Who has priority with bus

[Corncoby]

I have a minor disability meaning I can’t drive at the moment and rely on the bus and buggy to get around. I never have issue with this as bus has space for 2 buggies in a buggy section and a wheel chair space. For the first time today the bus was busy and the buggy space was taken up with 2 shopping trolleys. I was told bus was full and I couldn’t get on unless I folded my buggy which I can’t do due to disability also wasn’t any space to put buggy once folded really. When I got on the next bus the buggy area states this area is for buggys. Should the trolleys be made to move. It meant I was late for my doctors appointment as even though I had got the earlier bus so that I had plenty of time the second bus was late. Who has priority I guess some of the trolly users could have been disabled too

I don’t know. Some of these shopping trollies are huge and getting bigger! They stick out into the isle. Possibly the areas for wheelchairs etc could be made bigger, but then, that means fewer seats. Perhaps there should be some rule about size of trollies.

You are incredibly wrong, wheelchair users are THE priority, that's it, anything else is up to the driver.

I don’t believe I am wrong, even though there’s a sign it’s unenforceable.

say a parent is in the space, wheelchair user asks parent to move. Parent refuses.

driver asks. Parent refuses.

driver can’t physically remove parent and child. Police won’t attend as it isn’t a crime, unless parent kicks off.

legal action would almost certainly fail.

@Sirzy the buggy is for housing a little person, not a packet of cornflakes!! if someone needs a mobility aid then they should gey a proper one.

It is entirely enforcable, you just have to stand your ground.
The bus driver cannot move if the wheelchair user is on the bus but not in the wheelchair space, they can request assistance from the police if necessary.

Ask me how I know that.

They call it a buggy space because that's what it is!!! If it's for shopping trolleys and everything else then why give it a name at all and cause confusion? Just leave it blank don't stick a big buggy sign there.

I've used buses all my life and I've never ever heard of shopping trolleys taking presidence over a buggy before.

The buses I go on every one takes great trouble to be helpful to people with a buggy to enable them to get on board.

I did once see a woman with a buggy refuse to move it out of the wheelchair space when a woman got on in a wheel chair. That was a real exception to normal behaviour. The wheelchair user was able to go into the buggy space but she wasn't really secure in that. I was expecting the driver to intervene but he was obviously one of the " don't give a damn" drivers so he just kept out of things. But that is only one occasion in many many years of bus use.

@Bignanna yeah like a bus company is really going to have a trolley inspector.....you are taking the proverbial 😂😂😂

I've never seen a shopping trolley as big as a buggy, so I don't quite get the point.

It’s up to the driver. Some of these trolleys are huge.

That sort of area doesn't exist on London buses.

On London buses there is 1 area for a wheelchair/buggies/shopping trolleys. The size can be anywhere between fits 1 wheelchair (just about) to can fit 4 single buggies.

On countryside buses there is often a second area where a buggy can go. This is because they have a single set of doors and they can utilise the space where the rear doors would be on a London bus.

Yes, I’m aware. It was a bit of a rhetorical question in response to OP’s description of what she wished had happened in this instance.

Wrong I think. Disability trumps either pushchairs or someone's wheelie shopping bag. I've come off a bus before because I had a oushchair and there was a disabled person waiting. The driver said it's no choice and he wouldn't continue unless the pushchairs came off or folded up

If they were there first I think they have priority? Were you expecting them to get off the bus or move?

But the shopping trolley could also be a disability aid? So it’s not a black and white situation