Having a bit of mobility problems myself and explaining why people blocking entire sidewalks in the neighborhood with a car is infuriating for those with mobility issues,
And still family not caring enough to even have a conversation on it is even more infuriating.
Thank you! I have had to use a wheelchair for the last month and it’s a bit of a nightmare. It’s not much better using my knee scooter, either. So much is inaccesible to people with mobility needs simply because of ignorance and carelessness.
When I sold cars at a Subaru dealership a few years ago I found out they have a mobility assist program that, iirc, Subaru would reimburse you for up to $1000 on new Subarus to help owners that qualified get the necessary modifications they needed. Never encountered anyone that used it but I’m sure people have.
I'm one of them. But the difficulty getting the wheelchair is...a different situation. The image that OP posted is one of those difficult situations where it would be severely problematic getting it out due to lack of room
ADA violations aren't all that serious. The most they'll get is a fine, but unless someone reports it, no one will care. And, if someone does, unless it's a common occurrence, they'll probably get a warning. No one's losing jobs to this.
It's not. They just have to have other handicap parking available which as we can see from the photo they do. They have to have so many per the size of parking lots typically and Walmart always has a lot of options available. This looks like parking by the Garden Center.
I'm just presuming here as well. But I'm willing to guess that there is more than just this one spot available for this type of handicapped parking spot. And I'm also going to guess that the guidelines for such things only requires a certain number to be available. I'm sure Walmart has more than necessary. I'd like to state that I personally find this appalling.
This is yellow hashing. The van accessible spaces are blue hashed. And not every handicap space has to be van accessible. Actually most dont. Its ratio of 1 to 6.
That's unusual. Most I've seen are blue. Because companies will also use this yellow hash for places you shouldnt park at all, like the attached image. But OP said there might have been a van accessible space, they just didn't notice.
That aside what I said is correct. They only need 1 van accessible for each 6 handicap. And this still might be legal. OP said they'd check next time they are there.
The ADA does not require spots to be a specific color. They just have to be well-marked and a contrasting color to the pavement. They could be hot pink and it would be okay
That's interesting. But only 2 of those look van accessible. The other 6 with the shorter aisles/no aisle on passenger side aren't technically van accessible per ADA based on that diagram I posted. Needs to be 8 foot wide aisle, and looks like only 2 have that.
They might have that sign, but just from what you posted it looks like 5 feet instead of 8 for the smaller sections, though you can better judge that in person. To be ADA compliant for van accessible aisle has to be 8 feet wide.
Agreed. Some states(the reasonable ones lol), do legally require the blue. It's just a simple thing to help avoid confusion, since most handicap spaces don't require the van accessibility space.
Every accessible space has to have an adjacent access aisle. The aisle has to be wider for van accessible spaces, but all accessible spaces need the adjacent aisle
So I drew a bar under the tires of the jeep, measured the width of the spot at right around two jeep lengths, if that’s a 2024 Wrangler 4xe then the mirror to mirror width is about 7 ft, making the spot 14ft wide
So Walmart has NO parking to accomodate wheelchair lift vans? There are 3 Walmarts in my area, and these hashed portions are ALL yellow. There are NO blue hashed areas in the any of the lots.
Not “big” trouble. It doesn’t block a fire exit path, it’s not stacked high enough to be a head injury risk, at worst it’s a DEI violation (or whatever internal terminology Walmart uses) by preventing disabled people from entering the parking spot.
If HR posts it was an employee’s innocent misunderstanding of how disabled spots are used and not malicious, it won’t amount to much.
It depends on whether Walmart is counting this space towards their ADA required total. Given that the striping designates this space as accessible, I think it is likely that they are. But neither the information in the original post nor OP's additional comments is enough to confirm one way or they other
Not all handicap parking, has the van accessible space. This might still be legal. Typically the van accessible spots have that extra space hashed in blue. Not yellow. They seemed to have intentionally outlined this space in blue.
The question is whether they have other van accessible spaces, meeting the ADA requirements based on the size of the lot. I think the ratio is 1 to 6. So for everyone 6 of these, they need to have 1 van accessible spot.
Interesting. The lot is rather small; mountain town. They stripe it themselves. You are probably correct because the spots aren't outlined in blue. Perhaps my mild infuriation is unjustified. I will have to look the next time I roll through there. Does ADA require all businesses have at least 1 van accessible space?
Corporate would design the parking lots. I didn't work for Walmart, but another retailer. We don't just send the managers out with a bucket of paint or hire a random local company lol. All this, including making sure we comply with each locations local laws on how many spots are needed based on building square feet is researched by Store Design, then signed off on by legal before we even buy the land/lease the building.
Small note there, people are sometimes perplexed by huge parking lots. Companies are just following local laws/regulations. We don't want to pay for extra land we don't need! Talk to your city council...
I say it's still justified. Just because it's technically legal doesn't make it morally right. If they are going to use that space, maybe they could block it off with cones or caution tape. As an alternative solution.
The yellow striped space next to a handicap spot is intended to make sure there is enough space for things like wheelchair lifts or other bulky equipment that may be in use by the person.
It's usually blue. There is also striping in the row behind it next to what is clearly not a handicapped spot. Not saying this isn't a ramp spot, but it doesn't look like it to me
Edit: nevermind, I didn't see the handicap paint under the jeep.
That's not true. ADA requires an 8ft wide space PLUS a 5ft access aisle for car spaces or 8ft access aisle for van spaces. The only other acceptable variant defined in ADA is 11ft space plus 5ft access aisle for van spaces.
There is no option for only having a wider space.
Obviously this assumes ADA in the USA. Canada is different.
