Letter: Ignorance shows in criticism of handicapped parking spaces

When ignorance becomes a qualifying factor for granting disabled parking tags, letter writer Bill Constantine (Sun, June 21), will undoubtedly be the first recipient.

Constantine seems to believe that his weight should entitle him to disabled status and what he considers to be privileged parking, but fails to understand why spaces are set aside for the genuinely disabled.

He should realize that wheelchair users, most of whom cannot walk at all, need more room than in a regular parking space to enter and exit vehicles. People using wheelchairs must open car doors to their maximum -- while vans with ramps require even more room. If a wheelchair user parks in a regular space, as he suggests they do, they will either be unable to exit the car or, as often occurs, be unable to re-enter it when another car has parked next to theirs.

While his annoyance at fraudulent uses of parking tags is understandable, his anger appears not to be directed at parking abusers who should be ticketed, if not towed, but rather seems to be rooted selfishly in envy and his own lack of a permit.

I applaud the new volunteer ticketing program, and I thank those donating their time to implement it.

Leila Birnie

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