to think that wheelchairs should be priority on buses?

[mamadivazback]

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.

5miles takes about 3 hours for me

It took me two hours to walk 6 miles, when I was a slimmer, fit, non-pregnant 19 year old.

A city where the nearest chemist is 2 bus rides away? Most deliver too.

This thread is a perfect example of extreme lack of tolerance on both parts.

Suggesting it is reasonable for a heavily pregnant woman to walk 12 miles with a pram is absurd.

Equally Riven's tales of abuse on buses is horrific.

It doesn't take a genius to work out what is "right" in most situations. Where it is potentially ambiguous e.g. where a buggy cannot be folded it just needs a bit of good manners from both parties.

That is good TimeWasting!

You must be one of those speed walkers, that doesn't get distracted by pretty flowers and lushious beds of grass every 5 times.

I do totter along..

Anyway, buggies do fold even when you are very pregnant with low iron and whatever. A buggy still folds. Maclaren umbrella folds are found in charity shops for a fiver. I have one here, free to anyone who wants it too (bought when expecting dd but never used as she was too disabled)
Wheelchairs do not generally fold.
Prams and wheelchairs can both be on the bus together if one folds rather than anyway having to get off.

altinkum, it might take you 3 hours to walk 12 miles, it would take me more than that when not pregnant, even when I was fit, I can assure you. I walked the 6 miles to town a couple times, I remember how long it took.

no the chemist was just one bus ride, bus I'm extra awkward in that I can't take pills so sometimes had to try and find another chemist for the meds.
I did manage to get them to send a prescription in the post once, but it was difficult

Riven, I'd have to get a bus to the charity shop though.

There is not much that is impossible is there? So it is fairly redundant argument wouldn't you say?

Just because you are physically capable of doing something doesn't mean others are - walking 12 miles is a lot pregnant or not. It is also time consuming and not entirely practical to do regularly if you have much else to do in a day.

Rivenside, are you trying to argue that one would always have access to a foldable buggy?
That's true most of the time, but as with me, not always at all.

why nit? they aren't dear.
I remember way back in the dark ages having to buy one so I could get one the bus with ds, that was before buses had spaces, so you had to fold.

alkinkum, I point out what couldn't be done, for the benefit of your understanding.
But 'can't' isn't generally part of my life.
I've managed a hell of a lot actually.

this is a strange thread.

i take buses probably 4x a week, over the last couple of years or so, and i have never, ever seen anyone in a wheelchair - it must be a fairly rare occurance

it isn't like you are having to fold every other journey - in 2 years i haven't had to. i am sure i will at some point, but then again maybe not - my oldest is well beyond buggy years, my youngest has maybe a half a year left

how could i possibly begrudge someone a space because it inconvenienced me temporarily? especially knowing that it would likely be the one and only time it ever happened to me, but that this was an issue the person in the wheelchair had to face probably every time they took the bus*

a good point was raised about maclaren wheelchairs for small children looking like buggies - pre kids I don't know that i would have known the difference, and would have wondered why such a big child was in a buggy still

TheQueenOfDenial has had the final post of anything worth saying I think, and now this thread is dead.

Altinkum, are you Paula Radcliffe?

chibi bus routes vary massively.
One bus route to the hospital was almost impossible for prams.

I was the same, scoffing about large kids in buggies and their lazy parents.

Life experience gives you one hell of a reality check.

so you live on a bus route where you have to fold a buggy regularly because of people in wheelchairs? really?

altinkum, you've basically implied that suggesting that some pregnant women could not walk 12 miles is false. You say it's not impossible. I can assure that even if I were fit I could not manage that walk.
Just because you could manage it does not make it even reasonable to suggest most pregnant women could.

chibi, I imagine if the bus is going to the hospital it could be a regular occurence.