Why are there so many disabled parking spaces in Cork?

Owen

I'm all for disabled access to the city, and buildings, and recently helped to make one building in the city accessable before anyone says I'm against helping out those less physically able, but I'm genuinely interested in why we have so many disabled parking spaces in the city.

From observation only, most seem to be permenantly disused. I go to the Polish shop on Tuckey street for groceries every other day, and there's 4 spaces there, which are never occupied during the day, and at night, I've only ever seen one used. There's plenty of other examples throughout the city, so I'm just curious when did the city take this decision, and what was the thought - or lack thereof - behind it?

rebel.ranter

Hi, I was only thinking the same thing on Firday when I was spinin around looking for a spot!
I remember a few years back there were no spaces now it seems that every "good" spot is a disabled space, normally in clusters of 4 as you have mentioned. It's a bit like taxi derregulation famine to feast, going form not enough to a flood of spaces.
At the moment the city traders are crying out for ways to stimulate business in the city, the parking situation being one of the issues. However I think they might be afraid to raise this due to it becoming a political football. It might be seen as being discriminatory. The fact of the matter is lots of people now avoid going into town due to the difficulty with parking. You are right to mention that it would be rare that all 4 spaces in a disabled cluster are ever in use at the same time.
One suggested alternative is the Park & Ride. The Park & Ride facilities are handy if you don't plan on buying anything big or heavy. But it also costs more than parking costs if you are only popping in for the hour, it also takes up much more of the shoppers time. Both make it less attractive in reality.
The loss of the handy Grand Parade parking also took a chunk of desirable spaces & I am sure many on here that can identify similar losses of parking spaces.
The fact of the matter is that until a decent public transport system take people in & out of town people will need/want to drive in.

If they reduced it to clusters of 3 it would make a big difference, it could create 40-50 additional spaces for general use.

Owen

I actually bought a moped for the small trips in to town that don't require lugging anything large back, but I remember only a few years ago being able to park on oliver plunkett street was a boon - people still don't realise it's pedestrianised - go into town any saturday, the footpaths are wedged, and the road is empty.

tailgunner

PaintDoctor wrote: »

I go to the Polish shop on Tuckey street for groceries every other day, and there's 4 spaces there, which are never occupied during the day, and at night, I've only ever seen one used.

I've been wondering about this recently too. There are maybe 12-15 spaces along Tuckey St, and four of them are disabled spaces. Seems pretty odd.

Bill-e

My brother got a ticket for parking in one of them spots on tuckey st street a few months back while grabbing some brochures from usit. He was only about a foot into the space like.

Owen

tailgunner wrote: »

I've been wondering about this recently too. There are maybe 12-15 spaces along Tuckey St, and four of them are disabled spaces. Seems pretty odd.

There's a reason for the four on Tuckey Street, you've 4 buildings frequented by older people there, the Charity Building (Is it Vincent de Paul?, can never remember), the Catholic Bookshop, the Library around the corner, and the Masonic Hall. Can't for the life of me figure out why they need 4 spaces though ... there's never more than 1 used. They should have observed the usage first, and taken it from there.

Still doesn't explain the rest of the city ...

tailgunner

PaintDoctor wrote: »

There's a reason for the four on Tuckey Street, you've 4 buildings frequented by older people there, the Charity Building (Is it Vincent de Paul?, can never remember), the Catholic Bookshop, the Library around the corner, and the Masonic Hall. Can't for the life of me figure out why they need 4 spaces though ... there's never more than 1 used. They should have observed the usage first, and taken it from there.

Still doesn't explain the rest of the city ...

Ah, fair enough. Must admit I don't pay much attention to the buildings on that side of the street!

soundsham

so tuckey st is that the street about 50yds from the multistorey on grand parade,is the parking still at the back of grand parade and all along the south main street gone too,spend a € or 2 and you'll have little problem with all the multistorey's around the city, can't see the problem really,more often than not you see people parked where the shouldn't be,on double yellow's,double parked,in loading bays, blocking clearways,and disabled spaces........if it was me i'd propose a minimum €150 fine for all of these.

People wrongly parked in spaces where the should not be is the height of ignorance imo.

MunsterCycling

Recently the city did a survey of those with disabled parking cards on display telling them their car details had been noted and will be double checked with the card issuers (there are two IIRC) , this was done as their is flagrant abuse of the card system especially in the South Mall area where several large cars (need not say more) are to be seen parked everyday in disabled spaces by those working in the area even though they arrive before the street is full and could park in non reserved spaces, not to mention they are not disabled in even the mildest way.

