First post of 2019 and I have to do a short one about a real dilemma. It has to do with disabled parking and the hard decision of confronting someone who may or may not be misusing it. Tuesday evening, I hit our community gym for the first time in about two months. Call it the post holidays attempt to avoid the New Year’s Resolution crowd, call it life being insane, whatever you want, but it felt good to get back for a short bit of sweating out the frustrations. I was heading out to my car, dodging the cars awaiting kids done with their after school programs and loading into my car when this rolled up beside me and backed into the disabled spot to my left:

What to make of this?

Yep, a really beefed up Hummer. The gentleman in the driver’s side took a while to get out, but a big dude popped out with his gym bag, didn’t give me a second glance and went in. No passenger. Now, when I pulled out I checked as best I could and he did have a disabled pass. There was no way I could get a good look at it with how high it was, but I could see it in the window.

What I couldn’t tell was if it was P/D or P pass. For those who don’t know, P/D pass means the person with a disability can be a driver or passenger. I have this kind of pass, which means Shannon can drive with me in the car and use it, but can’t use it without me in the car. A P pass means the disabled person is a passenger only and the pass can only be used with them in the car.This is important because if the pass was P only, then this person was definitely abusing the pass and the spot without question. We know he isn’t the pass holder because he was driving. It’s a bit trickier if it’s a P/D. He could still be someone abusing the spot but…he could also be someone with a hidden disability.

You see, we’ve been guilty of judging people using spots without an obvious disability and we once got gently called out on it in a Canadian Tire parking lot when a gentleman heard us and very gently mentioned how he had destroyed his ankle falling off a roof. He couldn’t walk long distances…our bad and a lesson learned not to make assumptions. While the driver of this truck COULD have a disability…and yes he was burly fit dude, easy to tell, he could still have something. The trick is…a Hummer isn’t usually the kind of vehicle one would see, especially with no modifications to it. So…the dilemma that I throw out to you all, patient readers.

Do you confront him or not? If someone else had been with me, they could have checked the pass and perhaps known quickly. If it was only a P pass, hell I’d call the parking authority immediately…but if it’s a P/D…how do you tell? Do you say something to ask politely if he should be using the spot…or do you let it slide because…let’s be honest…you just don’t know?

I let it slide…but I’m curious what others would think in the same situation.

Welcome to 2019. It’s been one crap of a winter so far…how’s it going for you?