Conclusion

As a result of compiling this report, researchers came to a number of conclusions. Firstly, there is a severely low number of enforcement bodies patrolling the streets at peak times. In the total observation period of four hours not one traffic warden patrolled the disabled car parking spaces on St. Augustine St. This allows members of the public to abuse the spaces. As previously mentioned members of An Garda Siochana were present yet did not act on the abuse taking place. There should be a strong partnership formed between An Garda Siochana and the traffic wardens to strengthen the campaign against the abuse of these spaces.

Researchers found there to be a lot more abuse of these car parking spaces than previously anticipated. Not many people were observed during the time period, however, of those who were one third of them were abusing the space. This is a high percentage for the short time period in question.

A factor that may be leading to the large amount of abuse is the lack of disabled parking in Galway City. There a total of 125 disabled parking spaces in the city. Very few of these are located close to local amenities, which make the ones that are high on the list to be abused. These spaces are put in place to help those with severe mobility issues get around with ease, however members of the public view them as convenient and primly located when delivering or collecting goods.

To finish researchers also observed that there is very little signage on streets to inform the public of the repercussions of parking illegally in disabled parking spaces. Adjacent to the car parking spaces on St. Augustine St. there should be a sign with these details. By not having signage like this, it helps the public ignore the fact that they are parking illegally, therefore easing their conscience. Overall there are a number of factors that lead to the abuse of disabled car parking spaces and these factors are what enforcement bodies need to improve on in order to cut...