A while ago I wrote about my frustration with people who pull their cars in next to my mother’s rampvan, after watching her come down the ramp and knowing she would need to use it again (see that article here). My experiment involved buying three bright orange traffic cones (I bought these) and putting them in the van. When anyone took mom somewhere and there were no van accessible spaces, the van could be parked anywhere with two open spaces. Then the cones could be put next to the van in the empty space needed for the ramp to come down.
So far, this has worked brilliantly. I put the cones at the halfway point in the parking space, close to the sliding door the ramp comes out of. This way people coming in from either side of the space will see them. To date we haven’t had another problem with someone stealing that necessary extra space.
The only thing I’d note is that when they came, the cones smelled BAD. Brand new plastic skunk bad. I threw them in the shower and washed them down good with soap and warm water, dried them, spritzed some Febreze on them and they were good to go. Just in case you buy some and experience the same thing.
[...] ** Part Two: The Traffic Cone Update [...]