WHBU ? (Wheelchair vs. Buggy)

[DisabilityIsALifestyleChoice]

(NC'd but old hand here)

DH tends to chat in various discussion groups, and yesterday, in a discussion about roads told someone to fuck off.

Here's the conversation which started around using buses and how everyone should do it to relieve road congestion,

DH:
And wheelchair users can wait all day, and still not get a bus if there are people refusing to move their baby buggies.

POSTER:
What are parents to do if they have a child in a buggy, some shopping
underneath, so it cannot be folded and cannot relinquish their position and get a later bus, because they have to be at school for a particular time to pick up their 5 year-old child?

DH:
That's choice, compared to the necessity to use a wheelchair.

POSTER:
It's not choice if you have to do the shopping so as to have an evening meal, have a young child that you have to bring with you and need to pick up the other child from school. The wheelchair user may well have much more choice, as many can walk short distances and chairs
can fold. In some cases, their journey may be purely frivolous, unlike the example parent.

It was at this point DH suggested the poster "Go f* themselves".

I should add that obviously DH is sensitive to wheelchair users (which is what I am) and tries to be polite where he can (as befits his age, and maturity). But he's fretting now whether he was too abrupt .

I wonder what the vipers of AIBU think ? (For the record, I am 100% on his side, here ...)

You would as I call out to the driver "i will just get off" to save him asking me to fold. I also stand at the bus stop clearly waiting for the next whilst they board. So yeh you would know.

I call out once the driver has opened the doors and lowered the ramp. So yep you would hear. I would then wheel off and stand right there you can pretend you don't notice. But you do.

Household since you've quoted me, you've misunderstood my point or just plucked out a part of it to disagree with.

I said the poster wasn't wrong to say that there's a chance an able-bodied person might possibly have an urgent need to be somewhere one time, when a wheelchair user doesn't.

I also said that wheelchair user trumps buggy every single time.

So I'm not sure what part you've a problem with.

Yes, they should always have priority.

Depends on the circumstances really, I don't think the wheelchair user should always have priority.

Wheelchairs shouldn’t always have priority for the wheelchair space?

Either way once the ramp is down an doors are open I shout out "I'm going to get off" play dumb all you like and pretend not to notice any of it. That's what they do. Act like your invisible.

And I'm not saying I don't get off so no problem really. I do get off, just not happy about it like most people wouldn't be. I imagine no one that has to get off a bus they waited and paid for and have to wait for another one with kids is going to be pleased about it.

TrickyKid Do you think it might be more than "irritating" to need a wheelchair to move around?

They probably think you’re one of those annoying people desperate to show how kind and considerate they are to everybody else. No wonder you’re being ignored if you’re shouting like that.

I shout to the driver so he is aware. It's called being helpful.

I know you're just avoiding admitting that you've never seen a wheelchair space that isn't a wheelchair space.

Like I said, you aggressively disbelieve anyone with a different experience from you, Freudian.

If you've seen a space that is multi-use (even though you can't remember where or when), it's not a wheelchair space.

Yes, that's my point exactly. It's an accessibility space.

Like I said anyway doesn't matter either way all that does matter is that you can't expect people to not be pissed off.

You accuse me of lying, you have a go at me for saying disabled parents should be able to use accessible transport, and you call that assertive, Freudian? How very measured of you.

Wheelchair. ALWAYS. You do not choose to be in a wheelchair but you choose to have a child

Wheelchair. ALWAYS. You do not choose to be in a wheelchair but you choose to have a child

Rewrite it as much as you want, the words are still there.

I don't need to rewrite it, it's all there. I genuinely hope I am never on a campaign group with you, Freudian, because I just really mistrust your kind of activism. It does nothing for us as a community.

First come, first served on my buses.

If the pram user is happy to fold it down then great but if not then I am not going to kick them off when they have already paid and have just as much right to use the bus as anyone else.

But it wasn’t nice for your DH to tell the other poster to F off but that’s the internet and forums like this can get very nasty so don’t worry too much.

If the pram user is happy to fold it down then great but if not then I am not going to kick them off when they have already paid and have just as much right to use the bus as anyone else.
They don’t have as much right to use the wheelchair space though..,

Just to add - we are all humans regardless of race, sexuality, disability so unless there was some reason why the wheelchair user was particularly vulnerable then it should be first come first served. (In which case the wheelchair user should carry a special pass to inform the driver)

My opinion and type of course welcome to yours... this is most bus companies policy though btw, ask politely to fold the pram but not to kick anyone off.