT THE THEATHERS & NOONE SEEMS TO MONITOR THEM ALSO AT THE MALL MY PERMIT HAS A DATE ON IT SO MAYBE THE PERMITS SHOULD BE CHECKED TO SEE IF THEY ARE CURRENT MAYBE IT COULD BE PUT ON DRIVERS LICENSE IF SOMEONE HAS A PERMIT & IF SO THEY COULD SEE IF THEY ARE STILL NEEDED WHEN THEY GET THEIR NEW LICENSE MAYBE THEY SHOULD KEEP A RECORD OF THE PERMITS ISSUED & CHECK ON IT EVERY SO OFTEN

Richard Grunert, posted this comment on Apr 14th, 2011

$250 fine to handicap parking violators is an excellent score of revenue for any town, city and state. Possibly 60 to 80% of handicap parkers are in violation. A simple solution is to call or type in the handicap sticker number to determine if the driver is registered handicap.

Dave Ricca, posted this comment on Apr 27th, 2011

My understanding is that the Handicap Permits resulted from Federal A.D.A. Unfortunately, almost anyone who takes the effort to find a
consenting physician to sign-off on the application can get one. I see a lot of “obese people” using them which is a disgrace. Over half the U.S. population is overweight. We are rewarding people for being fat and lazy. Also, I see a lot of people who have minor leg, feet and respiratory problems using them. Most of these people need to walk. Only wheelchair people should have permits. Americans are getting fatter and lazier by the minute. Let’s not enable them anymore.

Sheila Hartzell, posted this comment on May 15th, 2011

I have a permanent Handicapped hang tag. I have had 5 hip surgeries and 5 back surgeries. I am in constant discomfort, if not almost constant pain and probably will be for the rest of my life. Some persons with handicapped permits have physical issues which are invisible to most: example would be my Mother, with heart issues. Although it is unfortunate that ‘fat’ persons get to have these permits, those persons DO become disabled after it gets to be too much. I do not know what that solution is.

The renewal issue is this: the permits should have to be renewed at the very least, each time that person renews drivers’ license or license plate. For those who do not drive, there needs to be a renewal period applied, with proof of continued disability. And there should be better enforcement, not only of renewal, but of use. That would prevent permits from being handed down to the next generation or use by non-handicapped persons, who perhaps abuse the permit when the handicapped person is not along for the ride.

Here is MY issue: Non-handicapped, non permitted people who park in Handicapped Parking just to ‘run in’ to the apartment, office, store, or whatever for 5 or 10 minutes. That is just IGNORANCE.

I like the idea of a website where I could report and / or look up the license plate number or permit number of the vehicle parked in the Handicapped spot. Another idea: a website to turn in license plate numbers of those who park in Handicapped spots with no visible permit. This would additionally need a law stating that even one incident would require a severe fine attatched to that plate number and / or the drivers’ license of that plate holder at the time of either renewal.

The State must take responsibility for the proper and valid issuance of Handicapped permits. But we all must be vigilant of abuses by those with no permits, and report them immediately. Our police numbers are low, partly because of our bad economy, and they have more pressing issues to deal with than to stop and check each car with a permit to see if it is valid. So if we see an abuse of parking with no permit, call the police now.

William King, posted this comment on Feb 15th, 2012

I ran across this site this morning and though I am from the state of Pa. my opinion is valid enough for me to leave a comment here. I smashed my heel over a year ago after falling from a ladder at work and have had 3 surgeries over the past 13 months for the same problem and I still can”t walk without a cane or crutches. Even so walking is always painful and labored. I may require another surgery in the near future and it has been concluded by my physician that I will never walk normally again.
I have had no less than 4 “temporary” handicapped permits in the last year and just recently applied for another. For some reason my doctor seems reluctant to scrip me for a permanent permit which is odd because I can”t recall how many vehicles I have seen with “permanent” handicapped permits whose drivers can walk better than I could even before my accident. I know some of these people are probably illegally using someone else”s placard but I know for a fact that many of these people are nursing a disability that has either improved or perhaps was in question in the first place. Either way, I can”t believe how corrupt and out of control this whole handicapped parking thing has become.
This absolutely angers me to no end!!!!!!

Leave a Response