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.

Mrs H if you look up thread I linked to show that there are folding buggies available from birth. I know this as we have one.

the reason i dont have a smaller buggy is as i was given my buggies second hand and have to make do with what im given.

My mother didnt do without her buggy on public transport, she used it on public transport daily, to go to work/ childminders/shopping etc

if buggies werent allowed on buses then it would restrict my movements and i wouldnt beable to do shopping etc.

as if i go to the supermarket/ town center to do a weekly shop, then where do i put all the shopping in the basket when i have folded the buggy and i have 2 dcs on my lap?

before you reccomend internet shopping, that option is not available to me as i do not have a debit/ credit card, only a cash card.

and things are twice as expensive at londis.

as for walking i can walk to the shopping centre, but my 3 and four your olds wont manage to walk all the way there and back.

nailak that sounds ahrd but you know- your set of definitely difficult circs will not apply to 99% of people on the bus. If those who could folded or bougt bus sized buggues there would be laods of space for wheelchairs and buggies.

As I said earlier, I use a buggy on a bus (rarely) as I have Sn kids and ds4 panic getting on so I need it. I doubt there are many with our unique set of circs tbh. We won;t affect the general bus outcomes.

Grumple nobody wants to make it ahrder for mums; it would be great if everyone could work together. or if they could put enough buses on for everyone.

Peachy a lot of people who have no choice but to use public transport dont have the choice of the full range of new buggies. I had a £20 second hand MPX which didn't fold, the chassy flattened but the top bit was like a moses basket. A lot of the buggies and prams I see on the bus are very old styles and it's obviously not the first baby they've been used for!

YABU but some people can use a bit of buggy courtesy whilst on the bus. It would be difficult to fold a buggy with a very young baby, unless you get a sling too.

Well ds1 had a folding buggy from 3 months and a sling before and is 11.5, and ds4 is 3.5 so not that new. I freecycled our from birth 'too big for teh car boot' folding buggy.

Which isn't to say everyone can have one; but a fair few on here said they were not available, which leads me to assume they never looked.

My mum 34 years ago just did not venture out on a bus, it was impossible to get a Silvercross coachbuilt pram on public transport, so she just used to stay local within walking distance.

i think buses should be made more accessible for buggies and mothers and children in general, as an economic policy to limit care use. if it was made more desirable/easier for people with children to use the bus then they wouldnt buy a car.

personally i wouldnt even think of buying a car if the bus was easier to use, but now i am going to start lessons etc so i can drive as i am fed up of the busses.

and the main factor in not wanting a dc4, is that it would further limit my ability to go out.

Although Pig in manya reas it was easier then, before all teh lcoal shops closed- I don't fancy ebing restricted to the Spar for any incidental food shopping (eg when ds1 has done an overnight food raid and eaten everything)

This comes up so often and I really dont see the issue here. I have a Stokke pushchair which has a much smaller footprint than people think (smaller than half the maclarens) and fits down a bus aisle easily if it needs to. I only use the bus a couple of times a month as mainly I walk. Most of our bus drivers let buggies get on at the back door, so no squeezing past everyone. There is a space which can hold two buggies or one wheelchair and if its not full of people standing, two buggies can fit easily. Obviously, if a wheelchair needs the space, I get off (only happened a couple of times but wouldnt dream of staying on), as does everyone that I have seen. So unless you are just fundamentally objecting to anyone taking a baby on the bus, I cant see how this could possibly annoy anyone. Never annoyed me before I had a baby either.

peachy my mums local shops at the time comprised of a Londis, Greengrocer,bucher,and Fishmonger, and Chemist. Now its a Chineese Take a way, Indian Restaurant, Pub, Stationary shop so there you go. I would always fold up if there was a wheelchair or someone who needed it more than me. I am pg with a dc2 and I have a sling, I will use it when out on the bus.

