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?

When DS was on the way and DW wasn't driving we knew she would have to be able to fold the buggy quickly and chose accordingly. There were at that time none of those huge triangular things that look as if they were designed for the baby Darth Vader was ashamed of.

stoprainingplease - well, unless they were lucky enough to have a wheelchair adaptable car, they stayed at home. Which is shit.

I think the wheelchair spaces on the buses now are brilliant.

YABU - get a sling or very good at folding pushchair one-handed. Wheelchair users have no choice.

thisisextremelynotverygood - I would agree that if a bus is full it is full. That would apply whether an able bodied or disabled person was trying to board. But AFAIKS the OP wasn't complaining that she would have had to get off the bus, she was complaining that she wouldn't have seating/space for her shopping on her knee, etc.

Andrefogg when we had ds1, my inlaws wanted to treat us to a new buggy....which was very kind of them, except for the fact that they chose for us, and turned up with this monsterous three wheeler off roading job. It was very lovely, a serious piece of posh kit....BUT as a frequent bus traveller, it sat in our hallway while I used the foldy-uppy light McLaren I bought instead.
I wish they had asked me first, I really do. I could have saved them a lot of money. The damn thing wouldn't even fit in the boot of our little hatchback car. It was a buggy for people with 4x4s, like my in laws.

pictish I sympathise!

On the related thread (Harvey Nicks in Leeds) you have just got it so, so right!

My grandfather, who had polio and so was wheelchair-bound, used to travel by train, strapped in his wheelchair to the wall of the goods van.

No toilet, no heating, nowhere for my accompanying grandmother to sit....

Thank you.

You are an annoyance and an obstacle.
And unreasonable.
And a selfish, rude woman.

fold your bloody buggy. Then both the precious child woman and the wheelchair user can travel

Oh dear God woman. One thing about MN to remember, don't ever question the rights of a wheelchair user. It doesn't bode well.

'One thing about MN to remember, don't ever question the rights of a wheelchair user. It doesn't bode well.'

That's sad, I'd have hoped that it would be something not to question in a civilised society, rather than just MN.

my pushchair is one of those big all-terrain things!

get a smaller buggy. Just how many terrains have you pushed it on?

Our buses now have a sign saying that the space is for wheelchairs and that they gave priority and that should a wheelchair user turn up, pushchairs had to be folded, or the pushchair user has to get off the bus.

Can't get clearer than that. They've clearly been reading MN

Ludicrously U , OP
dancingmustard , yes , often see wheelchair users on buses round my way , where we have a Dial a Ride too , at a cost , obviously . . The number of passengers in chairs has increased greatly in recent years , as noted by other posters

I often have difficulty with apparently able bodied fellow travellers disbelieving that I 'm disabled & need to sit - am impaired enough to have difficulty , but am not in a chair atm - and I almost always find it's other women challenging me , usually with toddlers who absolutely must have their own seat ... at such moments I think of the thoughtful MNetters on these threads < martyred sniff >

But its not fair and equal treatment is it? If you are waiting for a bus same its full then you have to wait for the next one. But if you are in a wheel chair you don't have to wait, people have to move to acomadate you. That is preferential treatment.

Wheelchair user > pushchair > trolley

Simple.

I'm of a mindset that if I see a wheelchair needing to board I sodding well shift and allow it to board.

Yes MrsChemist , our local buses have that notice now too

yabu
you have a choice
wheelchair user doesn't, stop being selfish and fold the buggy

YABU

I have got off the bus before and waited for next one in rush hour or walked when using larger buggy and had no space to fold it. If I did fold down my buggy and I had the baby in my hand I asked politely for a seat from a seated passenger and it was given.

Then I bought a second hand stroller for bus trips when I knew the bus would be busy.

As others have said the wheelchair user cannot fold their wheelchair, the bus signs clearly state their priority, you are being selfish and rude by refusing to fold or get off. If the bus comes every 4 mins why couldn't you get off and wait?

buses have one wheelchair space only one, so a wheelchair uses should always be able to use it
wow can't believe people are so jealous of someone who can't walk.

If this is a piss-take then, it's not a very good one.
If, in some bizzare parallel universe, this is actually a genuine question then OP YABVVVU, lazy and ignorant.

(Please let this be a crap piss-take!)

I don't understand the point of this thread, OP. You got what you want, which was to stay on the bus and not be remotely inconvenienced, didn't you? I'm not sure what else you want - for everyone to be outraged that it was even suggested that you might do something that would allow a wheelchair user to access the space that is intended for the use of wheelchair users?

I would be ashamed of myself if I had done what you did. I certainly wouldn't be trying to drum up support on MN. It is to be hoped that the next bus that came along didn't also have 2 selfish mums and an apathetic driver...and the bus after that, and the one after that. Otherwise that wheelchair user might have been regretting not asserting his right to travel in the space provided for him and made available only due to the efforts disability rights campaigners.

Buggy users generally have options. They may not like the options but they have them. Unfortunately the option that some buggy users seem to prefer is to refuse to consider anything beyond their own immediate needs. Wheelchair users don't have anything like the ranger of options available to able-bodied parents.