What do you do if you find someone has parked in the disabled parking spot without signage or a license plate?

What is the best course of action?

This is definitely annoying! It can be tempting to do something awful to these types of inconsiderate people. But we asked around and here are some of the more practical tips we heard.

First, there’s an app for your smartphone called Parking Mobility. The non-profit behind the app is dedicated to parking accessibility. If you report a parking violation in one of their partner communities, the offending parker will likely get a parking ticket. If they’re not yet partnered with local law enforcement in your area, they’ll use the reports to inform those agencies about the need for their service.

Remember that some people actually have a placard but they may not keep it displayed all the time. It’s better to give the benefit of the doubt that they might have forgotten to put it up. Several of the people we talked to admitted to forgetting sometimes, or having more cars than placards so not having one available in their vehicle.

You could also try calling the police non-emergency number and reporting the vehicle with their license number, but you won’t know if anything came from your report unless you wait there to see. If there’s a security person at the business or parking area, they may be able to talk with the vehicle owner once he or she returns to the spot. Security guards won’t have enforcement power, but sometimes just being called out for misbehavior can prevent someone from doing the same thing again.

Disabled Parking Offenders Get a Warning Note

But if none of these options appeal to you and you definitely want to leave a note to convey your feelings, we got a few suggestions from people we surveyed – some more serious than others!

One idea was to appeal to their sense of decency, by writing about how their use of the space prevents others who actually need it for being able to. It’s hard to know if this will make a difference, since they chose to park there in the first place, but maybe hearing about the personal impact of their actions on someone else could help.

You could also go the name-calling approach, but as the saying goes, you’ll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.  (Name calling not recommended by our company!) Also remember that it’s possible the person will return to their car while you’re putting the note there, so don’t write anything you wouldn’t stand behind in person. We definitely don’t recommend getting into a confrontation with anyone, even if you’re irritated.

Finally, if you don’t mind putting a little effort or money into this, you could think about creating some fake parking tickets. There are plenty of printable versions online, or you can purchase them already printed. An easy, simple version of this is just to write your message on a piece of yellow paper. Just seeing something that looks like a ticket on their windshield should cause most people to think twice about their parking choices.

*Please remember, we are not advising you to get into any confrontations.  We are simply sharing information we have heard from amputees, our friends and valued clients at Rinella Prosthetics & Orthotics, that we have interviewed about this question.  Please be careful and do not get hurt.  Some of this has humor in it but we are not trying to advocate violence etc.

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