LEAF Driver Violates Wheaton's Law

I saw an illegally parked Leaf a few days ago. It was blocking access to a wheelchair van and preventing
a mother from loading her wheelchair bound son. She was mad!


You can read the story here:
EV Driver Violates Wheaton's Law

Certainly illegal but I'd never heard of "Wheaton's Law". So I dutifully clicked and read the blog and of course it's not explained there either. Ah, the wonder of internet memes.

About
Wheaton’s Law is an internet axiom which states “Don’t be a dick.” It was originally used in the context of sportsmanship in online gaming but its scope was eventually expanded to apply to life in general.
Origin
The axiom was coined by American actor and writer Richard William Wheaton III (Star Trek: TNG) during his keynote speech at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in August 2007. One of the core messages of Wheaton’s speech was the importance of sportsmanship in online gaming, which eventually became encapsulated in the phrase “Don’t be a dick.” While the actor’s PAX speech is attributed as the original iteration of the law, the colloquial phrase “Don’t be a dick” had been in widespread use prior to the event, since as early as 1999.

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http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wheatons-law" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hope she wasn't mad enough to cause that dent...

Not cool, Leaf driver.

So just back up a bit, block the parking driveway, and get done what needs to be.
Tell any that disagree to leave a note on the LEAF.

smkettner said:

So just back up a bit, block the parking driveway, and get done what needs to be.
Tell any that disagree to leave a note on the LEAF.

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+1

In this case, not the end of the world. However if the driver required the ramp, then a whole different ballgame. That's why it should never be done, but the "hysterical mother" was just being stupid. Put it in reverse, load, drive away. Or after loading, then call the parking enforcement and have the leaf ticketed/towed for illegal parking. No need to panic. Why can't people use common sense?!

I wouldn't be so harsh on the "hysterical mother." Having to care for someone who is in a wheelchair is hard work, more so if that person is also developmentally disabled as well as physically.

As someone who has to help care for an elderly parent myself, I can see losing one's cool over things that are trivial to someone else.

RonDawg said:

I wouldn't be so harsh on the "hysterical mother." Having to care for someone who is in a wheelchair is hard work, more so if that person is also developmentally disabled as well as physically.

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+1 Exactly. What if her son was young (literally or developmentally) and she had a shopping cart full of groceries, too? She'd have to "abandon" both for a minute or two to get in and move the van back, during which time any number of things could happen.

With fees, that would be good for over $1,000 in ticket costs in California...

patrick0101 said:

I saw an illegally parked Leaf a few days ago. It was blocking access to a wheelchair van and preventing
a mother from loading her wheelchair bound son. She was mad!

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TomT said:

With fees, that would be good for over $1,000 in ticket costs in California...

patrick0101 said:

I saw an illegally parked Leaf a few days ago. It was blocking access to a wheelchair van and preventing
a mother from loading her wheelchair bound son. She was mad!

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And well deserved IMHO. I have no sympathy for folks who abuse handicap access - any able bodied person who does so is clearly in need of some compassion training. This includes those who have tags but don't really need it.

mbender said:

RonDawg said:

I wouldn't be so harsh on the "hysterical mother." Having to care for someone who is in a wheelchair is hard work, more so if that person is also developmentally disabled as well as physically.

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+1 Exactly. What if her son was young (literally or developmentally) and she had a shopping cart full of groceries, too? She'd have to "abandon" both for a minute or two to get in and move the van back, during which time any number of things could happen.

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+1

I've seen a kid with no physical or obvious emotional issues cry and yell because a pie server wasn't available for use at a family gathering and someone tried to serve a piece of pie with a fork and a butter knife. He was young and his sister had died a few years earlier so you could say there were attributable factors to his distress but it seemingly came out of nowhere in the middle of a happy family occasion. That kid is now an adult and absolutely normal, you'd never know from meeting him that he was ever in such a state.

now imagine a dependent with OCD or any number of neurological/physical conditions that would make them inflexible to changes in routine. Backing the vehicle out of the parking space could be objectionable to a person like that enough to cause a major scene and the mother could know based on past events that she was facing such an upcoming crisis. She is at that point in a no win situation. Maybe if there are enough people involved you can work through it without getting someone worked up but if it was just her and her dependent she might not have a valid out that doesn't end up in an outburst.

