Residents and visitors to Garden City may want to think twice about standing, parking and stopping, even for just a few minutes, in designated handicapped parking spaces. Although its been illegal for quite some time to do so, Garden City trustees unanimously passed a local law last month that will hike the fines for people who abuse and/or ignore the law. Effective May 1, the fine for handicapped parking violations will rise from $180 to $250.

According to both the Garden City Village Justice Court and the Garden City Police Department, a violation occurs when a motorist stops, stands or parks in a handicapped spot without the appropriate permit or registration plates and/or without the vehicle being used for the transportation of a handicapped person or severely disabled person for whom the permit was issued.

For example, waiting in a handicapped parking space with the motor running or just pulling into a spot to drop someone off or pick someone up is a violation - the same as parking the vehicle and leaving it there would be. Motorists can and will receive parking tickets while sitting in their vehicles without first being warned to move, according to Garden City police.

The Nassau County Office for the Physically Challenged, which became a reality in the summer of 1997, is the central issuing agency for most of Nassau with respect to the New York State handicap parking permits. On average the Nassau County Office for the Physically Challenged receives anywhere from 35 to 40 applications for a permit on a daily basis and approximately 2,000 renewals each month.

In combating illegal use of such permits, a volunteer program was created in which the office and the Nassau County Police Academy train civilian volunteers, equipped with Polaroid cameras, to take photos of illegally parked cars. These volunteers then take their paperwork and photos to local precincts so officers can issue tickets. The office is always looking for volunteers.

Don Dreyer, director of the Nassau County Office for the Physically Challenged, has advocated for civil rights for the disabled for the better part of two decades. Showing his face in local communities has become an important part of Dreyer's job. Besides attempting to recruit more civilian volunteers, Dreyer's office has been working hand in hand with the Nassau County Chief of Patrols Office to beef up the overall enforcement by both police officers and civilian volunteers.

Dreyer was thrilled when a law that makes it illegal for anyone to park on the diagonally striped access aisles many disabled people need to transfer safely to and from their cars took effect Jan. 1, 2004. The office had been pushing for its passing for the past three years.

Dreyer is concerned, however, because many people with disabilities who have legitimate state permits have been parking in the access aisles thinking that because they have a permit, it's legal. "Whereas in fact this new law specifically states that no one, with or without a legitimate permit, can park in access aisles. In doing so, other disabled people get blocked in their vehicles," Dreyer noted.

The Nassau County Office for the Physically Challenged is currently developing a program, which Dreyer suspects will take effect within the next few months, certainly over the course of the summer, of public education to let the general community, both disabled and able bodies, know the new law's context.

On another note, through working with the Nassau County Traffic and Parking Violations Agency, Dreyer noted that software, which will have the ability to recognize first, second and third time offenders, will soon be available. "This is brand new," he said. "It's never happened before in Nassau." Dreyer believes the escalating fine system may change some people's attitudes about illegally parking in handicapped spaces.