To think it's common sense to let a w/c user have the w/c spot

[SparkyStar84]

I've just seen the ruling on disabled people getting priority in disabled spots on buses. Isn't that common sense. What kind of person would deny a w/c user the space because 'pushchair'?
I'm a w/c user it makes it easier in a way to get about with children, though I know some w/c users still have a buggy.
This is about the parents who refuse to move, when asked, by someone who might have an appt or something important to get too. Not saying the parent doesn't. But isn't that the point of foldable buggies over great big travel systems?
It just bugs me that people have had to leave the bus because a parent wouldn't move. As a parent with kids of many ages, also remembering times gone by, the purpose of easy foldable buggies is that you can decamp when on the bus.
Do you think it's an issue that buses need to provide buggy spaces too?

Yeah, that was helpful.

BeyondTheStarryNight: No.

I used to work for a charity for blind/deaf people, my job was doing awareness training, so obviously spoke to a lot of the main client group about what goes wrong out and about to highlight that in the training course.

Anyway, worst offenders for barging into blind people/running over guide dogs/knocking away white sticks are parents with big buggies or prams. And they then often shout at the blind person for daring not to see their precious bundle..."Didn't you see my child?"

Umm. No they didn't.

Couldn't make it up.

Who put 50p in the dick head?

When I used to go on buses, no one kept their prams or buggies set up. They were folded down and then heaved up in to a tray area. Funny how people could manage it then, but have become selfish and incapable like trifle now.

Disability campaigners have worked hard to make sure disabled people can access public transport, and a handy free perk for pushchair users means that as long as there's not a wheelchair user on board they conveniently don't need to fold their pushchair. Why can't people just be pleased about that, instead of resenting having to giving up the space on the occasions someone who actually needs it gets on board.

Tbh Saor I might well be. Not now with a 19 mo if he wasn't attached to tubes and pipes --although he's currently scoffing all my crisps so is NOT a nice pfb-- I'd collapse and let him free but with a screaming 5 week old, unsure if everyone's judging me cos he's s reaming, worried about having him outside in the cold for another 30 minutes or an hour if the buses are busy? Still sore from the c sec and regretting the hour it took me to leave the house cos he vomittee on me as I got to the door, and scared to baby wear cos I'm frigging clumsy as? I think I still would be.

Our bus drivers are great. If a pram user doesn't move for a wheelchair user, the bus doesn't move either. It took 15 minutes once but the stroppy pram user gave in. More cities should adopt that approach.

trifle you're a selfish twat. And people like you are exactly why this has to be law.

Come on Loumumsnet you have a disability policy...

I haven't RTFT because I don't need to up my blood pressure this evening, but I've read enough to see that the usual 'Oh, I can't hold both buggy and baby' twerps are out.

Many, many moons ago I worked as a nanny. I used to take three children, including a baby, including their kit, on the bloody bus. I used to ask people for help, or they'd offer to help. It was hard work but it was eminently do-able.

At the same time, I had a friend who was a wheelchair user. Public transport was almost entirely off-limits for him. In fact, a lot of things were off-limits for him, despite him having a never-say-die mentality.

Guess who I reckoned had the bigger challenge to overcome? Self spending a few minutes wrangling three kids on the bus for 20 mins, or him looking at the rest of his life using a wheelchair?

Entitled buggy-users should really just fuck off. Or, better yet, spend a day either in a wheelchair or with a wheelchair user.

Sparky - when i had ds1 we were really tight with money. I used to get the bus 3 miles to Aldi (who don't deliver) and do my weekly shop in my buggy. We got this buggy (which cost more than our car ) because of this. We saved and had donations from relatives so I could have this tank of a buggy which could be walked everywhere with no punctures etc. We didn't bank on me not being able to walk far for the first 3 months tho.

I really hate all the we all coped attitudes, i find them ridiculous and unkind - lots of things were more shit before so they should continue to be shit now

So if you have 3 small dc, one in a sling and 2 in a buggy, what should you do? You cannot safely fold a buggy and hold toddlers hands and support yourself and your baby while the bus is moving. My toddlers would be off down the bus and trying to run away with the excitement of freedom. It really is crappy. Just because someone else did it doesn't mean everyone can - you can't anticipate the kind of children you have. And while i would always get off for a w/c user i can see how hard it is with small dc on the bus.

I'd collapse and let him free but with a screaming 5 week old, unsure if everyone's judging me cos he's s reaming, worried about having him outside in the cold for another 30 minutes or an hour if the buses are busy?

Meh. I wouldn't stress over the screaming bothering people. Try having a 7 and 10yo with autism, both screaming at the same time. You have to get a thick skin.

