[Tagging] Proper parking lot separation

[John Willis]

> On Apr 28, 2017, at 9:04 AM, Warin <61sundowner at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Most of the 'amenity' for disabled places seams to be a wider parking area (to allow doors to fully open with space for a wheelchair) with close proximity to the entry.

Below are some amenities that are common here for new disabled parking installations. Many have been installed into existing lots in the last 5 years.  I am not listing this to discuss how to tag them, but these are pretty common for large facilities here. I am not saying they are expected or normal outside of my experience, but as a person who drove a wheelchair van in the US, it is interesting to see the amenities offered to disabled drivers at transportation related locations here in Japan. 

- proximity: proximity to entrances, toilets, trash cans etc. often, the disabled parking area directly adjacent to the facility and almost all amenities, usually the toilets.  
- access: walkways without stairs, gentle slopes, etc. the wheelchair accessible spaces at the service areas here are the only one with curb-cuts for a wheelchair - the rest of the walkways have 25cm curbs around them. 
- covered: many new disabled spaces have roofs that extend from over their parking spot to the general walkways that are also covered, because of heavy rains. 
- wider parking isles to maneuver a vehicle. 
- wider spaces to deal with a bad parking job. 
- walkways / spaces between some parking spaces (marked "van accessible" in the US) to lower a side ramp for a wheelchair. Rear loaders are common, but seem much more dangerous here. 
- restricted spaces: in malls or other places with extremely heavy demand, each individual space may have a "toll gate" blocking access, opened by the parking lot attendant only for marked disabled cars. Arenas and other very large venues have gates in&out of a dedicated, completely separated lot (found 4 so far). 

Disabled Bus parking also has cover (on the curb side) for disabled people exiting a dedicated disabled bus (like from a special school or group). 

While proximity and curb cuts are common everywhere, the level of amenities offered to newer disabled spaces is pretty high.  

Javbw