I think what needs to be implemented is a system similar to the UK where when using a parking card you must display your arrival time and maybe give a disabled driver twice the parking time limit but after that the gloves are off.

MC

Bill-e

MunsterCycling wrote: »

I think what needs to be implemented is a system similar to the UK where when using a parking card you must display your arrival time and maybe give a disabled driver twice the parking time limit but after that the gloves are off.

MC

The only thing is that they need bigger spaces to get in and out of the car. So all the spaces would need to be made wider and we would have even less spaces...

Owen

soundsham wrote: »

so tuckey st is that the street about 50yds from the multistorey on grand parade,is the parking still at the back of grand parade and all along the south main street gone too,spend a € or 2 and you'll have little problem with all the multistorey's around the city .... People wrongly parked in spaces where the should not be is the height of ignorance imo.

Kinda missed the point of the thread. It wasn't meant to be an attack on people who park in spaces they shouldn't, it's supposed to be discussing the vast amount of unused disabled spaces that could be used for other purposes.

MunsterCycling

You missed my point, the spaces don't need to made bigger, just put a time limit on them to stop the abuse like is going on wholesale on the Mall, btw I am lead to believe prosecutions are pending in some of those scam card cases.

tictac2580

I'm gathering most of ye are driving round at 8a.m. on a Sunday morning...because other than that it is near impossible to get a free disabled space...I must say I wouldnt be familiar with the spaces on Tuckey street (maybe the same can be said for most people...hence why they're unused!). South Mall does be full and along beside the GPO. Compared to the amount of car parking spaces, there really isnt alot of disabled ones in that area. Its the convenience of people having them available when required. For the size of the city..there aren't enough in my opinion. :rolleyes:

taram

Tuckey Street is the headquarters for Cork Carers Association. The spaces are frequently used, but I agree there's too many there. There is a definite need for more spaces there than in a lot of the city, as it's a good location for disabled people to park in terms of accessing the main shopping streets, and for the resources available at that point.

moceri

Empty Disabled Carpark spaces are the preferred Bait for the Clampers. They have a scout out with a mobile phone who rings them when they find an unbadged car in a Space.

I've seen some very able bodied people hopping in and out of cars parked in these spaces. All were unaccompanied, All had legitimate "Disabled " badges - presumably issued to relatives.

Cork City Council would be better to target their effort at a crackdown on this abuse.

rebel.ranter

There are 3 disabled parking spaces next to Chambers Bar across from the courthouse, they are never in use when I pass that area.
However today the 4/5 disabled parking spaces by the GPO were in use so some areas warrant high numbers of allotted spaces (all had badges but I would be an expert as to their validity).

On the subject of badges & how they get issued that might be something else that needs investigating. There is a silver S Class Merc that parks in a disabled spot everyday in Blackpool Retail Park, only one occupant in it any time I see them getting in/out. He has the badge in the windscreen.The guy looks fit enough to me, he can get in/out of car with no difficulty & walk to his office door which is a good 20 yards, no walking stick or anything. Surely that is an abuse of the system?
That just makes life harder for people with genuine disabilities?

Owen

He can, AFAIK, have a disabled badge if a family member is disabled, but I think it only permits him to park in the space if he is transporting that member of family. If he's just going shopping, or to work, it's abuse of the system.

deRanged

the badge is for the person, not the vehicle. so you could use a relative's badge if you're driving them somewhere. e.g. if you're driving a relative you might park in a disabled place, leap out of the car in a sprightly fashion, collect them and drive off, perfectly legally.

rebel.ranter

I would have thought that was the case for most badges, but in this instance I have seen this particular car nearly every day of the week.
I can understand the idea of parking up individually to collect someone or even an able-bodied person returning to the car on their own after dropping a family member off somewhere.
I believe that this case is one where there is a family member taking advantage of the badge.

Spudzz

soundsham wrote: »

so tuckey st is that the street about 50yds from the multistorey on grand parade,is the parking still at the back of grand parade and all along the south main street gone too,spend a € or 2 and you'll have little problem with all the multistorey's around the city, can't see the problem really,more often than not you see people parked where the shouldn't be,on double yellow's,double parked,in loading bays, blocking clearways,and disabled spaces........if it was me i'd propose a minimum €150 fine for all of these.

People wrongly parked in spaces where the should not be is the height of ignorance imo.

And people using disability permits belonging to other people or one of there family is also happening.

Was walking along the Mardyke the other day when I came across a BMW Z sports type car with a disability permit on display parked in a D/P area,now how the hell someone with a disability can manage to get in and out of one of these cars is beyond me.
These permits are being abused wholesale,I see it every day as I drive around the city,people jumping in and out of there cars with these permits on display.