I read page 1 and saw the frankly idiotic and selfish post from Trifle. Skipped to the last page thinking she would have been educated and apologised for her outrageous and stupid comments only to find nope she is still here being an entitled ninny.

I applaud you all who for the last 13 pages have tried to enlighten Trifle to the difficulties being in a wheelchair can bring to daily life but sometimes you have to throw in the towel. You can't argue with stupid.

Tbh Unicorn if they are GPI g to enforce the policy then this is how to do it. Does t change the fact that she's going to be stuck beside the road for the next hour waiting for a bus with a space cos she genuinely can't collapse it, and that it what's unfair. Not people who could but can't be bothered but where there's an actual reason.
I had a driver refuse us as two prams on, one mom offered to get off a stop early (I've done the same so appreciated it). Other mom had buggy open and child running around upstairs. It was quote obvious he was about to not let us on and I'd made it clear I can't collapse it due to my sons o2. Now that's selfish

Wheelchair users get treated as second class citizens all over the place. And there was a time they couldn't use buses at all. You could've used those buses, Trifle. Just fold your baby carriage up and get on with your baby. No such opportunity for the wheelchair user, though.

And then this fantastic thing happened that meant wheelchair users had equal access, by allowing one space, on a bus with possibly 80 passengers, for a wheelchair user to occupy. Wheelchair users aren't saying they are more important. They are saying they are equally important. Read up on the Equality Act. Educate yourself.

As an able-bodied adult with a baby, you have many choices. And you can get on and off the bus with the 70-80 other passengers, sit on a seat, fold the pram and put it in the luggage area on the same terms as any other passenger. You are equally important. But since the only way the wheelchair user achieves equality of opportunity to use that same transport is to use the wheelchair space, for as long as you are not in a wheelchair and occupying that space first, then you must move or you are as disablist as the accusations against you here would have it. Deny me my wheelchair space, and you deny me equality. You discriminate against me on the ground of my disability.

It's a wheelchair space and it is there because I have an equal right to use the bus. Not because I am more important, but because without such protection, I cannot do the very many things you take for granted.

These threads are so depressing. On the one hand there's always at least one twat who won't fold down or get off for a wheelchair user.

On the other hand you also get the other group of twats who think even if there is no wheelchair user needing the space and you have triplets you should be forced to walk a ten mile round trip in the rain just because you can't fold.

And I don't give a shit if people had to cope with it in the seventies. Working mothers were frowned on in the 70s and sexual harassment was tolerated and people coped with that. It doesn't mean it was a good idea. And blanket banning unfolded buggies is not a good idea either.

Where r u that your baby needs to wait an hour to feed anytime?

Bench, cafe, library, shop, you stop and you feed!

You really are a drama larma

MNHQ come on, you've made such progress with anti disablism policies in the last few days. Please, please don't let it go backwards to pander to people who insist they're right. You have a voice, please use it for good.

You can't argue with stupid - Very true

ginger I agree but saying if I was a first time mom on a bus with a 5 week old not stuck in a hospital at that point with a prem maybe I wouldn't have developed it yet, maybe my panic at this new shiny thing I'm responsible for would defeat me

I'm not risking my baby's safety by carrying her in a bus until they do.

Good. The more people with attitudes like that stay OFF public transport, the better it is for the rest of us.

I am a bus user with 2 young kids. Tiny premature DD in a lie flat proper pram..which I researched very well so that it would fit it's daily needs....need to be easily folded if necessary on a bus. it didn't leave me with much options in the pram department but I ended up with something that was actually stylish and in trend with prams and very practical as well because this is what I needed !
and for all those complaining about getting prams for newborns....if u use a bus....buy a travel system that u can attach the car seat to a small frame only....then it's simple....u lift the car seat off the frame and place it on the footpath beside u...u fold the frame and then u lift the frame and car seat onto the bus. the car seat can fit on a seat somewhere beside you and the frame can be tucked away somewhere...if the really isn't rocket science and by the time they have outgrown the car seat u can then move onto a cheap one handed fold umbrella buggy for a bus !
Wheelchair users should take priority if it wasn't for disability laws etc these spaces would not be available. Yes it's annoying because u may also be trying to get a young baby to an appt but if you were properly prepared there would be no need to have to get off a bus in the first place !
I also have a baby carrier which I use on public transport if it's really busy....pop the baby in the carrier....fold and sort the pram with 2 hands...a baby carrier folds up into a bag which means it's easily available for when needed.
Bus drivers etc generally aren't too bad either....if u can get the baby out a lot of them will actually lift the pram onto the bus into the storage area and back off and attempt to unfold it for you if you just ask for a little bit of assistance with it !

bill nope you can use the space with your triplets but if a wheel chair user needs to use the space you get off!

Sorry having babies even triplets is a life style choice.

Being disabled is not!