Readers React: Improve parking, but don’t target disabled drivers

To the editor: It’s my hope that UCLA urban planning professor Donald Shoup and others discussing new ways to improve parking in Los Angeles with technology are not defining placard abuse as perpetrated by people with disabilities who legitimately spend longer times at meters than those who pay. Targeting people with disabilities as the problem is a misplaced strategy, especially in light of the poor job we have done in rooting out abuse by those who fraudulently use placards. (“L.A.’s ExpressPark connects motorists to downtown parking spots,” Dec. 16)

The Department on Disability will gladly partner with the L.A. Department of Transportation and the state DMV to expand “stings” in areas of high abuse, a tactic the DMV has successfully demonstrated in the past.

Rolling back access for the disabled as a way to save a buck is not the direction for L.A. Let’s focus our energy on the people who illegally possess and use placards so both people with disabilities and those without can have greater access to Los Angeles’ limited parking resources.

Stephen David Simon, Los Angeles

The writer is executive director of the Los Angeles Department on Disability.

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To the editor: Many people, including myself, do not own or carry smartphones. The new parking app is prejudicial. It also promotes dangerous driving practices.

Toby Horn, Los Angeles

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