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?

That

Anyone

Could

Equate

Wheelchair users

With babies in buggies

Have

They

No shame?

OK this thread has made me cry now, so congratulations to some of you. Some of the posts on here are just beyond disgusting…..I don't know whether Lailasmummyx is a troll with nothing better to do than upset disabled people, or she is just thick.

How anyone can begrudge my DS his wheelchair space is just beyond me, these people sicken me. You have no idea the pain that he has been through in his short life…he has had multiple surgeries, his hips are held together with metal. He will be in his wheelchair for life, long after your little babies have grown up, gone to university, got married etc. All the things my DS will never be able to do.

TBH I don't know why MN allows some of these posts to stand. I thought they may serve a purpose of educating people, but some of the people who have posted on here are beyond help. Anyway, my last post on this thread got ignored so feel free to ignore this one too.

Living just remember for every thick shit and troll on this thread there are far more people calling them out on their selfishness. The majority of people don't begrudge your DS his wheelchair space because the majority of people aren't arseholes, and I'll bet you even people like Lailasmummyx aren't actually stupid enough to voice their disgusting views in real life, where there's no computer to hide behind (and I sincerely hope no one would hesitate to tell them to shut up if they did) As for OP, this was posted 6 years ago, her and her massive impractical buggy won't be hogging wheelchair spaces by now x

Thank you for your post SparklyUnicorn and yes I know that people like this are in the minority on this thread and the majority are decent people…either they know the issues already or if not, they quickly understand once it is explained to them.

The problem is that there is still a substantial minority of creatures with attitudes like Lailasmummy….enough of them to make our lives difficult. We find them everywhere, e.g. when we find disabled parking bays filled with cars without blue badges, when the (only) supermarket wheelchair trolley is filled with rubbish. And we find them every day when we try to get on the bus and can't because there is a buggy there. Sometimes the buggy is empty and the child sitting elsewhere on the bus or even upstairs. I despair that this is any way considered acceptable and tolerated.

It happens pretty much every other time we try to board a bus. Every time I wait for a bus, I worry that we are going to have the problem again with somebody taking up the space and failing to move. Do you know what that does to my stress levels? And caring for a profoundly disabled DC is stressful enough without the extra stress, why should we have to put up with this?

I don't think some of the posts on this thread should be allowed to stand….far from educating others, these posters are using it to spread their miserable attitudes around. If comments were deemed racist, sexist etc they would be deleted in no time, but as usual it is open season on the disabled.

Morning all,

Thanks for your reports. We are going through these now, apologies if we've missed anything. (Please do feel free to report again if so).

We don't allow disablism - not only is it against our TG's, we also think that such posts don't fit with Mumsnet's basic philosophy of support and advice for all parents.

According to this court ruling, the priority given to wheelchair users on buses is enforceable in law. Of course, it's hard to fold up a buggy on a moving bus - especially with a very young baby or more than one child - but the fact is that wheelchair users have priority in law. We'd be grateful if you could bear that in mind in any future posts on the topic.

Our This Is My Child campaign has lots of information about the ways that people can make life a bit easier for disabled children and their parents. Mumsnet's aim is to make lives easier - please do take a look.

Thank you Katherine.

So although Op's massive buggy is long gone, someone just like her with their own massive buggy will be in the wheelchair space next time DS and I try to get on.

Thank you, Katherine.

Thanks Katherine, that is appreciated.

It's not about being selfish, it's about people being equal. Why do wheelchairs users have more priory then babies, they shouldn't, it should be the same

People are equal. I could take the car seat off my pushchair when he was tiny and put it on a chair. If bus is full and driver is asking you to collapse in sure he'll facilitate this. If dc is older I can get him out and hold him. There's my access entitlement. I can also think bugger that faff and get off instead.
A person in in wheelchair has only one option - the wheelchair spot. They may say it's fine I'll wait for the next bus but the spot it designated for them and they have first refusal That's their equal access. You're both important but your options ns are wider.

Thankyou KatherineMumsnet

I used to think that the system worked well. There are wheelchair spaces and prams can use them if they're free. I have taken full advantage of them (thanks to the people who campaigned for them) and got the bus all over London with my baby. I have never had to fold for a wheelchair as it happens but have folded loads of time because the space already had buggies in or was just generally very busy. I have also walked home rather than fold if I had too much shopping.

Having read a couple of these threads I wonder if prams need to be banned full stop from these spaces. It's clearly not working if people in wheelchairs run the risk of not being able to get on or, actually, just having to beg for the space and have tutting and so on while the bus is delayed by the argument and the folding.

LivingToTheFull Most people aren't that entitled. I've seen plenty of parents with their massive tanks for pushchairs buggies park their bums in the wheelchair space when the buggy bay has been empty but i am as yet to witness anyone refuse to move or fold a buggy down for a wheelchair user. I actually recently witnessed two lovely young ladies fold their prams down and have them tucked away in the apparently, non existent luggage rack, before the driver had even lowered the ramp for the wheelchair user waiting to board.

My Mum did witness a lady with a shopping trolley tell a bloke on crutches to move FOR HER though. (He was sat on the fold down seats where the buggies usually go). Apparently she needed to park her shopping trolley 'somewhere'. The only comment my mum made when telling me was "Thank God you weren't there Away!".

Thanks Away, I agree that most people don't have these attitudes & many people we meet are absolutely wonderful & go out of their way to help.

However although many/most buggy users will happily accommodate us there is a significant minority that just don't. It is amazing how many just sit tight even while the ramp is being lowered. Sometimes the driver doesn't even let us on when a buggy is there despite the law, which is another issue.

There are only 2 kinds of people; decent people who empathise and support us, and the selfish, wilfully ignorant scumbags (some of whom have posted on here). Every time I get on a bus with DS I worry which kind of people I am going to encounter.

Is this real?!
YABVU. Wheelchair users do not have a choice. Babies can be carried or put in a sling etc.

experience on a bus although not buggy related, just what we're expected to put up with.

Dawndonna - thanks for posting that. It is a disgusting story and although I am horrified I am sadly not surprised. There is real hostility and warped towards the disabled among a few people which has to be experienced to be believed.

My DS has been taunted and jeered at in the street. He had to leave the Scouts group he enjoyed because several other parents complained that his wheelchair was a risk to them…even though we paid for a full time carer to be with him. The organisers suggested we glue cardboard over the wheels to 'make it safer'; we refused so he had to leave.

He travels on a bus which takes him to his special school; it is obviously a special needs bus with a big wheelchair symbol at the back and is sometimes targeted. A few months ago the bus was shot at by an air gun while my DS and other children were on board…thankfully nobody injured