Size of disabled spaces

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,316
Location
Bristol
A new parking scheme has just come in round by us, which largely I don't mind apart from a few idiotic decisions.

There's 3 disabled spaces on our road and they have grown massively. Below there's two spaces next to each other, you can see their old size with the black lines and now their new size.

I appreciate they need a standardised size but the room for these cars is pretty ridiculous, and I would have thought they don't need to accommodate a LWB Sprinter as standard...

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On my walk back tonight I noticed they both had the common sense to park together/over the same space, but anybody without a blue badge will get a ticket anyway.

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Is this a normal size?! Just pretty annoying as with some stupid double yellows we've lost space for about 8 cars on our road.
 
I have this very same issue recently and looked into it: The length of the bay legally has to be 6.6 metres now hence they look massive.

On a side note - it is not a legally enforceable bay until a Traffic Regualtion Order (TRO) has been applied for and put in place which can take 12 months or so (unless there are objections making it take longer). Once this is in place, a disabled "plaque" will be installed at each bay to show this. Only then can you be ticketed for it. The council have to put up notices to let residents know about the TROs (just like normal planning permission)
 
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Why would anyone without a blue badge get a ticket? They're not enforced spaces to my knowledge.
 
They need to be long to accommodate a 'rear access' vehicle. These have either a ramp or motorised lift so need to have a fair amount of room to ensure easy access.
Such as:
ms2j5w.jpg
 
They need to be long to accommodate a 'rear access' vehicle. These have either a ramp or motorised lift so need to have a fair amount of room to ensure easy access.
Such as:
http://i67.tinypic.com/ms2j5w.jpg

Surely that depends on the disability, seeing as the spaces are specific to a household? Next door for example, I don't even know why they have a disabled space but I think his wife (who doesn't drive) has arthritis. She can certainly get into a car perfectly fine but I guess just not walk any long distance.

Unless there's a wheelchair involved in the disability then surely a normal sized space is fine?
 
I'd imagine that there's a 'standard' residential disabled bay that the council would need to adhere to. Anyway, who knows how far the resident's disability may progress?
*Edit* Richie mentions the size above.
 
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Surely if you can fit in a small hatchback youre not disabled enough for a badge?

What?

My grandmother has a badge and a bay outside her house. She drives a very small hatchback but cannot walk very far unassisted, hence the badge and appropriate parking space.

What a bizarre comment to make.

It also seems bizarre that every disabled space must accommodate a van with lift access - I would imagine only a very small minority of those who request such a space require this.
 
I have this exact same issue around my area, All Disabled parking bays seem to be being extended to around 7m, My neighbour is one of these and she does indeed now have a rear access lift van, Although for some strange reason the dropped kerb is in the middle of the space meaning the van has to be moved into the road for her to go down the dropped kerb and then be put in the back, She did use to have a side access van previously, As she cannot drive she probably uses this Van 3 times a year, Residents are not that happy about it as parking around here is pretty bad and this space extensions mean less space for other residents, Lucky in a way that her space does not encroach onto the road directly in-front of the houses either side like the ones in the OP.
 
Give over. Op was simply asking for justification for the size of the spaces, not compensation or anything.

I wasn't necessarily referring to the OP's first post. But comments like those below, are bizarre.


Surely that depends on the disability, seeing as the spaces are specific to a household? Next door for example, I don't even know why they have a disabled space but I think his wife (who doesn't drive) has arthritis. She can certainly get into a car perfectly fine but I guess just not walk any long distance.

Unless there's a wheelchair involved in the disability then surely a normal sized space is fine?

So you don't even know what your neighbour has? She might have MS or something which gets worse over time.

Surely if you can fit in a small hatchback youre not disabled enough for a badge?

I have no words...

My neighbour is one of these and she does indeed now have a rear access lift van....She did use to have a side access van previously, As she cannot drive she probably uses this Van 3 times a year, Residents are not that happy about it as parking around here is pretty bad and this space extensions mean less space for other residents

Again, this '3 times a year' figure seems plucked from thin air? Unless you work from home all day and happen to be near the window, I have no idea how you could know this?
 
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