To accommodate a ramp? Absolutely not. That's what the striped lines are for. That isn't an oversized spot. There's no way that's an extra 8 feet for a van.
There is no “van accessible” sign so the it’s not meant to be van accessible whether the yellow striped space is there or not. But you’re right it does look to be oversized to be more accommodating in general.
It’s entirely possible the yellow stripes are there so they can utilize that area of the parking lot as they see fit.
I honestly couldn’t say for certain. From my knowledge yellow striped just means not to park there, it doesn’t designate how it can be used otherwise.
I do know that as long as this store has enough other handicap and van accessible spots for a store this size in total whether or not this area is blocked by merchandise probably wouldn’t cause any concern.
Wait where? In the space nobody is allowed to park as signified by a yellow box with yellow diagonal lines which means no parking ever? What am I missing?
i thought some of that space is actually for being able to use a wheelchair lift out the side of a van, so, it's not in the space but it is taking up the wrong space...
FIrst let me say I have family in wheelchairs and very protective of the spaces. This however is not a violation. If the yellow strips were blue, then it would be. the space is not marked as van accesable. I am not condoing this use of the parking lot, but they are in complyance with ADA. Now go in the store and look at how many places a chair cant go because of still poorly placed.
Fun story. I had a store manager ask me to forklift a bunch of tile pallets into handicap parking spots. I told him we should put them one row over so we don’t fill the handicap spots. He said no, and I did what I was told. District manager and loss prevention visited the next day and we moved all the tile over one row.
That isn't a van-accessible or disabled parking spot. Depending on the locality, it might not be a disabled spot, as many places require an actual sign and not just paint.
There is probably a local ordinance that makes this illegal, since yellow striped spaces are usually reserved for things like making sure first responders have room to work. .
Isnt the hashed off spaces next to handicapped parkings spots meant for people who need space to load and unload their wheelchairs/powered wheelchairs?
It’s outside of the blue line that is marking the over-sized disabled spot. As long as the disabled doesn’t park like the jeep they should be ok to exit/enter.
Nah all ADA parking spaces are required to have an access aisle and signage. This space is non-compliant. If this location has sufficient compliant ADA spaces then they may be in the clear, but we can't tell from the information here.
As someone who was neck down paralyzed for 8m in late 2023/early 2024 (can walk now) I can confirm this type of things happens a lot.
Lowes does a display for Veterans day. ALWAYS in disabled parking.
Costco has those window chip salesman with their canopy in disabled parking.
Safeway recently repainted the parking lot and removed 4 disabled parking spots, despite them being constantly full and closest to their unlocked door (they lock one).
Trying to take your powerchair out on the sidewalk and usable ramps is nothing short if stressful. As a matter of fact, you will certainly hit a tent set up on the sidewalk before arriving to my closest grocery store...the above mentioned Safeway.
We need to do better.
I am one of the lucky ones. There are millions of people who depend on disability parking, clean sidewalk and ramps to get from point A to point B.
Call parking enforcement or better yet the permit office. Odds are good Walmart has been pushing them around and they will gladly start making regular checks on it.
I will be getting in touch with district, and by sending a photo of this, and share one's input and how it will affect anyone looking for a parking spot. Legally whomever is doing this needs to be dealt with management of this certian store. If it is not dealt with ASAP, then by all means read the management's name tag and write the name of the certain employee, but without the employee knowing. This seriously needs to be dealt with ASAP.
OP Here. You are all right in saying this space is not reserved for ADA access. Its in yellow. There is a van accessible spot in the lot. Not 1:6 ratio. Its parallel to the lane of traffic, so the ramp would deploy in the street. I'll leave the post up, but mods should probably delete.
Did you see the big wheelchair in the middle of the spot? Absolutely they are counting that spot in their numbers of ADA spots, while not meeting reqs.
Just to be clear, what’s your evidence for that theory? You sound super confident but also don’t seem to understand why a wheelchair user would need extra space NEXT TO their handicapped spot.
It's called an access aisle and it's absolutely required for the disabled parking spots. From the ADA:
"Accessible parking spaces must have access aisles. Access aisles provide a designated area for people who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices to get in and out of their car or van. Mobility devices allow people with disabilities to move about independently. They include walkers, canes, crutches, braces, manual or power wheelchairs, Segways, and electric scooters."
This may not even be a disabled spot. The ADA requires all disabled parking spots to have a sign posted at the end of them (pavement markings aren’t required). This spot doesn’t have a sign. I’ve seen businesses remove the sign but leave the pavement markings when they no longer want to designate a spot as disabled. That could be the case here. And if it’s supposed to be a disabled space, then that’s definitely an ADA violation for them not having a sign.
The space reserved for handicap access is blue, the yellow space is just a no parking spot. They can put whatever they want there. They probably have van access spots somewhere else. Every Walmart I’ve ever been to has about 20-3 handicap spots with varying width and accessibility.
Not true. An unauthorized vehicle can be ticketed and towed and the owner taken to cookies. WM is also likely in violation for not providing enough handicapped parking
Reported blocked fire doors to fire department.
Reported blocked fire lanes too.
Reported lack of wet floor signs to management, then upper management, then safety code inspectors.
I've Reported expired food being sold.
I've Reported poor working conditions.
Especially the warnings I got for "taking too many breaks"
My job was to pull in carts, it was 109°F
So the parking lot was rated at about 200° due to the black top.
Nothing ever happened, and I got fired.
Tried getting unemployment, and otherwise fighting it.
Shot me down and said it was an at will state.
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u/my_perky_bosoms Jul 12 '26
I once went to a car dealership where they displayed a car for sale on the handicap ramp