Handicapped Parking Zones

When is it okay to park in a handicapped parking zone, if you don’t have a handicap sticker and are not handicapped?

Sometimes? When you are in a hurry? When you are making a delivery?

Never! (Unless you have a handicapped sticker AND are handicapped)

This morning the driver of a pick-up truck was backed up between the first two handicapped parking spaces at the Woodstock Public Library, while he delivered 10-ream boxes of copier paper.

When I mentioned this to a member of the library staff, I was told he was parked there “just for a minute” while he unloaded. It wasn’t just for a “minute” and such parking is illegal, even if just for a minute.

A few minutes later I was at the McHenry County Health Department, in the annex at the back of the property. When I came out of the building, what was parked in exactly the same manner? A vehicle with an M-license plate was parked in between the first two handicapped parking places, while the delivery man ran in and out with a light package he was delivering. There were empty Visitor parking spaces just three spaces away.

Why is it that drivers disregard the handicapped parking signs and the “$250 Fine” warning signs? Is it laziness? Ignorance? Or is a superiority complex that tells them that they can park there if they want to. I wonder how many tickets are written in Woodstock for handicapped parking violations…

If an officer or deputy sees an unattended vehicle in a handicapped parking zone, is this an automatic ticket? No excuses? Or does discretion prevail, if the driver rushes out, screaming, “I didn’t mean to do it”?