To think that if someone elderly gets on a busy bus...

[NotaStatistic]

...they should not expect a seat?!?

I would of course give up a seat for someone elderly or less able than me but should they think they're entitled to a seat just because they're old especially if they get on bus which already has people standing?!?

Your views please

Princess, as a pedestrian, I have similar issues as you with drivers!

My other pet hate (other than bus passengers), however, are motorbikes.... I have lost count of how many times they form an additional line of traffic, overtake on junctions, and nearly drive into my door when I am making a right turn into a road, where the traffic is quite jammed.

I think I've only give up a seat once. Mind you, I rarely sit at the front. In actual fact, I rarely get on buses because I hate them.

I'm nearly 8 months pregnant and I'd get up for someone else because I KNOW that my pregnancy is going well and it won't harm me to stand as long as I can hold on to something.

I really hate travelling by buses at the best of times. I am only in my 30's but I have damage to both my inner ears that gives me balance issues.

I'm bad enough on flat ground but I can't stand on a moving bus without falling over/into windows and other passengers etc.

Fairly funny in a way but I dread getting on and off buses as they often move before I get to sit down, causing me to fall into a seat (if free)

If the bus I was on was too busy and someone needed a seat badly, I couldn't stand safely but I will happily get off at the next bus stop and wait for the next bus instead and feel guilty as hell that I didn't stand up straight away

Don't assume just because someone is not of retirement age, that they are able to stand up !

Can we have a go at cyclists too please?

As a pedestrian in London I find them much more dangerous than most cars. I have nearly been run over by a cyclist twice when half way across a zebra crossing (where cars had stopped so the cyclist overtakes in the middle of the road), they are constantly jumping red lights, going the wrong way down one way streets and riding on busy pavements

YABU, I would always offer a seat to an elderly person without question, and for that matter a flustered mother with a child, or a pregnant woman. I'm a young, fit able-bodied woman, so I'd always give a seat up to someone who needed it more.

I find the problem to be with the attitude of those to whom I give up seats and spaces I rarely get a thank you or even a polite smile.

Old people on buses piss me off. They get it for free, then they expect people who do pay (increased fares to make up for the free oldies) to stand up so they can sit down!

I had to wait an extra half hour for a bus to work last year because the bus i meant to catch had no more room because it was filled with OAPs!

Harsh Debbie.

I don't see a problem-I would just give my seat to someone who looked as if they needed a seat more than me. You are not generally travelling very far.

poor debbie, having to wait half an hour for a bus once

I assumed Debbie was taking the piss?

I don't know who is taking the piss and who is for real any more lesley.

I wasn't taking the piss. It annoyed me that I was late for work because of old people using the bus just because it was free. Paying customers should take priority IMO.

I'm under no illusions that bus travel will be free in 35 years or whenever I become an OAP. It's just that the baby boomers are a large voting block so the government tries to buy them off with freebies while working people get hammered with taxes and bills to pay for it all.

Well maybe not

So you think Debbie only you matter and elderly people and their lives are unimportant?

aren't the govt talking about plans to means test free bus travel for OAPs?

I thought OAPS could not use their free bus passes in the rush hour - that's what my Mother tells me.

I would give up my seat to anyone I thought needed it more than me, young or old.

I would however prosecute all cyclists jumping red lights, riding without lights in the dark and generally making a nuisance of themselves on road and pavement. They are a real menace.

"So you think Debbie only you matter and elderly people and their lives are unimportant?"
No, but I think free bus travel is a bad idea as old people just take the piss and travel for the sake of something to do. I think we should go back to half fare for them and give them a little extra in their pension to cover it.

Those oldies should just stand on the street and wait an hour for the next over-crowded bus to turn up.

I have joint problems and would stand for someone visibly weaker and less mobile than myself. It's good manners. YABU

so what time do you start work then? As pointed out above you can't use a free bus pass till 9.30am

I don't think they travel for something to do. They are going to the supermarket, library or anything else really. Pensioners have lives.

I used to start at 11. Thankfully now I start at 8.00

My mum is 70 next year, she can run rings around me, goes to the gym 4 times a week, is fitter than the average 40 year old, only gave up work last year because she wanted to go travelling more and had paid off her mortgage, hasn't a grey hair on her head. There's no way I'm giving up my seat for her! :o

But yes, I would for a frail elderly person. I do think it's the minimum they can expect.

Debbie - so elderly people shouldn't travel on buses at any time then because you might be going to work? The Government actually agrees with you in terms of when most people travel to work which is why bus passes can't be used till 9:30, so working people are actually given priority at that time.

no debbie, they should make pensioners go out and work for their pension, that'll give them something to do and get them off the buses at the same time, and make them pay taxes on the lot so that god forbid you have to pay anything towards them. it's not as if they've worked all their lives anyway is it?

But not everyone works 9-5.

It's annoying that OAPs all crowd onto the first free bus and leave paying travellers stranded. And they don't ALL have "something to do".