I'm no fan of people in public places that have a child who is making a scene but if a handicap space is tossed into the mix I'm no longer thinking its just a parenting fail. I'm going to assume that she needs help and the public shouldn't be impeding her access to her vehicle.

Oregon 199FGY.
Surely someone has the access to go ahead and share the address so several of us can send them a polite written complaint?
If twenty of us do this with a copy of the photograph documenting the infraction they probably will not do something so incompetently stupid and inconsiderate and illegal again.

Crowd action by the rational and reasonable majority is what is missing in the world.
Just an MNL post and a blog does not make that happen.
Real crowd polite action could solve a lot of problems in the world from incompetent illegal parking to jihadist terrorism.

patrick0101 said:

blocking access to a wheelchair van and preventing
a mother from loading her wheelchair bound son....

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d'you mean via what appears to be a rear-loading ramp? :?

Righteous indignation only spreads so far, if people can't help themselves. If there's an idiot about, what does it mean if you allow them to take control of what you do next?

I see a curb there. Perhaps the leaf was also blocking the ramp needed to wheel the wheelchair down to the loading area. In that case backing up the van would have been no help. Maybe that's why she got hysterical.

donald said:

patrick0101 said:

blocking access to a wheelchair van and preventing
a mother from loading her wheelchair bound son....

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d'you mean via what appears to be a rear-loading ramp? :?

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That's not a rear loading ramp. Such vans with rear loading ramps have large cutouts in the rear bumper. Note the center portion of the bumper on this wheelchair accessible van has been removed to make clearance for the ramp: http://adaptivedrivingaccess.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/rear-entry.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is the type of wheelchair ramp that the white Dodge Caravan in the first post uses: http://www.nmeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/handicap-accessible-vehicle.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The majority of handicap accessible vans I see here in the US are side-loaders. What you are seeing below the rear bumper is simply a plastic flap to hide all the mechanicals under the van. Those mechanicals are the reason why the van looks like it's on stilts...it's to keep the ground clearance intact.

Folks, let's keep in mind that "hysterical" was a subjective description chosen by the blogger. Completely open to interpretation.

I wouldn't put enough stock in that to start demonizing the person who, after all, was NOT the one being a dick.

And in any case, how vital that ramp area was (or wasn't) to the woman is honestly none of our concern and not appropriate for us to judge. Much less so by someone's choice of wording. My wife is handicapped and when people take it upon themselves to judge her "real" need for a parking spot or a service animal they find me to be less than accommodating in response. Sorry, after 30 surgeries and 15 challenging years I'm not too interested in their on-the-spot "expert" medical diagnoses.

RonDawg said:

That's not a rear loading ramp.

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Got it. So that 'box' thing underneath is where the RHS lift lives when it is stowed. It's quite a neat entry into the vehicle.

We don't have that in UK, that I have seen, they are more basic side entry lifts and ramps. But we do have fully sliding and rotating rear lifts that come out of the vehicle that do not require cutting into the bumper and floor pan.

Slow1 said:

TomT said:

With fees, that would be good for over $1,000 in ticket costs in California...

patrick0101 said:

I saw an illegally parked Leaf a few days ago. It was blocking access to a wheelchair van and preventing
a mother from loading her wheelchair bound son. She was mad!

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

And well deserved IMHO. I have no sympathy for folks who abuse handicap access - any able bodied person who does so is clearly in need of some compassion training. This includes those who have tags but don't really need it.

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Agreed. One of the few things that could cause me to vandalize a car is seeing some selfish entitled asshole park in a handicapped space (no handicapped tag, no plate) and then stroll blithely away. I'd say a high % of the time they're driving a Tahoe, Yukon, Expedition etc. Having had to drive my elderly dad around after he lost his driver's license, I sure as hell appreciated how much those spaces and that tag meant for him, as the distance I can walk in 10 seconds took him 45 or more.

Of course, sometimes the people parking in these spaces have a tag (whether fraudulently obtained or left over from a prior period) and clearly don't need it, but can't be bothered to walk an extra space or two. I watched this happen too many times at a shopping mall near me that I eat at, and then had to watch some elderly or handicapped person struggle to make the walk from further away. Unfortunately, mall security essentially refuses to enforce the spots (wouldn't want to upset shoppers. Presumably the disabled aren't valued as much because they move slower, and thus can't visit as many shops in a trip :roll: ). Only once have I seen a local cop writing a ticket there, I'm not sure why they were called. I walked up to him and said "Finally! Now come back every day for a week until the jerks get the message," and he just smiled. Unfortunately, as I read the California ordinance, https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22511_8.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

since it's private property only the property owner can request a tow, or I'd be on the phone in an instant.

