To think it is polite for people with buggies to fold them when a bus is busy

[SilverStreak7]

I suppose this will have mixed replies .

I am not talking of prams with sleeping babies in or even the buggies with sleeping toddlers in but those parents whom have a buggy with say a 4 year old in who is awake and who will not fold down said buggy when a single decker is getting very packed .

The other day I was on a bus and two buggies were on there , one had one of those boards at the back where an older child can stand (I do not know what they are called as never had one) , Now, the child was asleep but that is not the issue ,, The Mother watched an elderly lady slowly go by as this board was sticking out , then another pram tried to leave the bus and only at the last minute (after much struggling by the leaving Mother) did she push up the board ! Ive also seen people refuse to fold them up as a wheelchair wishes to get on .

Bus companies can ban unfolded buggies. It has been done,

People are forgetting these spaces are for wheelchairs, not buggies. The only people "entitled" to use them are wheelchair users. By all means if they aren't being used a buggy can go in the space, on the proviso, that they move when a wheelchair user come on. Zero tolerance on the buggy user, move of get off.

I might be harsh, but people will take a mile if given an inch.

Yanbu

What irritates me is people who know they use public transport loads but still insist on buying non-foldable buggy.

I've only been on the bus twice with a buggy (we walk/drive most places) but it was a Maclaren that I'd be happy to fold.

Why did they get rid of that parcel/buggy space under stairs on (London) double deckets?

Folding the pram wouldn't be an option so weould I have to get off the bus with my baby to make way for the wheelchair? Doesn't seem very fair.

Yes having a child who requires to sleep is so much less convenient than a permanent disability. I mean how many years of your life do you 'have' to get off?

Spend an hour in my shoes and you will be begging to walk your baby in a buggy.

I may sound old here, in my thirties. I remember as a child due to getting a free seat, us children having to sit on a parents knee, and everyone folded pushchairs and managed, they even had to go up steps.

Disabled people worked so hard to get the space on a bus for a wheelchair and a ramp, to have equality and access the bus. Tractor pram users have piggy backed on the wheelchairs and then have the cheek to abuse the disabled.

I'm not sure why a baby sleeping should mean you shouldn't get off the bus to make way for a wheelchair user?

Babies sleeping in buggies get off buses all the time.

Themaltese..you are clearly not an arsehole :)

revoltedmum i remember this to. i think mums should be greatful that they can leave their buggy down most of the time. like others have said its not the end of the world if a baby is woken from a sleep and if a baby s that tired he/she will sleep in your arms. i dont understand why people buy monster buggys knowing they will be using public transport

Thank goodness there are so many decent people on this thread and the non folders are in minority. It used to be more the other way.

Give it time Fanjo

And you do realise that, if I were still living in the UK, as a private citizen I do not have to comply with that law? It applies, if I'm not mistaken, to service providers and employers. Yes, I'd have to do what the driver said, because he'd have to follow that law, but not me, capisce? Correct me if I am wrong; I am only familiar (all too familiar, as a lawyer) with the NZ equivalent.

No but you would be taking part in a hate crime. You would be victimising a person with a protected characteristic, that has to be taken into account by the court (sorry this is criminal not civil law) so you would get a criminal record, you would probably be barred from working with vulnerable people too.

Fanjo

This is the main reason I've not felt able to travel anywhere further than a short walk away (city centre needs bus at the moment as still not healed from birth) since DS was born 7 weeks ago.

It's just too stressful- esp with a breastfed baby who has unpredictable feeding habits. It's bad enough being on a bus with a screamy hungry baby but to have to runthe gamut of eetiquette makes it terrifying.

I would always happily get off for wheelchair users as can't fold carry cot (using car seat is problematic because I wouldn't be able to juggle all of that plus waterproof stuff etc) but being stuck at a bus stop contemplating breastfeeding with all the chavvy smokers is very stressful.

It's no wonder I've felt so reclusive thus far!

i used to breast feed my baby on the bus. i have always had a small buggy since birth they lay right back suitable from birth

Well..that is multiplied a hundredfold for wheelchair users who can't fold even if they wanted to and can't travel if buggy users refuse to fold.

My post was addressed to bravelilbear

YANBU

Be lucky you don't live in Brazil though. THe busses I was on there recently had signs stating that the front, folding seats were priority seats for (rough translation):
'pushchairs and wheelchairs
pregnant people
people with babies or young children
overweight people
people with disabilities'

In England I suspect those signs would cause a nightmare as the 60% or so of bus users that this would include fought over the seats. Luckily in Brazil, people shrug and get on with the process of getting as many people as humanly possible onto a bus regardless of health and safety, personal space or anything else.

They do help each other though. I've seen 4 adults leap off a bus to lift a wheelchair user on as most busses only have steps.

but I really thought wheelchairs had priority over buggies and that the driver HAD to make buggies fold up for wheelchairs?

YANBU

I've seen a wheelchair user refused entry to a bus because the selfish twats of parents laughed at the driver's request to fold up the buggies. So the main in the wheelchair was left at a bus stop in the pouring rain.

But I suppose, like several posters on this thread, it was just too difficult and inconvenient for these selfish people to allow this man on the bus. Twats.

*I think the order of priority goes:

1. Sleeping baby.
2. Wheelchair user.
3. Old person with Zimmer frame / person with crutches.
4. Sleeping older child.
5. Everyone else*

Please, please, please tell me this post is a wind up, and that this poster is not actually responsible for raising members of the next generation of citizens?

where I live selfish arses often refuse to fold for wheelchairs and the drivers do fuck all. The do fuck all as grown men and women call my daughter a (and I'm going to say the words so apologies to those who have been abused) spastic and a retard. These are grown men and women, abusing a 4 - 9 year old (we've had this for years), towering over a little girl in a wheelchair. They should be fucking ashamed of themselves stood there refusing to fold, refusing to let us on the bus because they are too fucking selfish as they stand next to a sign that says 'please fold for wheelchairs' 'this is a wheelchair priority space'.
dd now knows what those words mean. She now knows whats grown men and women think of little girls in wheelchirs. Little girls who cannot walk or talk. This is why I no longer shut up on these threads but I cant shoot my mouth off in front of dd because it upsets her too much. If these threads make just one person fold or one person stand up and make someone else fold then it will help people like dd.
Just as bad are the arses who claim their contraptions 'dont fold', yeah right. Or stand there looking into space pretending you are invisible. But its frightening, not knowing if there will be verbal abuse. DD is frightened now, poor little mite
Which is why I post.
As you were.

UpTheChimney..she later apologised and rewrote the list

Yes I saw that, but I've only just been able to lift my jaw from my desk.

And there were rather too many posts asserting her entitlement to space over that of a wheelchair user to make me feel that one post reordering the list was heartfelt.

twistyfeet I suspect I used to live in your city. I still feel ashamed I didn't march down from the back of the bus and insist that the driver stop the bus and get the nasty parents off the bus. But as they were laughing at the main in the wheelchair, and abusing the driver, I was a bit concerned about anyone's safety. But I'll never forget the image of the man sitting the, getting drenched. I hope next time ill be braver.

As a colleague of mine says, we're all only TABs: temporarily able bodied.

true..it was a shocker

Yes but even the revised list is fucked up imo as it still puts someone who is merely asleep, before someone with impaired mobility

Revised list:

1. wheelchair user
2. sleeping baby
3. elderly / otherwise mobility-impaired person.
4. sleeping toddler.
5. everyone else.

true.

:(