Rules on Handicapped Spaces Are Not Always Enforced

Dear Street Smart:

I recently received a placard so I can park in handicapped spaces. What I am increasingly finding out at shopping malls and other businesses is how few parking spaces are actually set aside for people with disabilities.

Is there a law that dictates how many handicapped parking spots a business must have?

L. K. Levine Irvine Yes, there is such a federal law. Here is the formula established in the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990:

Businesses must provide at least one handicapped parking space for every 25 spaces up to 100.

An additional space must be provided in parking lots with 100 to 150 spaces. If the parking lot has 200 spaces, one more handicapped space must be added, for a total of six.

In parking lots with 200 to 500 spaces, one space must be added for every 100 spaces. Lots with 500 to 1,000 parking spaces must set aside 2% of the parking spaces for people with disabilities.

And lastly, lots with 1,000 or more spaces must designate 2% of every 100 spaces for handicapped parking.

Handicapped parking spaces also must meet certain requirements for size and location. They must be wide enough to accommodate side or back-loading vehicles with ramps. They also must be within 25 feet of a wheelchair ramp and must be in a safe place for people to get out of the car, said Shelby Smith, an advocate with the Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled in Anaheim.

Often, handicapped spaces are placed right next to flower planters or shopping cart racks and are no bigger than a compact car space, he said.

While the law provides for these things, it’s not widely known or enforced, Smith said.

He advises that if you feel handicapped parking spaces are lacking in some way, go to the manager of the shopping mall or business and explain the regulations. If that doesn’t work, the next step would be a letter to your city engineer.

If a month passes and nothing has been done, head for the county Board of Supervisors, Smith said. If all these measures fail, Smith invites you to call him at the Dayle McIntosh Center to explore the situation further.

Dear Street Smart:

The turn signal at Adams Avenue and Harbor Boulevard (as you’re driving east on Adams and want to turn north on Harbor) seems too short in the morning. How short is it?

It’s not so much that the green light is short, but that the yellow light is an apparition, gone in a flash. It’s so short that motorcycle cops often camp in the median just waiting to pull over the cars running the light after it has turned red.

Thanks for looking into this.

Melvin Minn Huntington Beach During the morning rush hours of 7 to 9 a.m., that green light is 21 seconds long, and the yellow light is three seconds long, said Armando Rutledge, assistant traffic engineer for Costa Mesa. That three seconds is the minimum amount of time recommended by Caltrans, and is typical for other left turns in Costa Mesa, he said.

If a pedestrian is crossing west on Adams, the eastbound left-turn signal reduces to 18 seconds, Rutledge said.

The city records traffic volumes once a year at each of its intersections and, based on that information, times the lights, Rutledge said. Because that intersection has 12,400 cars during the morning peak hours, city traffic engineers have determined that the signal timing is correct, he said. A longer light on Adams would reduce green-light time on Harbor Boulevard, which is the major arterial, he said.