GRA said:

Of course, sometimes the people parking in these spaces have a tag (whether fraudulently obtained or left over from a prior period) and clearly don't need it, but can't be bothered to walk an extra space or two. I watched this happen too many times at a shopping mall near me that I eat at, and then had to watch some elderly or handicapped person struggle to make the walk from further away. Unfortunately, mall security essentially refuses to enforce the spots (wouldn't want to upset shoppers. Presumably the disabled aren't valued as much because they move slower, and thus can't visit as many shops in a trip :roll: ). Only once have I seen a local cop writing a ticket there, I'm not sure why they were called. I walked up to him and said "Finally! Now come back every day for a week until the jerks get the message," and he just smiled. Unfortunately, as I read the California ordinance, https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22511_8.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

since it's private property only the property owner can request a tow, or I'd be on the phone in an instant.

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Actually the cops can tow for a car illegally parked in a handicap zone per California Vehicle Code section 22652(a):

"A peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2 of the Penal Code, or any regularly employed and salaried employee engaged in directing traffic or enforcing parking laws and regulations of a city, county, or jurisdiction of a state agency may remove any vehicle from a stall or space designated for physically disabled persons pursuant to Section 22511.7 or 22511.8, located within the jurisdictional limits in which the officer or employee is authorized to act, if the vehicle is parked in violation of Section 22507.8 and if the police or sheriff’s department or the Department of the California Highway Patrol is notified.

(b) In a privately or publicly owned or operated offstreet parking facility, this section applies only to those stalls and spaces if the posting requirements under subdivisions (a) and (d) of Section 22511.8 have been complied with and if the stalls or spaces are clearly signed or marked."

So the officer may not tow the car if no complaint was made, and the spaces do have to meet signage requirements (a lot of them don't).

I encourage you to call the cops whenever you see someone parking in a handicap spot w/o a placard or qualifying license plate (there's a few of those around). However, you do have to be careful about judging people's "handicapped status" based upon physical appearances though. I have a friend who was a police officer who got hurt on duty and was medically forced to retire. His injury does not look obvious if he walks slowly, but he does qualify under the state's guidelines for a handicap placard. And yes he does get dirty stares on occasion because people pre-judge him.

That also happened to me. Like you, I have become my father's chauffeur after he lost his license (as per his doctor). He has a placard, though until recently he actually moved around quite well for an 86 y/o man. We went to CVS one day to fill his prescriptions after his doctor's visit. After we stood in the long line, he realized that he had left one of the scrips in the car. I left him in line so we didn't lose our place and I went back to the car to get the missing scrip. As I shut the door I noticed a woman giving me the evil stare. I knew she had pre-judged me and didn't realize that I had brought my elderly father to the pharmacy and that he was already inside. I just ignored her and walked inside and rejoined my father in line.

The Leaf driver deserves to be towed and hit with all the fees and fines. It is not reasonable to assume the van can just back out and load the handicapped person, and several valid reasons have been mentioned already. For any number of reasons it may very well be unsafe to leave the wheelchair-bound person unattended as previously described. My cousin had a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis. She was wheelchair-bound. Her fingers looked like corkscrews. She couldn't stand up even briefly. She had a specially modified van that allowed her to drive solo, but it required her to enter in her wheelchair using a mechanized lift on the passenger side. She would not have been able to get into her van if that jerk Leaf had been there, and there would have been no one else to move the van unless she took the chance of trusting some passerby with the keys to her van. Actually that wouldn't have worked since the there were no standard controls that someone without training could use. She also couldn't ride in a normal taxi and the special vans run by the transit district have to be scheduled 24 hours in advance, sothat option is out, too. I am shocked and disappointed at the callous attitude of those who castigate the "hysterical" mother (which I agree is a value-laden word and probably inaccurate - mad as hell would probably describe it better) instead of the Leaf driver. Had this happened to my cousin she almost certainly would have had to wait until the Leaf owner returned. Her motorized wheelchair moved very slowly and she would not have been able to go looking for him or her. The incident could make her late, maybe even hours late depending on how long the Leaf driver was there, and result in her being fired from her job. What the Leaf driver did is not just a minor peccadillo; it's potentially a life-altering event for someone like my cousin.

