The Purpose of our research is to clarify how accessible parking spaces are installed
and operated in the United States. We performed surveys of Washington DC(which is a
special district controlled directly by the government), and the states of New York,
California, and Hawaii
Standards for installation locations, number of spaces, width and signage of
accessible parking spaces are provided in the ADAAG (Accessibility Guidelines for
Buildings and Facilities). Users of accessible parking spaces must display parking
permits on their vehicles to indicate that they are entitled to use them. Those who
park illegally without displaying a parking permit may have their disabled parking
privileges revoked , have their car towed, be fined , or in cases of severe violations, be
imprisoned .
1n every state we surveyed, accessible parking spaces were built based on ADAAG,
so the parking spaces were easy to find. Furthermore, it was easy to determine
whether or not vehicles were parked illegally by the presence or absence of a parking
permit. For this reason, we were unable to find any illegally parked vehicles. 1n fact,
with the exception of San Francisco, cases of accessible parking spaces being blocked
by vehicles were rare. This was probably because sufficient spaces were prepared, so
illegal parking is almost nonexistent. Japan does not have enough parking lots, so it
would be difficult to increase the number of accessible parking spaces in the various
parking lots. By preventing improper use of accessible parking spaces, the problem of
people being unable to park may be mitigated. 1n future research, we shall consider
effective methods of preventing improper use .