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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think that buses are a bit pants?

76 replies

Hawkmoon269 · 12/03/2013 09:55

Each bus can take 2 buggies. (Unless there are other buses I've not discovered - magic baby friendly buses).

So how do people cope with regular bus use when you have no idea when one will turn up or whether you'll get on! How do people manage to be on time for anything?

Got the bus yesterday (rare for me) and am practically in tears of gratitude for my car today!

OP posts:

ChaosTrulyReigns · 12/03/2013 10:00

I think they just park then in the disabled bay. Gives a bit more room fir buggies.

Sorted.

Flisspaps · 12/03/2013 10:02

Easy, aim for the bus that is before the one you need and you take a buggy that folds. Don't load it with more than you can carry. I use the bus most days with a 2yo and 11mo. Some days I have to fold the buggy and sit with at least one of them on my lap. Some days I can get the buggy on opened and 2yo sits next to me. Sometimes a wheelchair user needs the space I'm in so out DS gets and the buggy gets folded.

It's not that hard (unless you've got multiple babies who are too small to sit up!)

SofaKing · 12/03/2013 10:02

The bus I use can take 2 buggies and also/has a wheelchair space.

Wish this was standard though!

Original poster

Hawkmoon269 · 12/03/2013 10:03

The disabled bay IS the buggy bit though, surely? So if someone in a wheelchair is on board then no buggies can get on! (Obviously don't have a problem with people in wheelchairs taking priority)

OP posts:

Flisspaps · 12/03/2013 10:04

You can get on, you just have to fold the buggy up - like people had to do before buses were accessible to wheelchair users!

WorraLiberty · 12/03/2013 10:04

You read the timetable or download an app on your phone that tells you how many minutes away the bus is.

If there are two buggies already on, you ask the driver to wait while you fold it - the same as we all did before buggy spaces were introduced.

If I remember rightly, spaces weren't introduced until the late 90's/early 2000?

Original poster

Hawkmoon269 · 12/03/2013 10:06

fliss I'm in awe. Seriously. I only have a 1yo, small back pack and easy to fold buggy. But I honestly can't get the baby out, steady him while folding buggy and putting on bag all while the bus is moving. And can't expect the driver to wait for the 30-40 seconds if takes to do that. I find it hard enough to get on, park the buggy and sit down before the bus starts flinging me into the laps of strangers

Maybe it's just practice?!

OP posts:

MisselthwaiteManor · 12/03/2013 10:07

I'm dreading this when my baby comes, I'm totally reliant on buses and they're always packed full of buggies round here. I think folding them up is the best solution but it must be difficult one handed whilst holding the baby and on a moving bus?!

fuzzpig · 12/03/2013 10:07

Depends entirely where you live. Local buses where I grew up and had my first baby (greater London) were usually crowded, dirty, miserable, unreliable and had barely any buggy space.

Moved to West Sussex and the buses here are bloody brilliant - lovely chatty staff (at least on my route), reliable service, and plenty of buggy/wheelchair space. Even if I could drive I would still use the bus a lot.

DialsMavis · 12/03/2013 10:08

The 2 buggies fit in the disabled bay, they should get off if someone with a wheel chair wants to get one. I use the bid every day with a buggy, but the buses round here come every 5 mins. I try and allow enough time for one to be full and still arrive on time. I also use a small pushchair that can be folded (which is a bit of a nightmare and impossible with shopping and when bus is packed). If I haven't seen the 2nd pushchair and the driver doesn't say anything by the time I buzz my oyster card then he can't make me get off as he can't refund my fare and it's his job to tell me when I get on .

MisselthwaiteManor · 12/03/2013 10:08

I have also seen buses I'm on drive straight past a bus stop of the buggy/wheelchair spaces are full and there's a buggy waiting. So I don't think all drivers are kind enough to wait while you fold it.

tiggytape · 12/03/2013 10:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

Hawkmoon269 · 12/03/2013 10:08

Seriously, where do you put your baby while you fold the buggy?

OP posts:

WorraLiberty · 12/03/2013 10:10

You're right OP it is just practice.

And will all 3 of mine I found kind members of the public were only too willing to help.

The key is to take a light folding buggy and not one of those massive travel systems that Marco Polo would be proud of.

AdmiralCLingus · 12/03/2013 10:10

I had to buy a sling to take dd out in... crippled my back carrying her but had no choice really as I felt it was the safer option than being flung about holding baby like a rugby ball and trying to fold a pushchair. Decision was made easy for me when one arsehole bus driver didnt give me chance to collapse the chair before he started moving and dd ended up on the floor of the bus

WorraLiberty · 12/03/2013 10:10

*with

fuzzpig · 12/03/2013 10:10

But yes, you have to get used to folding the buggy. I coped much better when we switched to an umbrella style - and there was often a friendly fellow passenger happy to hold DD while I folded it! :)

DialsMavis · 12/03/2013 10:10

I ask another passenger to have her on their lap on bus or hold her if it's on the pavement

WorraLiberty · 12/03/2013 10:12

Seriously, where do you put your baby while you fold the buggy?

You hold the baby and fold the buggy with your free hand.

Mine used to have a simple mechanism that mean undoing a clip and pushing my foot up on this little metal bar it had on the bottom.

Very simple.

peeriebear · 12/03/2013 10:13

DS is still in a pram. I ran for the bus the other day and it had a man in a wheelchair, a folded wheelchair and two prams (not buggies) already on! The bus driver said I could stand at the front and break the rules, and I was hugely grateful.

Original poster

Hawkmoon269 · 12/03/2013 10:13

Ah, so you fold the buggy before you get on the bus if its a busy time maybe? Unless the baby is asleep...

West Sussex sounds like the way forward!

OP posts:

fuzzpig · 12/03/2013 10:13

Oh and by the way one advantage of the rubbish/stressful buses when I had DD, was that it persuaded me to walk a lot more, which helped me emotionally (PND and social phobia are a bad mix) as well as physically getting my strength up.

tiggytape · 12/03/2013 10:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BegoniaBampot · 12/03/2013 10:16

20 odd years ago I took my little niece out for the day. Waited for the bus and when it came got her out and tried to fold the buggy. Tube that I was I couldn't do it and had to red faced wave the bus on. Ah, those were the days.

ChaoticisasChaoticdoes · 12/03/2013 10:17

About '97/'98 up here, DD was in nursery at the time.

My bus seems to use timetables as something to aim for but not essential if you don't succeed

Arriva in their wisdom have introduced smaller buses to some of its routes. They seat 35 with 10 standing or 32, a wheelchair user and 10 standing. We do get the occasional wheelchair user but it's mainly used by prams/buggies, many which seem to be larger pushchairs/prams so only one can fit in the space.

OP the ideal thing would be to have a pushchair/buggy that isn't too big and is easy to fold so you can do so if you need to. It's nice if you can wheel your pushchair onto the bus but it's not always possible.

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