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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that wheelchairs should be priority on buses?

620 replies

mamadivazback · 02/08/2011 21:05

My DS and I were on the bus today coming home from the town when I noticed a woman I vaguely know to speak to in the queue behind about 8 people with her 6YO DD who is in a narrow childs wheelchair and her DP with 2 year old son in small stroller so we waved, as you do.

Now the bus was about half full and 2 girls got on with their children in pushchairs, one with a very large Emmaljunga type and the other with a stroller and both children were happily sitting up by themselves and looked to be about 18 months old but neither thought to fold their pushchair when the lady tried to get her DD on, she had taken her DS out so she could fold pushchair and all sit together but the bus driver told her she could not get on as there were already 2 pushchairs onboard so she had to wait behind in the rain for the next bus.

I know pushchairs are entitled to use the bus but I thought you had to fold them if a wheelchair user was getting on and was quite shocked when the bus driver refused her a ticket, I spoke to her later on and she said it has happened a few times and it's just bad luck but I really don't think it's fair.

OP posts:
SpeedyGonzalez · 04/08/2011 14:48

Sirzy, we also have lots of priority seating for elderly people, etc. Basically, our bus design says: if you can stand, you should take second priority over downstairs seating.

I think that's quite reasonable.

rustikate · 04/08/2011 15:04

yes, wheelchairs should be given priority

Riveninside · 04/08/2011 15:14

Surely people do chaotic? Theres whole threads on 'what buggy will fit in such and such a car'

Sirzy · 04/08/2011 15:38

probably very ignorant (or very obvious!) but what is WAV?

mum0ftw0 · 04/08/2011 15:39

Wheelchair users get priority and should do.
As everyone in this thread has agreed with.

There's times when prams won't fold and many pram users miss buses constantly and go through hell with it (because other prams take up spaces).
Obviously that's a temporary problem, but at the time it's very hard.

Is every woman who ever had a pram that wouldn't fold dumb, selfish, inconsiderate, whining, etc etc?
No.

Riveninside · 04/08/2011 15:39

Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle. Generally got a ramp or tail lift for when the disabled person has to travel in their wheelchair. So a wheelchair space too.

Sirzy · 04/08/2011 15:42

Ye I know what you mean, my friend has one for her son!! Thanks

mum0ftw0 · 04/08/2011 15:45

What do the pram haters think about my 4 yr old who will personally bust all your ear drums if I attempted to take him out of the pram in a strange place (on the bus).
Am I a selfish cow for having the pram up, unfolded?

ThePosieParker · 04/08/2011 15:46

4yr old in a pram on a bus? Does he have SN?

mum0ftw0 · 04/08/2011 15:47

...just out of curiosity?

I guess him displaying that behaviour makes me a crap parent to boot

mum0ftw0 · 04/08/2011 15:48

ASD, just been awarded higher rate DLA today (wahoo) but no mobility.

mum0ftw0 · 04/08/2011 15:49

I'm really happy, just having a laugh at some people I encountered back in the pram using days :p

mum0ftw0 · 04/08/2011 15:50

Imean bus using days

bubblesincoffee · 04/08/2011 16:00

I can't believe this thread is so long for somethingwhich should just be covered by common sense and normal human decency. Sad that it warrants so much debabte.

I don't think wheelchair users should always have priority. I find it quite patronising to say that they should. These things should work on the basis of need. A Mum with a sleeping baby and loads of shopping probably does need the bus space more than a fit heathy wheelchair user who is currently training for the London 2011 paralympics. Many of the wheelchair users I know would easily forsake a space on the bus in that situation.

But then many others have the attitude that everyone owes them a favour because they have to use a wheelchair and wouldn't bat an eyelid at a struggling Mum being turfed off the bus or trying to juggle a baby and shopping whilst folding a buggy when they could wait for another bus quite comfortably.

If everyone showed some consideration for other people, and didn't only think of number one, this wouldn't be a problem.

ThePosieParker · 04/08/2011 16:01

Mum.....perhaps get yourself a motorised pram?!!! Grin

Congrats on DLA, I hope that means more support,.

mum0ftw0 · 04/08/2011 16:09

LOL I've always wanted a motorized pram, one with a ride on step for me. It would be a dream!
I got a double bike trailor and would love at electric bike at some point, next best thing.

Yeah, so happy about the DLA. It's just a dream right now to know there'll be no struggle now, awarded until 2013.
It's been backdated and I'm ordering a NEW flippen washing machine, no more washing in the bath. :')

TandB · 04/08/2011 16:28

The refund tickets are definitely still available. I had one a couple of years ago when the bus I was on crashed, and again quite recently when it went out of service.

TimeWasting · 04/08/2011 16:56

banana, that was my plan, big pram, lots of space for shopping, get my stride on. But I really struggled recovering from the emergency CS.

I think a lot of first time Mums assume they will have the birth they want. I've read lots of tales on here of really dejected new mothers who had to have interventions despite all the NCT classes they'd been to.
If you're not expecting a CS, you won't have taken that into account when planning to be unable to walk far, or drive.

I was wondering earlier if anyone had studied the correlation between size/inflexibility of first bought pram and incidence of PND in first time mothers?

Riveninside · 04/08/2011 18:32

Prams have got ridicuously large. Dd is 19 and her first pram looks teeny cimoared to the monstrosities kf today, some of which are bigger than wheelchairs. But we still had to fold despite cs and shopping as there were no accessible buses. Somehow we didnt all perish.
And yes, wheelchairs shoukd get priority because despite shopping, cs, sleeping baby, entire range of ikea in oram etc, you can still fold the thing and get on the bus. The wheelchair user cannot. And there maybe an hour between accessible buses. The same mum, if she misses the 10.16, wont wait for the 11.16 like the wheelchair user has too but get the number 48 instead which isnt accessible. She just folds rather than wait an hour.
Thats the digference. She can fold. A wheelchair cannot.

2shoes · 04/08/2011 18:39

oh riv I remeber those days, ds is 19 as well We had one of those maclaren prams that then changed into a buggy, had to walk as it was way to big for the bus, and back then there were no accesible buses.
as for getting the birth you want.......lots of disabled children didn't get the birth they wanted that is why they are stuck in wheelchairs.

TimeWasting · 04/08/2011 18:47

Confused Can we not have any empathy for anyone who isn't in a wheelchair?
Have I said anywhere that the wheelchair user doesn't get the space?
Do you actually think that PND isn't a serious problem for some women?

Maryz · 04/08/2011 18:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

2shoes · 04/08/2011 18:49

as long as the person in the wheelchair gets the wheelchair space(it is called that for a reason) I can have empathy for every one

2shoes · 04/08/2011 18:50

Maryz taht is terrible, did you tell the shop.

seems like we all had those maclaren prams lol

Maryz · 04/08/2011 18:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.