Tag: abuse of accessible parking

Dear Jusco

After the parking incident on Sunday, I sent a love note to Juso via email. They replied a while ago to apologise for the incident and asked for my contact number. I provided my phone number and am waiting for the next response from them.

Dear Sirs/Madams,

My wife and I are regular shoppers at your stores in Taman Maluri Shopping
Centre, Mid Valley Megamall, 1 Utama Shopping Centre and sometimes at
Kinta City Shopping Centre. I am a wheelchair user and I appreciate the
fact that Jusco has taken the effort to include accessible toilets for the
convenience of shoppers like me.

However, the accessible toilets at Taman Maluri and Kinta City are too
small for comfort to accomodate a wheelchair user and a personal
assistant. You should look into the dimension prescribed in the Uniform
Building By-Law 34A in Malaysian Standard MS 1184: Code of Practice on
Access for Disabled People to Public Buildings to build proper and
functional toilets that disabled people can use.

The Taman Maluri store has two parking spaces for disabled people outside
the supermarket but it is mostly occupied by cars with non-disabled
drivers or passengers. This lack of enforcement by your security personnel
has rendered this parking space useless for disabled people who want to
shop at Jusco. What is the point of allocating such spaces when everyone
ignores its purpose and parks there leaving disabled drivers like me with
no place to park and get out from our cars conveniently?

Please see below my account about an incident that happened on Sunday at
your Taman Maluri store car park:
http://www.petertan.com/blog/2009/01/05/inconsiderate-drivers-of-cars-wlc-
5702-and-wny- 8347/

There was one time when my wife moved the wheelchair signboards at the
Taman Maluri store for me to park there only to be scolded by a very rude
security personnel who did not verify if the car had a disabled driver or
passenger. When we indicated to him that I am a disabled person, he just
walked away without assisting my wife in moving the signboard. This
incident has reflected very badly on the professionalism of your security
personnel.

Moreover, the size of the accessible parking space in the multistorey car
park at Taman Maluri and outside Kinta City are of the wong size. Ideally,
accessible parking for disabled people should be 3.6m in width to allow a
wheelchair to be placed beside the car. The parking spaces at both places
are of regular size. If another car were to park too closely to our cars,
we will have problems opening the car door wide enough for us to get in.

If Jusco is serious in providing the parking space for disabled people, I
suggest that the cones and wheelchair signboards be removed as this is
causing disabled drivers problems when parking. You should instead assign
a security personnel near the parking space to ensure that only cars with
disabled driver or passengers park there.

I would also like to note that the Jusco stores that I frequent have
Priority Cashier Lane for disabled people, pregnant women and senior
citizens.Since its implementation until now, I have had to queue together
with other shoppers to pay. I am not complaining that I have to queue. I
am just disappointed that the signboard is there for show only as your
cashiers never bothered to give priority to the three categories of
people. In that case, I suggest that you remove that signboard since it
serves no purpose at all and make us queue like everyone else.

I hope Jusco will seriously look into these problems and take the
necessary actions to rectify the problems. I am sure Jusco would like to
ensure the comfort of all shoppers including wheelchair users, senior
citizens and pregnant women who are your loyal customers.

I look forward to a positive response from you.

Thank you.

Regards,
Peter Tan

Inconsiderate Drivers Of Cars WLC 5702 And WNY 8347

There are people who have eyes but refuse to use it to see. There are people who have ears but refuse to use it to listen. There are also people who have brains but refuse to use it to think. I crossed path with one such person yesterday. No, make that three. Here is what happened.

Jusco Taman Maluri Shopping Centre allocated a parking space wide enough to park two cars for disabled people just outside the entrance to the supermarket. The parking space is painted blue. Two signboards with the wheelchair logo were prominently placed there as well.

Inconsiderate driver of car WLC 5702 stealing parking space for disabled people at Jusco Taman Maluri Shopping Centre
Is the signboard with the wheelchair logo not obvious enough to the driver and passenger of WLC 5702?

