Monday, May 30, 2022

travelling hobbily

It's just two months now until Mythcon in Albuquerque. B. and I will be taking our first flight together since - since the Atlanta Mythcon in 2018, actually. (That's an experience I don't care to repeat, since that's when I lost my carryon bag at the airport.) 2019 was in San Diego and we drove, and there hasn't been an in-person one since, and since Potlatch has ceased we don't go to anything else. I am slowly getting my travel-planning muscles working again.

Age and infirmity increases the number of things one has to remember to carry with one or arrange for, and here's one fairly new: B's handicap parking placard. Will it be good in New Mexico? I Google the question. Can't find anything on the New Mexico DMV website that addresses the question, but Google does offer this on its own authority:
Out-of-state visitors can use their handicap parking pass from their home state, since New Mexico will honor it. However, if you become a permanent resident of New Mexico, you must fill out a new application.
It also says this:
Can I use my California handicap placard out-of-state?
Travelers with a disability placard issued in California may use their parking placard in any other US state. California residents who have a permanent (non-removable) parking placard ...
Yeah, well, I don't have to worry about the rest because ours is removable.

Well, that sounds pretty authoritative - if you trust Google, that is. But wait, that's not the end of it. Google has a list of questions, one of which is "Can I use my Texas handicap placard in NM?" I'm not from Texas but I look it up. And it turns out you can't. There's a link to an article from a year ago about a NM-resident family that got a ticket when they used their visiting grandma's Texas handicap placard, because Albuquerque - where we're going - has a city ordinance prohibiting the use of out of state handicap placards.

Another article, however, points out that the ordinance is in contradiction to a state code provision permitting it, and both articles say the ordinance is likely to be repealed. I didn't see any follow-up, but I hope it is.

1 comment:

  1. We've used my removable handicapped parking placard (issued by PA) in a number of different states and never encountered any problems. So I was a little surprised to read your comment about the Albuquerque ordinance.

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