Travel on the cheap: A solar powered journey

In 2010, Haidar Taleb started a 200 mile journey across the United Arab Emirates in his power chair.

Inventor of the solar powered wheelchair, Taleb put his invention to the ultimate test, and challenged the way we see disability.

By taking-up this journey, I want to raise awareness about disability and tell people that we, despite our disability can achieve anything as an individual, if we are determined to try and have courage to do so. — Haidar Taleb

This is a really cool way to make travel accessible to everyone. I for one would love to see disabled and able-bodied road-trippers alike, flocking down the bike lane off to their next adventure.

I mean, if you’re going to vacation in a sunny paradise, might as well–right? Moral of the story, sunny states, countries and tropical islands need to adopt a pedestrian/solar powered lane on all their big roads to facilitate such roadtrips!

All in favor say “roadtrip!!”

Handicap Parking around the world – Part 2

After finishing Part 1 — on handicap parking in the US — I was a little concerned about what I might find in other corners of the world. But I think Europe has embarrassingly out-shined the US on this issue.

In my humble and online-research-based opinion, the US makes it far more difficult to travel between 50 “united” states than Europe does for it’s near 50 countries. Let’s ponder this for a moment…

USA: 1 national language

European Union: 23 official languages
(Not to mention there is an entire extra tier of beaurocrats to every decision-making process.)

Let’s figure this out.

In 1978, the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) agreed to grant the same parking privileges to people with disabilities (from any ECMT member country) as they offer their own national citizens. To put that into perspective, the US signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), requiring handicap parking, in 1990.

In 1997, the ECMT expanded it’s scope to include “Associated Countries”: Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and the USA. This move was likely responsible for the ECMT’s name change to International Transport Forum (ITC) in 2007.

Today, there are over 50 “member countries” in the ITC–see the complete list here.

The only requirement to get these special privileges is to have an official badge displaying the international wheelchair symbol. The trick is, you still have to familiarize yourself with the specific privileges for each country. For example, Denmark and the UK require a parking disc (aka “clock”), in addition to the badge, to indicate parking time so that time limits can be enforced.

If you will be road-tripping in Europe, this concise pamphlet will give you a brief overview of handicap parking rules in each country.

And if all else fails and you get ticketed, just start yelling at them in a language they don’t speak — you are after all traveling. And, if you don’t know a different language, make one up! 🙂
The coolest person I know did that in a different but effectively similar situation, so it has my stamp of approval. 

Handicap Parking around the world – Part 1

After seeing handicap parking spaces in Italy, I became curious about how different countries handle the issue. I started my research in my own back yard. I thought I was informed about these policies in the US, but it turns out I had a  thing or two to learn.

Handicap Parking in the US:

1. People with a permanent disability or a chronic illness can get a blue placard or have the International Symbol of Access specially marked on their license plate.

2. Temporary disabilities (ie. from an injury/surgery) can get you a red placard.

3. Some major cities allow free parking at city parking meters and exempts time limits for disabled motorists.

• California exempts both meter fees and time restrictions, currently. This is a major motivator for the abundant handicap placard fraud and is causing issues, to say the least. There is talk about ending meter fee exemptions like Washington DC and Philadelphia (and others) have already done.
• Michigan has a two-tiered placard policy. Only the most severely disabled applicants receive fee exemptions (about 2% of applicants). The second tier does not receive this benefit.
• For more info on these points, read this wonderful and informative article.

4. Your placard may or may not be valid in other US states

• California requires out of state visitors to apply for a temporary placard (about a 2 week process). Also, Californians must apply for a 30-day travel placard if they plan to use handicap parking in other states. Read it here.
• New York City caused a lot of controversy in cases of out-of-state visitors being denied placard privileges. Apparently NYC only recognizes New York and New York City placards. I went to NYC’s site  and it mentioned nothing about out-of-state placards being invalid. It did however say that the New York state placard is “valid in all other states and Canadian provinces”. The New York DMV site also talked around if other states’ placards are valid and this time said that the NY state placard is valid “in most other states”.
• Other state DMVs also claim their placards are valid in every US state. But refer to the bullet on California law…

It’s really a mess. I think the best thing to do is visit the DMV site of whichever state you plan to visit. And keep in mind that if it’s hard for you to understand while doing all this research; I’m positive there will be more than one cop who isn’t informed. So print the webpage that states your rights in that state or the name of the person you talked to at their DMV. Better safe than sorry.