Handicapped parking rules not enforced

Pay no attention to the talk you may have heard about new state and local efforts to rein in the abuse of handicapped-parking placards.

It's still just talk. There has been no action to beef up puny enforcement or to strengthen a weak, widely flouted law.

So it's easy for shameless, able-bodied freeloaders to masquerade as disabled persons - and illegally hog the prime parking spots on downtown Raleigh streets.

The legislature took a modest step last year by directing the state Division of Motor Vehicles to redesign the handicapped-parking placards that drivers hang from their mirrors.

A law that took effect Jan. 1 requires the DMV to make the placard expiration date visible to anyone within 20 feet of the car.

In theory, the change will make it easier to enforce the law.

In fact, the DMV has not implemented the new law.

Last week, a few days after the improved placards were supposed to be in circulation, the DMV invited contractors to bid for the job of redesigning and manufacturing them. With luck, the DMV says, the new placards will come out sometime this spring - several months late.

"It takes time to get new placards made," said Marge Howell, a DMV spokeswoman. "The law passed in August, and we are trying to hurry along as quickly as we can."

This may not matter, anyway - because Raleigh police officers do not enforce the handicapped-parking law.

They don't ticket drivers who park with expired placards, and they don't ticket drivers who illegally use placards issued to someone else who is not riding in the car.

Handicapped-parking abuse could become a bigger issue in few weeks, when Raleigh starts charging on a few dozen downtown blocks where on-street parking now is free. Parking meters that take coins, paper bills and credit cards are to be installed by Jan. 25.

Raleigh and most other North Carolina cities let drivers with handicapped-parking privileges ignore parking meters. Not only can they park all day, they can park for free.

The new meters will add incentives for an able-bodied driver to cheat with a placard issued to a disabled person.

The Downtown Raleigh Alliance, a business booster group, expressed mild concern about this last month.

The meters are intended to stimulate turnover in curbside parking spots, making it easier for everybody to find parking. But that won't happen, the group told the City Council, if spaces are gobbled up by drivers with handicapped-parking placards - legitimate or not.

So, in keeping with the mild tone of last year's state legislation, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance made two modest recommendations: The city should start enforcing the handicapped-parking law, and city leaders should work with legislators "to possibly alter state law affecting curbside parking."

If our legislators want to reserve handicapped privileges for people who actually need them, they could look at efforts in other states. Virginia prints the handicapped person's name on the placard, and Massachusetts adds a photo. In Michigan, if you let somebody else use your placard, the state takes it away and adds a $500 fine.

Meanwhile, our DMV doesn't tell drivers how to use the placards - or how not to.

Nine months ago, Howell told the Road Worrier that the DMV would carry out recommendations from Lynn Johnson, a handicapped driver from Smithfield, to distribute informational brochures when it issues the placards.

It hasn't happened yet.

"There has been some discussion on the brochures, but nothing definitive yet," Howell said Monday. "And there is an issue of identifying funding for them."