to think not folding a buggy to make way for a wheelchair user on a bus is despicable?

[Zara1984]

Just watching Channel 4 news here and a focus piece on public transport accessibility for disabled people.

Apparently one of the biggest users for wheelchair users is parents with buggies not folding them to make way for wheelchair users. This startled me - surely there are not really parents out there who refuse to fold down their buggies to make way for a person in a wheelchair??? Seriously? What kind of twat does that?

AIBU to think that any parent who does this is not a nice human being?

Does this actually happen???

TantrumsAndBalloons

The post you are having trouble understanding refers back to your
...,,but it wasnt response to me at 13.06

Itsallgoingtobefine - here taken from Stagecoach bus company conditions of carriage:

"You are, however, required by law to ensure that the designated wheelchair space is made available if a customer wishes to board with a wheelchair or approved mobility scooter."

"You are required to co-operate in allowing proper use of the designated wheelchair space by vacating this space if it is required by a customer in a wheelchair or approved mobility scooter including repositioning small prams, folding any buggies and storing them in the luggage space."

Baby, not many

Yes I know what camp means thank you.

But why are we the disabled camp?

Because we think a wheelchair user takes priority over a buggy?

The phrase was used quite nastily IMHO, or maybe it's just your attitude generally?

Can't we just accept that we're all human & sometimes what we ought to do isn't what we feel capable of doing at that particular moment?

None of us are perfect & sometimes we do the wrong thing...it doesn't make us bad people, just human.

Bejeezus, I think pushchair users should fold or get off. I live in a rural area, have no car and there is one bus an hour. I am totally dependent on the bus service, and had to use it all the time to transport a baby and a toddler with shopping etc.

It is not, and never will be, equivalent to the needs of a person with a disability.

Thanks Maamekin that's the bit I was looking for but couldn't find.

In the five years I have used a buggy my sole means of transport has been a bus. And I live in central London. Often in rush hour.

In all that time I have only ever had to get off/ fold buggy three times to make way for a wheelchair user.

The more annoying users of the space are the people with the folding buggies who leave it up even when they have taken the child out.

Or the parents who leave the child in the buggy and go and sit at the back of the bus! I had one poor little girl bawling her eyes out (5 yr old) and I had to shout out twice for the parent before they bothered to come over.

bejeezus - not in my ivory 4X4, no, as I can't drive.

Yes I do have to use the bus, daily with my disabled 2 yr old (in a pushchair, which I have to fold and put under the coach - no buggy or wheelchair spaces) and 5 and 6 yr old dds. I also travel on a variety of buses to get to hospital with ds in a pushchair. We often have to fold, usually people are good enough to help (but usually have to be asked - rather than offering).

I use public transport.

I don't have a 4x4

I still used to fold my buggy if a person in a wheelchair needed the space. Even when I had my 2 older DCs and shopping.

And on our buses there is a sign that says buggies may use the area but must vacate if a wheelchair user needs it

How would these parents have managed in the days of buses with steps and no area for wheelchairs? When they were completely inaccessible? Ie with no spaces hard fought for by people with disabilities and their carers?

And what if you need to get home to collect dc from school? Just leave them there? What if you are on the way to a hospital appointment with baby? Just miss it? Or always allow an extra 2 hours for every journey just in case?

I would fold by the way, if it was possible. But I wouldn't expect someone with twins to get off

When I see someone leap out of their wheelchair and fold it I will stop giving up the space.

When I used the non folding pram I got off the bus.

With the umbrella fold it is much easier.

I've had to fold the buggy more times because the bus is full than to let a wheelchair user on.

Not talking the talk

Double buggy, 3 DCs, London buses.

Done that.

And I happily folded the buggy if needed.

I have had to leave my ivory 4x4 at home now and then and take my disabled dd2 on the bus. In her wheelchair.

When she was younger, I did it with her twin in tow, and her brother, who is older by eighteen months.
I'm sorry you feel the way you do, but that's me. My disabled dd however, has informed me that she couldn't give a flying fuck how you feel.

Maamekin That's interesting. Maybe it is down to individual companies interpretation of the law then.

First Bus: " Wheelchairs do not have priority over buggies, but to ensure all our customers are treated fairly and with consideration, other customers are asked to move to another part of the bus to allow you to board.

Unfortunately, if a fellow passenger refuses to move you will need to wait for the next bus."

As I say, the school bus has no space for buggies or wheelchairs and when ds was little I would put him in a sling, then I had to get a pushchair that would be more suitable to fold one handed and get under the bus whilst holding him.

TantrumsAndBalloons
Oh, I give up.
You are quite determined to take exception.
Well done, you have managed to disengage with someone who is entirely sympathetic to the problems aired over the last few threads, what's more, I'm sure I'm not the only one.

This is what I meant by losing the moral highground.
I thought it courteous to stick around for responses to my post before de-registering on Mumsnet but I see there is absolutely no point.
Off you go and report my nasty post.

Bloody hell I've never seen so much fighting amonst people who agree!

Why would I report?

All I have asked you to do is clarify what you meant by disabled camp.

You are the one who wants to turn every comment into a personal thing.

Maybe deregistering is the best thing.....

Btw you still didn't clarify what you meant.....

Surprise, surprise

I mean, really. It's so utterly ridiculous - if you're in the space reserved for a wheelchair and you haven't got a wheelchair then YABU.

Where's the debate? I couldn't give the tiniest fuck if you're a single mum with 7 children and you're knackered and wah wah wah. If someone in a wheelchair or other mobility device gets on the bus then you get out of the space. It's hardly rocket science and it's definitely not worth 17 billion threads full of justification and boring wanking on about My Right To A Buggy Space.

I can't figure out how to link to a pdf download, sorry.

But if you google " prams wheelchair space law uk" the first result makes interesting reading.

It appears that essentially, although wheelchair user space is for wheelchair users, the driver has no authority to get people to move. Conclusion education and more explicit signage is the way to go.