I had an unexpected experience while tooling around in my dad's car, which bears Disabled Person plates (like the one illustrated) that allow you to park in marked blue slots.

Drivers around me were taking notice, but not with any special solicitousness or care. Instead, they were tailgating, then speeding to pass, then slowing down; or in other ways being reckless. It's as if my DP plates identified me as a person unfit to be on the road, someone to be avoided, even scorned. Note, I'm an excellent driver. I haven't had an accident or received a citation in a couple of decades -- and I drive relatively fast and decisively, as I learned to do in driver education courses, to avoid vague situations that lead to accidents.

People in wheelchairs often report similar experiences of disdain, although pedestrians (drivers without wheels) tend to be more forgiving, maybe because they couldn't walk any faster even if they pushed the wheelchair passenger out of the way.

It makes me wonder: do we do disabled persons a favor by having them bear these plates, for the small return of having supposedly easier parking? (It never seems easier to me.) Or do we do it to assuage social guilt, all the while resenting the travel friction that disabled persons allegedly impose on the rest of us (and taking it out on them when possible)? Or to warn other drivers away? My sensitivity has been raised. Every driver should be required to get behind the wheel of a DP-plated vehicle sometime.