I was waiting for Wuan at one of the parking spaces. The other was occupied by a white Kancil. A middle aged couple who had no apparent disability got into the car and drove off. As soon as the Kancil went off, another car backed into the space. The plump lady driver got out. The passenger was a middle aged man. The following conversation took place after I wound the window down to confront the driver.

Me: Excuse me, are you disabled?

Driver: No.

She was taken aback by my question.

Me: This parking space is for disabled people. The ground is painted in a different colour.

I pointed to the ground.

Me: There are signboards too.

I pointed to the signboard on the passenger side of the car. She looked confused by then.

Me: If you park here then disabled people have no place else to park.

Driver: Just a short while only.

Me: Everybody says it is for a while. If you park here then where are disabled people supposed to park. These are the only places wide enough for us to get out.

She looked more confused but still defiant. Her companion waved to her and said something that was intelligible to me. She immediately locked the car and walked off. And that is how lady driver of Kia Spectra WLC 5702 became the first inductee into The Digital Awakening’s Hall of Shame.

Inconsiderate driver of car WLC 5702 and WNY 8347 stealing parking space for disabled people at Jusco Taman Maluri Shopping Centre
Drivers WLC 5702 and WNY 8347 abusing parking spaces for disabled people at Jusco Taman Maluri.

When Wuan came back, I got her to take a photograph of the offending car while I backed our car out. While Wuan was snapping away, a white Kenari drove into the space vacated by me. The driver and his entire family were all non-disabled people. It had been a long day for us and I just did not have the strength left educate ignorant people on the importance of not abusing accessible parking spaces. We went off just after Wuan got the photographs that I wanted.

While I am at it, let me rant just a little more. A few months ago at the same shopping centre, I wanted to park at the same parking space. The two signboards blocked the way. Wuan got out of the car to remove the signboards. A guard came out and shouted rudely at Wuan and told her to go park somewhere else without bothering to check if there was any disabled person in the car or if there was sticker with the wheelchair logo on the windscreen.

Wuan got annoyed and shouted back at him and pointed to the wheelchair sticker on the car windscreen. The rude guard even got the nerve to tell her that she could at least told him in a polite way. He then walked away, leaving Wuan to move the two heavy signsboards by herself. That was very unlike the courteous security personnel that I have come to expect from Jusco.

It is also ridiculous for Jusco to place heavy signboards to block the parking spaces. How is a disabled driver supposed to park there? Not all disabled people travel with a companion who can get out of the car to move the signboards. In trying to prevent non-disabled people from parking their cars there, which obviously is unsuccessful, the action is also preventing disabled people from using the facility.

It is ironic that people who are genuinely disabled are not able to use parking in spaces reserved for them while non-disabled people continue to abuse such facilities with impunity. These are inconsiderate Malaysians for you. They are not the majority but they make life difficult for disabled people who are already facing so many problems with public transport and the built environment.

Penang – Different Government Same Shit For Disabled People

Abuse of accessible parking outside the Catholic Information Centre in Penang

When the DAP took over Penang with its allies in the Pakatan Rakyat, I had great hope that things would change for the better for disabled people in my home state where accessibility is concerned. After nine months of governing the state, it is evident that my optimism was misplaced. The picture above taken on November 24, 2008 speaks volume of my despair.

I use very simple yardsticks to determine accessibility of a particular place. First is the inclusion of usable ramps. Second is the functionality of accessible toilets. Third is the provision of accessible parking spaces. These are the basic facilities that will determine whether disabled people can perform independently outside their homes or otherwise.

The two parking spaces for disabled people were put up in 2005 when a stretch of Upper Penang Road was renovated. The many times that I drove pass the Catholic Information Centre in recent months, the two parking spaces were usually occupied by four cars – assumably neither driven by disabled people nor carrying disabled passengers as evident by the close proximity of the cars.

When a simple thing like enforcement on existing facilities is not even carried out, dare I hope that the requirements in the Uniform Building By-Law 34A (UBBL 34A) be imposed on all existing and new public buildings? The government of Penang under Pakatan Rakyat is as disappointing as when the state was under Barisan Nasional when it comes to resolving disability issues. Apa macam Lim Guan Eng?