Van Accessible Parking - Oregon Wheel Chair User

Oregon Restricts Van Accessible Parking to Wheel Chair Users only.

October 2009 - Unintended parking issue at WinCo on 102nd Avenue in Portland, OR Note: (April 2010) We compliment WINCO for improving their parking, this issue was inadvertently caused because the project was still under construction when the overzealous enforcement occurred.

October 12,2009 The Wheelchair user law has not gone into effect in the city of Portland, Oregon. It appears to be a miscommunication to the volunteer enforcement program in Portland. If you got a summons please contact the Disability Program office in Portland and they are working on the problem. -------- Disability Program Phone: 503-823-2036 , Fax: 503-823-3050 , TTY/TDD: 503-823-6868

In October 2009 WinCo rearranged their parking making some of their accessible parking spots Van Accessable (a good thing), but the contractor erroniously marked them Wheel Chair User Only so these spots were only available to the disabled who need to park close since they don't have wheel chairs. Worse yet, the volunteer enforcement person was erroniously writing $395 tickets to the disabled parking permit holders who parked in the accessible spots. (a very bad thing).

There is an error in the Wheel Chair User Only law - it should require the special signs only be posted in the few van accessible spots (1 out of every 6 accessible spots) required by the building code. This needs to be remidied by filing a motion requesting a Judicial review of the law and hopefully clarifying the language to meet the intended purpose to assure some van accessible spots are available to Wheel Chair User Only permit holders. ----- Wayne Yarnall

See Photos of the WinCo Parking spots, two seem to be under constructon - Click Here for Photos

Is it legal? It certainly is unfair to some severely disabled without wheel chairs.

Oregon has passed a new law that restricts a portion of the van accessible parking spots to people who have a special "Wheelchair User" disabled parking permit. It also restricts free parking on meters to people with the "Wheelchair User" permit but allows municipalities to charge other regular disabled parking permit holders for parking.

Even worse, if a regular disabled parking permit holder parks in a stall marked "Wheelchair User Only" they are issued a citation at the maximum penalty for unlawful parking in a disabled parking stall.

I think this is a very bad law in addition to not fixing the real problem of the finding an empty van accessible spot. It will be difficult to enforce and not known to out of state visitors.

This completely ignores the fact that there are far more disabled parking permit holders with mobility problems who are not using a wheel chair. When dealing with disabled parking stalls, many people think of people in wheel chairs. But physical disabilities are diverse - some people use canes, walkers, crutches, braces, prosthesis, or no visible mechanical aid. Common to most non-wheelchair disabled is their limited ability to walk long distances or stand for extended periods. Some make tradeoffs between distance and difficulty. These "walking" disabled will always park in the stall closest to their destination because their walking distance is severely limited. Since the van accessible parking stall is usually closest to the entrance, this assures that it will not be available for a side lift van. My experience is that maybe 90% of the time the van accessible spot is occupied by a non-wheel chair user.

ADA/ABA AG 2004 contains: "Advisory 208.2.2 Conditions that affect mobility include conditions requiring the use or assistance of a brace, cane, crutch, prosthetic device, wheelchair, or powered mobility aid; arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic conditions that severely limit one's ability to walk; respiratory diseases and other conditions which may require the use of portable oxygen; and cardiac conditions that impose significant functional limitations."

Does creating two classes of disabled parking permit holders violate the ADA?

This law only applies to a subset of the accessible parking spots, not to all of them. I use a wheelchair and a side lift van but don't have a clue how I can get a "Wheelchair User" placard in Washington. I live in Vancouver, WA but park in Oregon frequently.

This article is confusing since the new rules apply ONLY to the Van Accessible Parking spots and not to the other type of accessible parking spots. The Van accessible spot has a 9 ft. wide parking spot and an 8 ft. wide access aisle. There is usually one van accessible stall for every 8 accessible stalls.

The Portland City Council will set aside -- for now -- a new state law that would take away the rights of thousands of disabled people who don't use wheelchairs to park downtown for free.

From SB617: "(b) In addition, one in every eight accessible spaces, but not less than one, shall be van accessible.
Where five or more parking spaces are designated accessible, any space that is designated as van accessible shall be reserved for wheelchair users. A van accessible parking space shall be at least nine feet wide and shall have an adjacent access aisle that is at least eight feet wide."

Chapter 468 Oregon Laws 2007 -------------- Text of Oregon Senate Bill 716 in PDF

Important information for out of state wheehchair van drivers.

The real problem is the van accessible spot should be located furthest away from the entrance if there are more than 2 stalls in a row. The codes require that if you have one disabled parking stall it must be van accessible. The codes do no specify that in a row of more than 2 spots that the van accessible stall must be first. This seems to be "folk" knowledge that it needs to be first even though that is the error that makes the spots not available to side lift vans. Even quite knowledgeable building code professionals who teach courses state the van accessible spot must be first in a row. See more details on availability van accessible parking spots at: Availability of Van Accessible spots

The proposed ADA/ABA 2004 and the approved IBC 2003 did change the scoping for VA spots to 1 in 6 instead of 1 in 8. That is probably good but might have been another attempt to solve the problem with out doing the research to clearly define the problem.

I am interested in your opinion and any information you have about the consensus process on van accessible stalls that created the ADAAG or the predecessor documents. Are there reasons why a wheel chair user needs the closest spot when the parking lot is level? I can see the possible need when the parking lots exceed the 1 in 50 (or 49) slope.