The problem where I live is that many buses are the traditional double decker where the doors where you get on are divided helpfully with a hand rail, both sides having steps and neither side wide enough for a buggy, a wheelchair or a zimmer frame to get on. Consequently, buggies, wheelchairs and zimmers can only get on every third bus that comes along causing high demand for the space at the front of the modern buses when they eventually come along.

well ihave a bugaboo and an instep nipper, not small pushchairs but suitable for the fact that i do a LOT of walking, including school run over a field, so need the big wheels etc. plus i dont drive so need to be able to carry shopping etc.

if i have to i will fold up a pushchair, for a wheelchair or just because the bus is busy, but the buses that i use can fit a couple or pushchairs, 3? or one pushchair AND a wheelchair, even a wheelchair and my pushchairs, they arent huge but not are they the small maclaren type. iahve had two maclarens and they are not as comfy for a small baby, i woudnt use one for a newborn, they are flimsy and harder to push and dont last as well, i had a graco one like your link peachy and it broke within 7mth of use, the shop tried to say that my 7mth old ds2 was too heavy for it!! i got a full refund int he end but i wont buy a lightweight pushchair again!..
most of the time i walk, but if its pissing down, or my spd is playing up or i have ds4 with me then i sometimes get the bus, and folding down the pushchair whilst holding onto a toddler and a baby and dealing with bags etc is a pita, i will do it and ask for help if necessary but most of the time it isnt, thankfully!

I'm afraid I have to speak up for my Mac, it can be called many thinsg but flimsy isn't one of them. Its the Techno XLR and its a workhorse, totally indestructible!

well the one we had for ds1 wasnt, nor was the second one we have and no good for traipsing across a field for school, esp not if it has been raining or snowing!

i found the back wheels wore really badly on it and then made it a nightmare to push.

it wasnt a cheap maclaren either £140 when we got it for ds1 who is 12, i think it was a techno actually and i would never use one of them for a newborn. sling or a proper carrycot for a newborn.

When I was reading up on collapseable pushchairs, I remember being quite perturbed by one library book. It cheerily warned that "some" pushchairs that were rated as suitable for newborns by British regulations, would be rated as suitable for 3 months plus in France.

I have no idea whether that is actually true, and no idea whether, if true, it is an important thing to consider. But given evrything else I needed in my perfect pushchair, it put me off buying anything that didn't have a carrycot.

Maybe lots of other parents have heard that too, and that's why we all have pushchairs the size of Rutland on the bus?

It's how far they lie back; my Graco did so it was fine for us. Mind it was the model before so could be very different but it is still going strong now. Well strongish anyway: won't be passing it on to anyone but then it was £60 new so am OK with that!

Yep Pig, we have a boutique grocers where you can't buy broccolli but can pay about £90 for a misshapen tomato which we avoid like the plague coz it is creepy. Spar, about 6 pubs, beauty salon, sarnie shop specialising in packed lunches for £1 for the uni, another sarnie shop specialising in posh lunches for about £6 for the grockels, five hairdressers, and 5 shops around the loose theme of victorianesque cherubims. Oh and a Roman shop. There's a frock shop as well but never seen anyone over size 4 go in so never bothered. It is also possible to buy human size trees sculpted into erotic art featuring elves giving imps a blow job, but no hope of a pint of soya milk on a Sunday morning.

Useful selection that ;)

There is talk of a Tesco: the posher locals are up in arms, I am just thinking yes! fruit under a fiver that isn't saggy from the spar!

Its really sad, I remember the days of the Fishmonger, and greengrocer. Oh yes and £90 for a bit of fungus . Where I live in Milton Keynes you do get the family Butchers which is really nice.

peachy I am not exaggerating about the fungus, those truffles (mushrooms) really are that price and more.

Grumple, no, I didn't drive when my children were little and I still don't drive now. I lived in a rural area with one bus an hour and I still do know. This was also (and I know this is turning into a bit of a 'back in the days of the ark' type thread!) in the time before Tesco delivered (or at least in our area 10 years ago).

I would bring baby, toddler, shopping, bags of coal, footballs and once even a Christmas tree home on the small bus. I even used to take the double buggy and get the toddler to walk so that I could transport the coal to the bus stop in one half of the buggy. Although I admit DH was present at the time of the Christmas tree scenario, so there were two adults getting the stuff on in that instance.

so do you think that is what all parents should do, or that we should improve services for parents?

so its ok for you to have taken bags of coal and xmas trees on a small bus but not ok for pushchairs?

chill out OP, the current system works fine for the most part. it must be a rare bus driver (and mum) indeed who would let a buggy take precedence over a wheelchair. Most parents using buggies on buses are quite sensible and considerate, and drivers help keep the peace for the most part. You're just as likely to be knocked in the ankles by someone's shopping cart.