A national survey carried out in October last year showed the number of cars using a mobility park without displaying a current permit decreased from 40% to 34% compared to a previous survey.
It involved the organisation's 16 branches, about 40 mobility parks and the observation of about 500 vehicles, national development manager Peter Wilson said.
Mobility parks near ATMs, council offices and supermarkets were targeted.
It focused on a benchmark survey completed in June and July 2006. Following that survey, the association worked at getting a fine increase from $40 to $150 for illegally using a mobility park. This came into effect in June last year.
Since then, there had been a "measurable drop" in the number of people misusing mobility parks, but overall the number was still high, Mr Wilson said.
People parking without a permit for less than 15 minutes was 84%, up from 72%. This often resulted in parking wardens not being able to catch offenders, he said.
"It shows the little consideration these people give to the importance of mobility parking for those with disabilities."
Males were more likely to abuse parks, with 59% of them, compared to 38% of women, being observed without a permit. Though unsure of why this was, Mr Wilson speculated it might be because women were more considerate than men.
More thought needed to go into the implications of illegally parking in a mobility park, he said. It could ruin someone's day - even if a person parked there for just five minutes, it still meant a disabled person could not access the park when they needed to.
Those with mobility parking permits appeared to have also paid heed to the fine increase. The number of parks occupied by vehicles displaying a current permit increased from 50% to 58%.
Cars which displayed an expired permit also decreased from 10% to 8%.
Ideally, CCS would like to launch an awareness campaign to target offenders. However, a lack of resources meant they were focusing on a range of other methods to deter mobility park abuse.
Those methods included installing cameras to record illegal parking, increasing the number of parking wardens on patrol and working with councils and car park owners to improve signs by using blue markings rather than yellow and using words as well as the traditional wheelchair symbol, Mr Wilson said.
In Dunedin, CCS staff had noticed an increase in the number of people renewing their mobility park permits after being "reminded" by DCC parking wardens, Southern regional manager Paul Martin said.
In general, feedback said the bigger fine was a good thing. However, awareness needed to grow and attitudes to change towards mobility parks, he said.
"Changes in societal behaviour do take time."
He hoped an awareness campaign could be launched with the help of local councils but was taking a "wait-and-see" approach to any action CCS would take.
