MONROE - Wendy Erb pointed out the parking problems she encounters in Monroe during a "ride along" last week. Her voice was steady but soft as she talked. She was a bit worried about being seen as a complainer.
Erb, a trained lawyer turned homemaker, recently joined Monroe Main Street to emphasize handicapped parking accessibility issues.
Erb skillfully drove around for an hour in her mini van, modified with hand controls and a wheelchair lift, to more than a dozen spots where she cannot or dares not park.
She talked about her creative solutions and the places she frequents.
"Phillips 66 (at Third Avenue and Eighth Street) is the only station that will pump gas for me," Erb said.
Erb can't reach most gas pumps mounted on slabs because the curb prevents her wheelchair from getting close enough for her to reach the buttons.
"There are a number of stores that I can't even visit," Erb said. "It'd be one thing if I never said anything, but I have, and all I get is 'I'm sorry.' OK, but what can we do about it?"
Erb has been in a wheelchair for 18 years. She survived a six-story fall off an overpass in her vehicle, when a truck, carrying 3,800-pound pipes, swerved and sent the pipes sailing into her car.
Her vehicle ended up in the University of Marquette law school parking lot in Milwaukee.
"I took that as a sign," she said.
Erb's accident was before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect.
When she returned to work, Erb found her company drastically reducing her workload until she said she had no recourse but to quit and go to law school - at Marquette.
Erb isn't a radical advocate of the ADA, like another student she went to law school with, who took a chainsaw into class to cut a desk apart.
"My kids see how inconvenient it is, and I feel like it's my duty," Erb said. "I don't want to be seen as making a lot of waves."
So she uses other methods to get her message across and her errands done.
Erb phones stores and says "I can't come in, but can you come out? I want to spend my money."
Getting "parked in" is one of her greatest annoyances.
One day, a man parked in the yellow lines next to her van. When Erb pointed out he couldn't park there, he made a joke about just getting a ticket for the infraction of the law. It wasn't until she explained she couldn't get into her van that he understood her comment to him.
"You just want to follow the rules and be your own person," Erb said.
Another time, a motorcycle took up the small area next to the van.
"You get creative and make your own spots. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't," she said.
She once got "yelled at" by a policeman for parking diagonally across two parking spots.
When she does get parked in, Erb said she has to go find someone willing to move her van for her. Some people are reluctant to drive her van with its hand controls.
"It's the time and the hassle," she said.
Erb, a trained lawyer turned homemaker, recently joined Monroe Main Street to emphasize handicapped parking accessibility issues.
Erb skillfully drove around for an hour in her mini van, modified with hand controls and a wheelchair lift, to more than a dozen spots where she cannot or dares not park.
She talked about her creative solutions and the places she frequents.
"Phillips 66 (at Third Avenue and Eighth Street) is the only station that will pump gas for me," Erb said.
Erb can't reach most gas pumps mounted on slabs because the curb prevents her wheelchair from getting close enough for her to reach the buttons.
"There are a number of stores that I can't even visit," Erb said. "It'd be one thing if I never said anything, but I have, and all I get is 'I'm sorry.' OK, but what can we do about it?"
Erb has been in a wheelchair for 18 years. She survived a six-story fall off an overpass in her vehicle, when a truck, carrying 3,800-pound pipes, swerved and sent the pipes sailing into her car.
Her vehicle ended up in the University of Marquette law school parking lot in Milwaukee.
"I took that as a sign," she said.
Erb's accident was before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect.
When she returned to work, Erb found her company drastically reducing her workload until she said she had no recourse but to quit and go to law school - at Marquette.
Erb isn't a radical advocate of the ADA, like another student she went to law school with, who took a chainsaw into class to cut a desk apart.
"My kids see how inconvenient it is, and I feel like it's my duty," Erb said. "I don't want to be seen as making a lot of waves."
So she uses other methods to get her message across and her errands done.
Erb phones stores and says "I can't come in, but can you come out? I want to spend my money."
Getting "parked in" is one of her greatest annoyances.
One day, a man parked in the yellow lines next to her van. When Erb pointed out he couldn't park there, he made a joke about just getting a ticket for the infraction of the law. It wasn't until she explained she couldn't get into her van that he understood her comment to him.
"You just want to follow the rules and be your own person," Erb said.
Another time, a motorcycle took up the small area next to the van.
"You get creative and make your own spots. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't," she said.
She once got "yelled at" by a policeman for parking diagonally across two parking spots.
When she does get parked in, Erb said she has to go find someone willing to move her van for her. Some people are reluctant to drive her van with its hand controls.
"It's the time and the hassle," she said.