To think that pushchairs should have same priority as wheelchairs on buses?

[SparklyC]

Today - packed bus, I was in the pushchair bit on the bus, another mum got on with a buggy loaded with shopping. People sat in space that could have held another buggy in it didn't get up so both our pushchairs had to go in one space and my pushchair is one of those big all-terrain things! Then bus driver stopped bus for wheelchair user and asked us if either of us could fold down our pushchairs/move? Well, first of all, there wouldn't have been any room for us to sit down with our babies and also have our shopping on our knee or even stored on luggage shelf once pushchairs were on. Also the bus service I travel on has a bus every 4 minutes in the daytime. So the bus driver (who obviously has to be sen to be doing the right thing) got off the bus to tell the wheelchair user that the bus was full, and would he mind waiting for the next one, which he didn't anyway. What does everyone else think? Should we mums with our pushchairs be given the same priority as wheelchairs? Should bus drivers ask other passengers to move so that we can get on, instead of (sometimes) feeling like we are an annoyance and an obstacle to them?

Rhubarb, love your picture differences.

As much as I hate typing on ressurected (sp) threads....

To the poster who said "what if the baby has a disability", the baby will still be in a pram. Unless there are oxygen canisters or other aparatus then they re treated as a pram. There is a mahoosive difference between a pram and a wheelchair, which are very obvious.

Rhubarb - God no, never "seeemples". I would have lamped myself for that

Just like no-one can ever say "Who you gonna call" again without someone shouting "GHOSTBUSTERS", we now have the same issue with a quizzical "simple?" (meaning both "isn't that simple to understand?" and "are you simple?")

I may start a one woman crusade to reintroduce its correct use...

Abra1d, when someone who is elderly or pregnant or has a baby or a disability gets on a bus and no-one gets up then yes, I TELL them. And yes, with babe in arms I have asked/told people to get up (young people obviously, I haven't shoved old people off so I can sit down!).

I can't stand that attitude where everyone looks the other way pretending not to see the 80yr old clinging on for dear life or the pregnant lady getting squashed. So I get annoyed and tell them.

Obviously I am myself stood up, otherwise that would be a classic!

I catch a bus every morning with dcs (dds - 5,4 and ds - 22 months), somehow i manage to hold ds (who is disabled), fold pushchair, sort out dds and their schoolbags and get on the bus. There are no spaces for pushchairs or wheelchairs, so the bus driver kindly puts it on a seat for me. I also often have to catch the bus to hospital with ds (I don't drive), again I manage with ds (I sometimes use a sling as well), we often have to fold the pushchair (lots of old buses with no space for pushchairs), again I manage because I have to.

I manage by

1 - buying a pushchair that is suitable for bus (one handed fold, light-ish), enough support for ds.
2 - planning - never carry too much, use a rucksack, keep everything organised and to a minimum.
3 - asking for help - I used to be too nervous to ask people for help, now I have to. No-one has ever refused to hold ds for me (despite the fact that he screams like a banshee, when held by someone els), or help me get pushchair onto/off bus.

As everyone with any sense has said on this thread, the spaces are there for wheelchairs, it states that wheelchair users have priority. I can't for the life of me see what there is to argue about.

Well hazeyjane, for one there is the fact that a pushchair, such as you describe is in fact A BUGGY!

Yabvu. You choose to put your baby in a large pushchair (and to use one at all). The wheelchair user has no choice in whether or not to use a chair in order to gain mobility and independence. That alone to me says that the wheelchair is far more entitled to the space than the all terrain buggy. You choose to use an inconvenient buggy on public transport then be prepared to be inconvenienced. Additionally, what on earth is wrong with you? Have you no compassion or empathy whatsoever? Surely you could have got off the bus and waited for the next one? I would be utterly ashamed if my actions towards a person with disabilities made what must be a physically challanging existence even harder. Seriously, keep living in your selfish bubble and hope and pray that should disability ever strike you or you children then you/they will have the fortune to encounter people with more consideration and decency than you currently display.

why did some twat dig the crap thread up again.
were they really bored.

It was notastatistic, she started it!

TheRhubarb - if John Lewis describe it as a pushchair, then a pushchair it is!

I struggled with a maclaren, but despite being light, they are a pita to fold when you are holding a 12kg boy who doesn't hold any of his own weight, so we got one of these on ebay - it is amazing, and should hopefully last for ages, as I think ds is going to need to be in a pushchair/buggy for a while.

It says 'baby jogger' ffs! What, does it make the baby jog? Or do you jog with the baby? WTF is a baby jogger? And it is most definitely NOT a pushchair! A wheelchair is a pushchair because it is a chair and you push it whereas a buggy is adjustable and is not a chair because most people cannot sit in it therefore it is a BUGGY and I really think my head is going to implode!

ekky thump.

have i missed something?

my ... um....the thing i push ds around in, seems to have caused you to explode with indignation, i'm really sorry.

Oh and I admit, the only time I jog with it, is when we are late for the bus.

I said I would happily fold my buggy I there is somewhere/ someone holds my stuff,

Thats the seventh time I've said that not sure how I could be clearer on that tbh.

And i've also said often I would/do get off the bus, I do think in a case of bad weather it is worse to as a mother with a pram who cannot fold, to go out in bad weather with a very young baby raincover and all' . I apologise if my view offends people but thats my view.

I have never said I would be arsey with a wheelchair user.
I'm not responding anymore to have my words twiated.

Looong story hazeyjane - mainly the fault of Maryz.

thankyou micawber, i needed something that would also do us as our main pushchair buggy, and we do a lot of walking over fairly rough ground. The city mini has exactly the same folding mechanism (one handed pull strap in middle), and is only 4kg lighter, but the recommended maximum user weight is only 15 kg, compared to the city elite, which is 34kg. I did quite a lot of research!

Rhubarb, I'm sure that there is a good reason why I am a fool for using the word pushchair, but I just feel wierd using the word buggy, I think it is because it makes me think of golf.

I say BUGGY and I am always right so just bow down to my undisputed logic that a pushchair is a wheelchair and that a buggy is in fact, a buggy.

Aaaaaaah, that's ok then!

However, I think you'll find that this is a buggy.

sorry

Maclaren sell buggies. Do you know why they call them pushchairs? For American people. 'Nuff said.

YABVVVVU. Disabled/wheelchair users should always have priority.

Ok what about disabled toddler/baby in apushchair/buggy/pram would u kick them off?!? They are disbaled afterall?!?

But what if that terribly distresses the child or the buggy is one that cant be folded because its a special kind. I saw a woman on the bus the other day with a very large buggy, you wouldn't have known it was a special buggy or that the child was disabled but it turned out he was...there was no way she could have folded surely people like that have just as much right as the wheelchair user.