Sounded Good at the Time...

The ADA took effect July 26, 1992. Along with that came The Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities. Item 4, paragraph 4.6 of these guidelines specifies Parking and Passenger Loading Zones, one result being the requirement of setting aside parking spaces for the disabled. While I can’t find fault with giving disabled drivers and passengers special consideration, I can and do find fault with having to force making these considerations down the throats of business owners.

Maybe my view of human nature is more positive. After all, any store manager worth his/her salt would most likely institute special parking without legislation such as ADA to more fully accommodate his customers. That’s good for business. The ADA requirement is just a short cut for people who want to bully their way through what should be a mutually cooperative situation. It’s also opening a whole can of worms. Harris Teeter, for example, has gone one step further in setting up spaces reserved for people with other special conditions, which my husband and I recently experienced.

As soon as we saw the sign announcing that Harris Teeter was coming soon, we kept an eye on construction progress. (I’m sure the folks at Lowe’s Foods were watching, too.) When the store finally had its grand opening, we went to check it out, picking up a few items and browsing the well-stocked shelves. However, parking was another matter. We had to pass up one empty parking space after another. Each of those spaces had a portable sign in front of it. Some read “For Expectant Mothers.” Others read “For Mothers With Children.”Hmmm… Seems like Harris Teeter is working hard to be considerate of mothers and wants them to have the best parking spots – aside from the ones already reserved for the disabled. (It isn’t happening just here, though. Friends in Arizona emailed me a photo of a sign with a stork on it. The sign says “Expectant Mom’s Parking Only,” at least, I think it does. The sign is covered in graffiti.) As we drove by the Harris Teeter signs, we wondered where the others were. Other signs, you ask? Why, yes. Consider…

The 2000 U.S. Census shows that there are currently over 6 million children in the United States today who are living in “grandparent- or other relative-maintained households.” So signs like “Fathers With Children,” “Grandparents With Children,” “Aunts and Uncles With Children,” and even “Teens With Children” would be appropriate. In fact, we saw a dad with his cute, little daughter walking toward the store – from a parking space twice as far from the store entrance as the one reserved for Mothers With Children. Guess fathers and others don’t count.Perhaps the folks at Harris Teeter can make it easier for any childcaregiver shopping in their store to get to and from the car more easily with children. But why stop there? As long as we have taken one step down this slippery slope, might as well take another. (How to enforce the various restrictions is another article altogether.)

We live in an age when just about any condition, physical or familial, could be considered in need of special parking. Certainly, being an expectant mother qualifies. But don’t forget these: “Parking for People With Tight Shoes,” “Parking for Agoraphobics,” “Parking for Peg-Legged Pirates,” “Parking for Runaway Brides,” and "Parking for Crazy Women Who Like to Camp Out in Crawford, Texas."

Soon, as the categories get expanded further, Harris Teeter will have to resort to setting up satellite parking on the other side of the street by Lowe’s Foods for the rest of us with a shuttle back to their store. Oh, darn, that parking is for “Starbucks Addicts” only. Guess we’ll have to shop at Lowe’s Foods after all.

Copyright © 2005 A.C. Cargill