Wheelchair / buggy on bus

[MoonlightMistletoe]

Today I had got the bus with my sister we both have children I had my toddler who was walking and my one year old who's only just started to walk who is still in a buggy, my sister has a 12week old baby who was also in a buggy.

We had got on the bus as you do and the next stop another parent got on with their buggy, a few stops later we stop and straight away a woman is screaming/shouting at the rear doors with her phone in our faces demanding we collapse our buggies, very angry , shouting at us with buggies and also at the driver. The driver is telling us to stay put due to her being aggressive and recording us. Someone on the bus was telling us to co operate with the woman who wanted to get a person on the bus who was in a wheelchair. We know disabled people are a priority and had absolutely not said we wouldn't put the buggies down, I was taking my sleeping one year out the buggy while this woman was still swearing and being nasty and recording us, I had given my baby to my sister to sit with my toddler and herself while I was about to take her baby out the pram then all of a sudden everyone made a "ohhhhhhh" gasp and the disabled man has fallen down the side of the curb and bus sideways in his wheelchair.

She then looses her absolute shit at us for her own mistakes being so caught up in recording us to make sure we move that the man is now probably injured.

AIBU to think all she had to do was say excuse me can we move the buggies so I can get the wheelchair on?

my2bundles

I don’t give two shakes of a lamb’s widgie how long it takes. It’s not my claim, so it’a not my job to demonstrate it.

Perhaps the carer's irrational behaviour gave an indication of how many times she has had to put up a fight for the wheelchair space the user is entitled to. I'm not condoning her swearing if there were kids around, but I think it should be taken as a lesson in how bloody hard travelling when you're disabled.

@sunshinesupermum, if I'm ever a carer for someone using a wheelchair I like to think I'd prioritise their safety over making an exhibition of myself shouting and filming people.

There just needs to be a dedicated w chair space that is never for pushchairs. Ever.
A space for a couple of pushchairs and a dedicated w chair space
Less seats and people may have to stand in the space but they can move out of it and if it’s never occupied by a pushchair there no issue

So if you have a bus with 2 pushchairs in that space and a wheelchair in w chair space and at the next bus stop there’s another pushchair or w chair then that person has to wait for the next bus. No arguing

Don't argue tbe fact that you are right if u carnt be bothered.

I rarely get the bus. However my ds dad a driver and they've been told that they have priority y not a right.. If you've paid to get on that bus prior to the wheelchair user you have every right to sit there.
Not that I would but that's what the drivers here have been told.
Our busses can get 4 maybe 5 pushchairs on between the 2 side.

my2bundles

Again, you have this arse backwards. I didn’t argue I was right. I said “I remember X.” I was told my memories were bollocks. That’s someone else arguing they are right, not me.

one woman with her blooming buggy caused me to miss a flight by seconds angry She honestly took 5 minutes to get on the fucking bus.

Ha. If you missed your plane by seconds due to a five minute delay then you were already at least an hour late.

Where I live you aren’t allowed to take pushchairs or prams on buses without folding them first, thankfully it’s a rule most drivers stick to.

That’s appalling, and discriminatory. There are disabled parents, and disabled children who still fit in regular buggies, not to mention multiples. Without buggies in use, public transport is just not accessible to many people.

I rarely ever take my twins on the bus on my own any more, which is a problem as I don’t drive. They are both disabled and still fit in a double buggy so that’s what we use - options for double special needs buggies / chairs are practically non existent so I have to hope we can figure something out before they outgrow their buggy.

As it is I have to let multiple buses go past to get on with a double. If I were taking them to a hospital appointment (the only reason I use the bus these days) and I had to get off for a wheelchair it would be a nightmare, I already have to leave an hour before an appointment for a ten minute journey just to make sure we can fit on a bus. I can’t even learn to drive at the moment due to problems with my legs.

You can get signs that say “treat wheelchair as buggy” but would anyone actually take them seriously? I doubt it. We have blue badges but they mean nothing on public transport - they should issue them with a badge to be used on public transport I reckon.

It’s not the fault of people in wheelchairs obviously, it’s bus companies who don’t make their services properly accessible.

Anyway, that’s my rant for the day! Always worth bearing in mind that parents not immediately folding buggies might not just be being obstructive arseholes!

SnuggyBuggy maybe you should try it. the lack of awareness people have is mind blowing.
i feel for the carer(if they existed) no doubt they have been met with the attitudes like some on this thread, on numerous occasions.
i really doubt any of this really happened anyway.