RonDawg said:

GRA said:

Of course, sometimes the people parking in these spaces have a tag (whether fraudulently obtained or left over from a prior period) and clearly don't need it, but can't be bothered to walk an extra space or two. I watched this happen too many times at a shopping mall near me that I eat at, and then had to watch some elderly or handicapped person struggle to make the walk from further away. Unfortunately, mall security essentially refuses to enforce the spots (wouldn't want to upset shoppers. Presumably the disabled aren't valued as much because they move slower, and thus can't visit as many shops in a trip :roll: ). Only once have I seen a local cop writing a ticket there, I'm not sure why they were called. I walked up to him and said "Finally! Now come back every day for a week until the jerks get the message," and he just smiled. Unfortunately, as I read the California ordinance, https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22511_8.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

since it's private property only the property owner can request a tow, or I'd be on the phone in an instant.

Click to expand...

Actually the cops can tow for a car illegally parked in a handicap zone per California Vehicle Code section 22652(a):

"A peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2 of the Penal Code, or any regularly employed and salaried employee engaged in directing traffic or enforcing parking laws and regulations of a city, county, or jurisdiction of a state agency may remove any vehicle from a stall or space designated for physically disabled persons pursuant to Section 22511.7 or 22511.8, located within the jurisdictional limits in which the officer or employee is authorized to act, if the vehicle is parked in violation of Section 22507.8 and if the police or sheriff’s department or the Department of the California Highway Patrol is notified.

(b) In a privately or publicly owned or operated offstreet parking facility, this section applies only to those stalls and spaces if the posting requirements under subdivisions (a) and (d) of Section 22511.8 have been complied with and if the stalls or spaces are clearly signed or marked."

So the officer may not tow the car if no complaint was made, and the spaces do have to meet signage requirements (a lot of them don't).

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Thanks. I don't recall seeing any signs at this location stating the fine amount, which I believe was mentioned as a marking requirement, but will now re-read the ordinance again to be sure (and I have the non-emergency police number saved on my phone).

RonDawg said:

I encourage you to call the cops whenever you see someone parking in a handicap spot w/o a placard or qualifying license plate (there's a few of those around). However, you do have to be careful about judging people's "handicapped status" based upon physical appearances though. I have a friend who was a police officer who got hurt on duty and was medically forced to retire. His injury does not look obvious if he walks slowly, but he does qualify under the state's guidelines for a handicap placard. And yes he does get dirty stares on occasion because people pre-judge him.

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I did write "Blithely strolling away". Someone who's apparently in robust good health has a pretty high bar to cross with me, but if they've got a tag I'm not going to push it, despite the number of fraudulent ones out there. The difference between someone who can walk freely and someone who has their mobility limited is pretty obvious, especially for someone like me who's been very near-sighted from about the age of 10 and who's done a lot of walking, hiking and backpacking; before I got my first pair of glasses the only way I could recognize people until they were within 5 feet of me was by their gait, so I unwittingly became something of a student of same. I can still recognize people at distances far greater than their features can be made out that way.

RonDawg said:

That also happened to me. Like you, I have become my father's chauffeur after he lost his license (as per his doctor). He has a placard, though until recently he actually moved around quite well for an 86 y/o man. We went to CVS one day to fill his prescriptions after his doctor's visit. After we stood in the long line, he realized that he had left one of the scrips in the car. I left him in line so we didn't lose our place and I went back to the car to get the missing scrip. As I shut the door I noticed a woman giving me the evil stare. I knew she had pre-judged me and didn't realize that I had brought my elderly father to the pharmacy and that he was already inside. I just ignored her and walked inside and rejoined my father in line.

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Yeah, there's the occasional awkwardness, although I don't think I ever had that happen to me. When I drove him (he lost his license at 88, and died at 90) I'd generally try to drop him off right in front of the place, find him a place to sit and then go park in a regular spot sans tag, which is how I interpreted the reg. Since my mobility was unimpaired and I was driving, I didn't think I was justified in using the spot. Only if a drop off/pickup wasn't possible did I believe that I was allowed to use a spot.