Ellen Ast/Democrat-Herald Karin Darwood, a Sweet Home resident and a multiple sclerosis patient prepares to leave the Wal-Mart parking lot in Lebanon. People in wheelchairs such as Darwood will soon have greater protections reguarding access to parking spaces.

Lebanon man spurs new law

Wheelchair-only parking available beginning Jan. 1

By Ellen Ast
Albany Democrat-Herald

LEBANON — A Lebanon man five years ago sparked the idea behind a law passed by the 2007 Oregon Legislature that makes it easier for people who use wheelchairs to park in large lots.

Ron Edwards, 58, remembers the day he decided to confront a driver he spotted with a blue disabled parking placard who pulled into a parking space designated for wheelchairs at the Albany Costco.

“He said he can park anywhere he wants because it’s the law,” Edwards said.

“I said, ‘Well, maybe we ought to change the law,’ and he said, ‘Well, then step up to the plate, buckwheat.’”

Edwards adds, “So I did.”

Present law allows drivers with the state-issued placards to park in any disabled parking spot, including those with the 8-foot allowance for wheelchair users to get in and out of vans.

Edwards’ wife is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair. He and his wife have had a few “close calls” with drivers while navigating through parking lots from a distant spot to the front door because the spaces for wheelchair users toward the front were taken by non-wheelchair users.

He drafted a bill that would keep non-wheelchair users from parking in wheelchair accessible spots, but it never took off in the legislature until he was introduced to Kevin O’Reilly, a government relations and advocacy director for Paralyzed Veterans of America.

O’Reilly helped shape Edwards’ idea into a proposal that allows wheelchair users to carry special parking placards and for at least one of the spaces set aside for the disabled in parking lots with more than 100 spaces to be designated “wheelchair only.”

The law, passed this year as SB 716, takes effect Jan. 1, but the spaces for wheelchair-using motorists don’t have to be marked until a parking lot is constructed or repainted.

Parking in one of the wheelchair-designated spaces, even by someone with a disabled-space parking permit, will be unlawful and subject to fines.

“It will make a big difference for people who park in downtown Portland,” O’Reilly said. There, those with disabled placards don’t have to pay parking meters. a system abused by those who illegally buy placards. SB 716 says only wheelchair users are exempt from having to pay pay meters.

Edwards said he expects opposition to the law all around the state. That’s because disabled drivers will have to park elsewhere if all disabled and wheelchair-only spots are full.

But, he hopes people covered by the new law will take advantage of it.

“Every person in the state in a wheelchair will have access to parking,” he said.