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?

MoonlightMistletoe

And for a long time to come, the children most of us chose to have will be working to pay taxes, so that things like buses can continue to function. But yes, it’s a “lifestyle choice”, isn’t it?

If you aren't capable of folding your buggy then buy a sling.

It is nowhere near that simple. Some people can’t carry a baby like that. Some people have two small children. Some people use their buggy to carry their food shopping, and have no other way to do it. Have some empathy.

Smugness 😂 err no. I help mothers onto buses, help them fold prams etc. I do support the rights of people with disabilities and campaign for changing spaces. If you feel the services on buses are not adequate campaign for better ones,. Like changing places it's not going to change unless someone does something.

@churchandstate it is that simple and as a mum of two children I know exactly what it's like.

reginafelangee

Please explain how a person who can’t carry a baby in a sling can solve this problem by buying a sling.

Also like I said before my mum and others wrangles 4 kids plus buggy and bags onto buses without specific buggy spots, it can be done. Noneof them whinged like snowflakes either they just got on with it, untill tne likes of you decided to take take take from disabled people.

my2bundles

Whether I campaign or not, I’m not wrong. You think I am and have spent pages and pages arguing against the idea that new parents need this service. Shame on you, really.

Ynbu at all. Carers should have the same manners as everybody else.

Noneof them whinged like snowflakes either they just got on with it, untill tne likes of you decided to take take take from disabled people.

What have I taken?

Snowflakes. Nasty piece of work, aren’t you.

The challenge of disability on public transport is unrelenting and permanent. It's not unsurprising if a carer reaches breaking point.

If you or someone like you dosent campaign it won't change. The service is there, they can use the space unless a wheelchair user needs the space then they can fold. No one has to exit tne bus, ever. MY god how did I ever manage my kids when they where little on buses? Ah yes I asked for help and folded tbe buggy dear god what a concept 😂

@churchandstate

A sling is one choice. If you can't or won't use one then there are other choices. Many have been suggested to you.

Exactly sooty.

@Mummyoflittledragon on the other side. The physically able can stand.

And a wheelchair user doesn't have choices or alternatives.

A sling is one choice. If you can't or won't use one then there are other choices. Many have been suggested to you.

And I have suggested another solution, because all yours are unacceptable if you cede the basic premise that new parents who use buses are people in need of a basic service, not parasites who should take whatever crap is handed out to them.

I'm just glad when DD was little we lived in Madrid because all city buses had a built in baby seat (as shown in the picture) so nobody has to get someone else to hold their baby while they fold their pram and stow it in the storage area next to it.

The second picture shows from standing next to the baby seat that there is a large wheelchair area. (The green chairs denote the accessible/priority seating)

I do think that half the problem is design of buses - in my local buses they have taken out all the designated luggage/storage space so even if you do fold your pram there is nowhere out if the way/secure to leave it, and nowhere to store shopping bags, so people end up taking up two seats as they try to wedge their shopping under their seat

The only reason there are buggy spaces on buses are because disabled people campaigned for years to be able to use buses.

As soon as wheelchair spaces were introduced wheelchair users found they still couldn't get on the buses because parents with baby travel systems started hogging them.

After numerous court cases brought by wheelchair users bus companies finally introduced space for both.

reginafelangee

And both is exactly what we need.

melj1213

Nice!

Well said Regina.

I have personal experience of people not clearing the designated priority wheelchair space so that a wheelchair user can get on.
frequently. it is very dispiriting. and exhausting.. and worrying if you are with someone who has to stay out in the cold, bus after bus, a person who is already frail, disabled, extra vulnerable.
everyone using/ accompanying a wheelchair has the same experience, every day.
have you seen the video made by a blind man in London. he attaches the camera to his guide-dog's harness.
on the escalator, in company with a tube worker, a commuter demanded that he move out of the way. which was impossible. which the tube staff pointed out. and the man. the commuter took umbrage at the suggestion that he was being inconsiderate, to which another stranger said, with great british restraint, you are being VERY inconsiderate. quite.

ginger that does look amazing! Fortunately we don’t need positioning, they just need something I can restrain them in and move them around in (both have ASD, plus a visual impairment, and a medical condition that needs monitoring and treating quickly if it crops up). I am going to send this to a friend who has twins with CP though, as she’s struggling with two separate chairs at the moment.

I may get a sign but honestly I’d feel massively uncomfortable using it - I’m sure people would think it’s bollocks! I wish there were something more official.

Both are available church right now. Just not the unlimited supply you seem to expect.