• Sweden edition
Society

'Laziness is not a disability': council

Published: 23 Apr 12 12:20 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/40424/20120423/

Disability Council members of a Swedish town have had enough of “lazy” drivers who park their cars in the disabled spaces, and want the erection of signs stating that laziness is not a recognized form of disability.

“Laziness is not a disability” say the proposed signs aimed at motorists in Nordmaling, northern Sweden. Below is a picture of a person in a wheelchair.

Members of the municipality's disability council (handikapprådet) are now lobbying to see the signs be used around the local area.

“People don’t respect disabled parking signs,” said Margareta Gustavsson of the council to the Västerbottens Kuriren newspaper.

“They seem to think that laziness is a disability, but it’s actually not at all.”

Gustavsson added that the Nordmaling community centre has already claimed one of the signs to erect in their own car park.

However, community development officer of the municipality, Sune Höglander, sees things differently, and has no intention of implementing the signs.

“It’s just a fun thing they’ve got for themselves, but I don’t think that those kinds of road signs will be found in our catalogue. Signs must be accurate, factual, and not emotive,” he said.

Höglander also pointed out that he didn’t consider “lazy parkers” taking disabled spaces to be a large problem in Nordmaling.

Gustavsson disagreed, according to the paper, and intends to take the matter further, pointing to the fact that similar signs in other parts of Sweden have proved to be effective.

What do you think? Leave your comment below.

Your comments about this article:

The comments below have not been moderated in advance and are not produced by The Local unless clearly stated. Readers are responsible for the content of their own comments. Comments that breach our terms and conditions will be removed.

13:05 April 23, 2012 by Puffin
Borlänge has had these signs for about a year - a good thing too!!

People are just too lazy to give a thought to others
13:32 April 23, 2012 by Token-not-found
In Cluj, Romania - there are signs that say : if you take my place , also take my handicap.
14:26 April 23, 2012 by tgentil
How about heavly fine these drivers??? Maybe they will think twice...
15:57 April 23, 2012 by bcterry
Double the current fine, and save some money on erecting unnecessary costly signs.
17:48 April 23, 2012 by redfish
Haven't they heard of work avoidance disorder? The lobby of the work disabled are trying to get it into the DSM.
19:17 April 23, 2012 by McChatter
If someone is not disabled and still parks in a special place for disabled people, just let the air out of all of his tyres. Works wonders!
19:57 April 23, 2012 by Douglas Garner
I must admit, but I have not noticed handicapped indication on Swedish cars like we have in the States. Do they have them? The fine system in the states is very punative and works great. Typical parking fine... under 100 USD. Parking in a handicapped space... about 500 USD!
20:51 April 23, 2012 by johan rebel
Lathet has for years been a funktionshinder for countless parasites with vague backpain, "fibromyalgi" and generally allt för många tomtar på loftet, who live their lives a bidragsiglar at the expense of those naive Swedes who still believe in att göra rätt för sig och att ta sitt ansvar.
21:29 April 23, 2012 by eppie
@# 3, 4 and 7

Problem is that in Sweden only companies like Q-park fine car drivers.

Just like you should not park in a handicapped spot you should also not drive through red lights but everybody does because they know the police will never fine them.

If the police would once in a while have a look at this parking spot and fine people that use it wrongly than such a sign wouldn't be necessary. If the police doesn't such a sign is useless.
22:38 April 23, 2012 by Dr. Dillner
Fine there butts with a huge fine and it will stop.
01:13 April 24, 2012 by William Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha
Douglas, it's a blue badge on the dashboard. It's issued for a person, not a car, so the badge holder can use it whatever vehicle they're travelling in.
02:38 April 24, 2012 by Jeff10
But, what about if one were really tired; you know, long day and all? Then, couldn't this tiredness be deemed a temporary disability?
08:30 April 24, 2012 by Ballcocks
I have seen this type of sign in South Africa exept there it says "Stupidity is not a handicap" Much better wording I think. Perhaps a little too blunt for Sweden ?

Or would that be discrimination against the intellectually impaired?
09:37 April 24, 2012 by Puffin
@ Jeff10

Your comments are just idiotic - it shows the mentality of some people!

Imagine NEVER being able to take for granted that you can go to work/the shops/ hospital appointments etc because bratty people such as yourself think it's OK or "cute" to park in a disabled space

In any case temporary disability does not entitle you to a disability permit or to park in a disabled space - the process of getting a permit takes several months and requires medical evidence as to the nature of your disability
10:05 April 24, 2012 by rabbemos
Alot of comments are about fining people more. That would require increasing the amount of staff to enforce the law and unless it happens all the time may not be cost beneficial. After a given period of increased enforcement the behavior may decrease and then the amount of fines (revenues) being issued may decrease and the operation may become unprofitable. This would likely lead to layoffs and higher unemployment claims. Thereby, the policy could increase the cost to the state..sometimes trying to do the right thing has unintended consequences.

A more important unintended consequence is that lazy people are not likely to read the signs in the first place. ;-)

It may also be a case of oversupply and lack of demand. In some areas, there are many disabled parking places but not very many disabled people to use them. This is often the case of laws or regulations created at a centralized location and applied to a diverse geographic area and varying demographic.

It is natural human behavior to question laws and rules which are there for no other reason than to have the law or rule. If people continually observe vacant handicapped parking spaces they are likely to occupy them whether or not they are disabled. Another example would be the cannabis legalization movement...a body of citizens challenging the validity of laws based on their view that marijuana is a harmless drug, and the laws are there for other reasons such as ensuring some of pharma companies drugs are not replaced by something anyone can grow..or a host of other perceived reasons.
15:55 April 24, 2012 by J Jack
I say give them their signs if they are prepared to pay for it!
16:41 April 24, 2012 by Jeff10
@ Puffin:

Dude, you've got to be some leftwing liberal wacko, b/c you've no sense of humor. Do you seriously believe that I'm advocating tiredness as a reason to violate parking laws?

Have you ever been told that you take way too seriously yourself? Well, if not, perhaps it's about time.

Hey, do this, check the want ads for jobs as an undertaker, you seem to have the personality for that profession.

@ Rabbemos: Good comments.
17:27 April 27, 2012 by bethrichardson
@ johan rebel - I'm going to excuse you for your ignorance, but let me also educate you: Fibromyalgia is a real, debilitating disease. I had never even heard of it until 5 years ago. I was living my life - happily married, 3 kids, great job, good friends - everything the average person wants in life.

One morning I woke up and my hands were literally stuck in a claw shape. I couldn't move them. I spent 1/2 an hour pushing them against a pillow until they would move enough for me to massage them, but it was very painful. Within a month the stiffness and pain had spread to my arms and I went to the doctor. Within 3 months, with the doctor still clueless, the pain and stiffness had spread throughout my body. I had to cancel my gym membership and was told that I might need to quit working and go on disability - for the rest of my life. I was only 32 years old.

It took 9 months and 3 doctors to figure out what was wrong - I'd developed fibromyalgia. It took another year to figure out the right combination of drugs, vitamin supplements, diet and careful exercise so that I could continue to work and have a somewhat normal life.

Today I am at 90% of what I used to be. I can work, go to school, care for my family and spend time with my friends. But there are limits to what I can do and if I'm not very careful, I will get a "flare-up" that puts me in bed for 1-3 days. There is no cure; I'll be like this for the rest of my life. A lot of people in my situation stop working and go on disability. I refuse to live more than 1/2 my life hiding from the world, so I live in pain every day. And you call me a PARASITE.
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