On Monday, July 13, the city council unanimously adopted an ordinance designed to curb the abuse of disabled parking placards in Seattle.

The ordinance makes the use or display of a disabled placard or license plate that is stolen, expired, issued to a person who is now deceased, or is otherwise invalid in or upon a vehicle parked in a public right-of-way or on other publicly owned or controlled property a parking infraction with a penalty of $250.

There have been numerous reported abuses of disabled parking placards, but existing law provided for a penalty of only $38, and the structure of the law made it difficult to enforce. The new law takes care of these problems.

This law will have three positive effects:

• It will reduce the frustration of drivers who are looking for parking places and find many of them occupied by cars with disabled placards, many of which are expired or invalid.

• It will increase revenues to the city by requiring drivers who have been evading the law by using invalid disabled stickers to pay for parking, and by providing appropriate fines for those who abuse disabled parking stickers.

• It will assist the community of people with disabilities by opening up parking places for those who are legitimately in need of them.

Complaints are frequently made about people who appear to be fully mobile having disabled parking stickers on their cars. Many disabilities are not apparent, and this ordinance will help restore the confidence of other drivers in the integrity of the system, and thus reduce the embarrassing and uncomfortable situations that sometimes result when a person is accused of using a disabled sticker inappropriately.