Coast to coast, parking spaces are so scarce that squabbles erupt. A major reason for the dearth of spaces is the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its rigid mandates.

When the ADA became law 10 years ago, disability activists drew parallels to the Civil Rights Act. But while the ADA means well, the Act does nothing to encourage fundamental changes about how builders and merchants accommodate the public.

ADA rules dictate that 4 percent of spots in each public parking lot must be allocated to handicapped spaces. This rule takes into account neither the need for handicapped spaces in that area nor the number of handicapped placards and plates in circulation. The regulation further governs how wide the spaces must be, and how many of them must be van accessible. It also restricts merchants from devising other solutions, such as valet parking for all patrons.

These regulations together make a single, unchanging code that can be seen in all parking lots and garages. The expense involved in expanding a parking lot large enough to accommodate both regular and the specific ration of handicapped spaces means that many merchants do not see the benefit in creating more spaces. Adding to the frustration of all would-be parkers, these required handicapped parking spots are also the best spaces, making them automatically attractive to all.

Team parking

These spots are so visible and so convenient that people have difficulty resisting the temptation to illegally park there. In a case that exemplifies current attitudes, 14 UCLA football players were charged last summer with illegally obtaining and using handicapped parking permits. It seems the permits were so easy to get that the players couldn’t resist. And those football players aren’t alone.

More people everywhere are doing what they can to get those premium places, whether it’s borrowing an elderly relative’s handicapped parking placard, finding a doctor willing to sign—falsely—a handicapped parking permit application, or simply parking in the spaces illegally.

In states across the country, there has been a rising backlash against the ease with which people can get and keep handicapped parking permits. Writers across the nation have expressed outrage that people are “unfairly” using the permits. And their outrage doesn’t even cover the people who are illegally parking in the spots.

Fundamental flaw

In San Francisco, illegally parking in a designated handicapped space can result in a $275 fine, but many are willing to take the risk. This exposes the fundamental flaw of a universal parking policy, an approach that helps no one.

Handicapped drivers end up without a place to park, because frustrated drivers end up finding a way to get around the regulations. Merchants face either the grumpy customers or the huge construction costs. And frustrated drivers who won’t break the law end up circling the parking lot.

Once a regulation is enacted, it is the final word. Despite changes in the numbers of handicapped people, cars, or ratios of handicapped people to non-handicapped people, there can be no change in how parking needs are served.

The ADA’s reliance on the singular solution of specific amounts of parking spaces means that other solutions go unexplored. Instead of allowing merchants to develop independent solutions to parking accessibility, the ADA has quashed all individual accountability and destroyed any impulse to innovate.

Someday the ADA will be recognized as ultimately misguided and counterproductive. Perhaps legislators, as they spin endless laps around the parking lot, will finally realize that forcing merchants to adopt one solution to a dynamic problem only ends up stranding us all.

Joelle Cowan is a public-policy fellow at the California-based Pacific Research Institute’s Center for Enterprise and Opportunity. She can be reached via email at jcowan@pacificresearch.org.