And those football players aren't alone. In states across the country, there has been a rising backlash against the ease with which people can get and keep handicapped parking permits. And their outrage doesn't even cover the people who are illegally parking in the spots. 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.