There just needs to be a dedicated w chair space that is never for pushchairs. Ever....
A space for a couple of pushchairs... people may have to stand in the space but they can move out of it
but what about the people standing in the wheelchair space with their suitcases, shopping etc, or the people sitting in the pull down seats? Or even the ones in the pushchair space? Can they be trusted to move out of it unlike those selfish, stupid, ignorant, snowflake, up themselves scum known MOTHERS WITH PUSHCHAIRS? Or are we expecting bus drivers to police it when thry can't be bothered to do so already?
If yo u think people will move to allow for its proper use, or the driver will monitor it properly then it no different from now and no need to label all parents with pushchairs as some useless underclass who aren't capable of common sense and decency

Parents of disabled children using a buggy as a wheelchair is very different to the vast majority of cases though. In those cases of course they should be treated like wheelchairs and I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.

I don't see how the carers aggressive behaviour made things any better for the person using the wheelchair. Carers aren't beyond reproach.

@SinkGirl I'd def get the sign, it'll help you argue the point if it becomes an issue. DS was in a regular buggy for ages too but we had the "advantage" that with his o2 tubes, he looks disabled and people would be quite vocal on our behalf about us not beg expectcted to collapse altho like you I stilleave crazy early. Now got to regular twins to add to the mix tho thankfully DS walks most places now. Have to decide in a few weeks if we take his special chair plus a double buggy for the hour commute to hospital... Maybe not 😂😂😂

Not labelling anyone as anything but I’m only seeing threads about pushchairs and wheelchairs ......

I have never in my life seen a person board a train or bus and ask a stranger to hold their baby. Stop making shit up.

I've asked people to hold my baby before, there is generally always someone on the bus happy to do so and if not then the driver was nominated to do it. It's a bit easier now DD is 2yo, she's not very steady on her feet but she can stand long enough for me to fold up or can be sat on a seat while I do it then when it comes to getting off the bus I either put the buggy up in the aisle as we're approaching our stop and she gets back in or - like today - someone on the bus will hold her hand while we get off and until I got the buggy put up. Today was a lovely older lady who we vaguely know as she lives nearby (we live in one of those places where everyone at the very least vaguely knows everyone else), she stood holding DD's hand while I put the buggy back up and said she was happy to do it as DD is a "wee little dote". I have held people's babies before or helped them lift their buggy into the rack or carry their stuff on/off the bus. It's not made up shit, it does happen. Maybe it depends on where you live.

In real life I have never seen the level of angst about wheelchair spaces that I have seen on MN threads. Most people I've encountered in RL don't massively overthink it and everyone manages to ride on the bus without arguments or strife. I realise though that this is not the same experience others have had and I agree that bus companies need to do more to ensure that all users are able to access public transport and that priority users are able to access their priority space.

HoHoHoik

I’m not saying nobody does it. I am disputing that it I “how we do things in the UK”. I was born here forty-ish years ago. If this was standard practice I would know about it.

But I think it is how we do things in the UK, there is a definitely a sense of mucking in and helping each other when needed. Two of my friends are originally from other countries (USA and Poland) and both have commented on how people here help each other out even when they don't know one another and that strangers speak to each other.

Again, I suppose it depends on where you live.

HoHoHoik

Right, so it might be that where you live in the UK this is normal. I have lived all over London, in the Home Counties, Midlands and in the north-west, and I have never seen it.

YANBU
She shouldn’t have got aggressive

Blimey. I'd have gotten my phone out and filmed her and said ''if you don't quit filming and shouting at us I'm calling the police''. What a loon.

*I really hope you have never treated a wheelchair user so appallingly as to refuse to move with a pushchair. Are also you one of those idiots, who park in a disabled space without a badge as you won’t be long? Ffs.

Moonlight
I imagine this isn’t the first time she’s come across buggies in the wheelchair space and I imagine they’ve refused to move in the past. She was very aggressive but I’d cut her some slack. It must be terribly stressful to be a carer - especially if it is a family member / partner.*

This^^ Havent been able to read all posts, but in case someone hasn't pointed this out:

People choose to have children.
NO ONE chooses to be disabled.

@QuiQuaiQuod which would be relevant if she'd been refused this time or even looked like she might be, this lady clearly had her phone out ready to film and was seemingly looking to cause an altercation.

I've had some pretty intrusive, rude comments about DS's disability, a I OK to yell at anyone in a bus stop just. I'm case?

1plus- I think (I may be wrong) that this woman, , no, she shouldn't have shouted, but maybe been firm but polte.

Ive had MANY times when people have refused to move for DCs wheelchair.

maybe this womans had to wait for ages and came to the end of her tether? I nearly have at times.

Church. I have lived all around London. In fact that's where I lived mid 90s when wheelchair spaces whete first introduced. There whete no buggy spaces before then. Everyone helped with babies and prams, held babies, folded prams, everyone. Perhaps you where living in an alternate reality.