To trhinkl that it is madness to allow buggies on buses?

[mrsruffallo]

I think wherever possible (i.e older babies onwards) buggies should be folded up. I am so tired of these oversized contraptions being pushed through the aisles, banging passengers thighs and shoulders as the squeeze talong a narrow aisle. I have had my ankles knocked todday and somehow had to squeeze against another passenger along the crowded aisle to make room for yet another buggy.
Theworst thing I have witnesses was a wheeelchair user being denied access onto the bus because there was already a buggy in the wheelchair space. The buggy owner didn't offer to fold up and got off a few stops later.

mclarens are very easy to fold though aren't they?

Look, your mothers would be able to give you hints on how to do it- they managed to use public transport without wheeling a buggy on
Surely we are not so helpless!

Please get over yourself! God forbid anyone should want to actuallyld go out for the day with their child. They have as much right to use the bus as you.

yab totally u

YABU - however I do get where you're coming from and inconsiderate buggy users on buses to annoy me too! And a wheelchair user should ALWAYS have priority in the wheelchair space.

I don't have a car - and I don't live within walking distance of anything other than a small Tesco Express - so I do need to get the bus with DD in the buggy - not so much now she is older but it was essential when she was younger. Our buses have space for 2 buggies (unless the wheelchair space is in use) but no luggage space/racks so if I was to fold my buggy everytime I used the bus I'd have to get on while carrying the buggy, bags and everything that was on the buggy, and steering DD (2) who was a late walker and falls over very easily on moving buses, and then have to lug the buggy and everything on it down the aisle to a seat as there would be nowhere else to put it.

If I'm on the bus and a wheelchair user gets on - I get off because there isn't space to put a folded buggy (unless I was to sit in one of those priority, accessible seats - which are never free - and I wouldn't use them anyway as there are other people who would need them more than me) - and I would always happily get off as they need the space much more than I do!

I try to avoid taking the buggy if we are going somewhere on the bus now that DD is older, as I don't want to uneccesarily take up the buggy space if someone needed it with a young baby - however if we were out for the whole day DD can't manage without the buggy yet!

mrsruffallo

Indeed my mother did. She had one child.

I have twins.

Oh, and my mother now adamantly refuses to use a bus these days, due to the past trauma of it all! She will walk, or she will get a taxi. But she will not use a bus. She says she can't handle it.

So, most of you are suggesting that if you had to fold your bugggy up you wouldn't use public transport at all
I find it hard to believe that this would put intelliegent independent women off leaving the house

Yes, mrsruffalo, but if you used that argument we'd all be putting our washing through the mangle because our grandmothers didn't have automatic washing machines and coped. Don't you think our mothers would have preferred to be able to wheel buggies onto buses and therefore get around that little bit more easily?

OP, no, my mum couldn't get the pram on the bus. They weren't designed that way. She had to walk 2.5 miles to the shops and then uphill for 2.5 miles home again. Her view of buggies on buses? Progress.

YABU
Buses should have safe buggy spaces and bus drivers should enfore folding if a wheelchair user needs a space. But no reason at all why they should have to be folded. That would be most inconvenient.

X-posted - that was to your earlier post.

Of course I'd leave the house, but it would be more of a struggle to take DS anywhere on the bus, so I'd probably do it less. And I don't think I'm suggesting it's impossible, just that it would be a lot more inconvenient (and the inconvenience would extend to everyone else when I fell into their laps while standing with DS, shopping and folded buggy and therefore no free hand to hang on with).

No luggage space on our buses, would appreciate your recommendations OP. (I use a sling personally but this would affect others.)

I'm saying that many people would find public transport more inconvenient. Some would drive instead. Some probably would become isolated and not leave the house. Some might walk.

I'm not seeing the net gain to anyone, including the bus companies. I think bus companies like parents' £3.20-£3.50.

Hear hear, rookery. Mine is very impressed by how much easier it is now to get around with a buggy - she had three of us and had to walk everywhere because she couldn't manage on a bus as no-one ever lent a hand.

That is a vey unusual reaction though, Jessie. And if your twins were old enough why not sit them on a seat and fold the buggy? I cannot understand the controversy surrounding this.

Um, I don't think anyone on here has said that.

I asked my mum about this, and she said that she couldn't get the bus when we were tiny, because the pram wouldn't fit on, and when we were bigger the bus driver would squeeze the buggy with me in onto the seat (i have a feeling health and safety wasn't such a big issue then!)

I found the Maclaren too difficult to fold one handed, also it stuck out into the aisle of the school bus.

Because then you'd be coming on here saying that you can't believe selfish parents who let their children take up seats that fare-paying adults could use?

But the title of your thread doesn't ask if it is unreasonable to expect parents to fold buggies when using the bus - it says that it is madness to allow buggies on buses FULL STOP, mrsrufallo. Be clearer with your title if you don't want people thinking you don't want buggies on buses!

Bother, hit post too soon. I can't really believe that you think someone with twins ought to have to take them out of the buggy and get them to sit on a seat just because it would be marginally more convenient for you. What if the twins aren't old enough to sit on a seat yet?

YABU, just because there is a woman who lives near me with three children under three. Folding her pram isn't practical, though I'm sure she'd get off for a wheelchair user (she seems like a very nice lady)

Massive respect to her.

I think what this comes down to is if you are a regular bus user (which I am) you get a buggy that is appropriate for using on the bus. I have a v small lightweight mclaren, it is very easy to get on and off, manouvre fit in the small gaps. It is people who are using massive buggies on public transport that ABU in my opinion.

I am not anti big buggies but they aren't suitable for nipping on and off buses and public transport. I have always had a buggy that I can get on and off a bus or train myself and if necessary can carry up a flight of steps with DD still strapped in it if necessary so I don't have to rely on the goodwill of some passer by to help me.

I do think people could be more tolerant too and obviously wheelchair users do take priority over buggy users. When I took DD2 as a young baby I would have the sling with me for this very reason.

Wow, MrsChemist, I'm in awe! Can't cope with one most days.

What sort of bus has isles big enough to drive a buggy down? and where are they going?
Methinks you are just bored and want to start a fight!

I really don't think it is an unusual reaction. There's lots of people who won't use buses, because they think it's "too difficult". A lot of them are women around my mother's age. Once people feel pushed into car-use, it seems quite difficult to get them out again!

To your second point. If. If they were old enough. And I am lucky enough to be blessed with amazing biddable toddlers. Other mothers have bolters.

Oh, and there's nowhere to put the pushchair when folded, except the wheelchair space!

And what about when they weren't old enough to even sit up? Perhaps I could have laid them horizontally along a seat, and hoped they didn't roll off when the bus route traversed a roundabout, eh?

YANBU, we have only had buses that you could wheel a buggy (or a wheelchair) onto for the last three years on our bus route.

I have no access to a car during the day, I have successfully managed to do all journeys including the shopping on the bus with first one then two children and a buggy.

Buggies arn't buggies any more though are they? They are mahoosive small person transport systems designed to (barely) fit in the back of a 4x4, not quickly fold down to pop on the bus.

In our mums day buggies were all the size of a super basic Maclaren and folded up to not much more than the size and weight of a big brolly.