A more reasonable argument is that as we achieve our goal of fewer cars on the road we can afford to dedicate more space to disabled parking. That makes a little more sense to me, but I’m inclined to the opposite view: as public transport gets better we will need fewer cars for people with disabilities. The one aspect of Sydney’s taxi service I like is that most of the new permits are for disabled-accessible taxis. The rationale is stupid, but the practical effect is that people who need those taxis are finding it much easier to get around.

reducing the numbers of permits is obviously a good idea

I’m not sure that’s at all obvious, moz.
Getting away from the issue of disability permits as a rights issue per se, parking strikes me as far more a matter of efficiency in city planning: in the next decades we’re going to have to deal more and more with the problem of urban car parking as a scarce resource. I’m fond of congestion schemes, paid parking, and road tolling as a partial approach, but there should always be an equity aspect to it, ie. that the people who should be given priority access to a scarce resource—accessible parking space—should be the ones who have the most need of it and the least access to public alternatives.
The more cars on the road in total, the more disability parking permits there should be. Is that wrong?

The problem with punishing the driver is that we lack effective punishments. It’s well established that fines, towing the car and removing the drivers license don’t work very well to discourage habitual offenders. Perhaps those who misuse disabled parking permits are different, it would be nice to know.

lauredhel, reducing the numbers of permits is obviously a good idea. The problem of how to program the bureaucrazy to do it efficiently is one that I’m not sure can be solved. But standardised permits with photos seems like a good start. I’m guessing that they expect a large number of current holders not to reapply just because the hassle of faking it is more than people who don’t really, really need them will put up with.

Worst/funniest experience I’ve had on a bike was taking my tandem recumbent trike along to an event so a bunch of blind people could ride on it. Which they mostly enjoyed. Some of the “no, really, I can see shadows, I’ll be fine” ones also enjoyed driving it. The brake accessible from the rear seat was handy for them because it was enough fun that some of them felt the need to exaggerate the extent of their vision. Nothing quite like an “I’m not blind” driver pointing you confidently at a white patch on a fence to induce panic.

Personally, I like to rub their noses in my mobility and athleticism by never using any car park, let alone a disabled one. So I lock my bike up as close to my destination as I can. To make the point that I can park even closer than they can.

One thing that does come up is people who have the permit but no car – they get the permit so that whoever usually provides their transport can park in disabled spots. Which is fine at those times. But there’s a real temptation to leave the permit in the car… and so convenient too. Unfortunately the only real response to that is to withdraw the permit…

It is very annoying to not be allowed to use the only park left, when no disabled drivers may be along for hours, but I’ll take that and my working legs any time over the alternative.