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?

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

Thank goodness that’s not the rule over my way. It would have left me housebound in the weeks after my last c-section, as clearly I couldn’t drive, and would simply not have managed walking any further than the bus stop at the end of my street with my 2.5 yo and newborn. I physically could not have folded a pram and lugged it plus the kids on/off/around inside the bus. What I absolutely would have done every time though, is get off the bus if a wheelchair user needed the space that is theirs by rights.

The woman in the OP just sounds an aggressive asshat. No matter what your frustrations, it’s not acceptable to behave that way. Poor man in the wheelchair, he’s the only one that’s lost out in all this.

I don’t understand where someone with a baby is meant to go? Saw this recently and the woman was told to take her baby and pram and stand outside at a random bus stop because a wheelchair user needed to be on. Totally understand that a wheelchair user needs the space but chucking a mum out with her newborn in the dark? (Bus was jam packed).

What sort of wheelchair was this? Transits don't move themselves and I struggle to see how this could happen with a self propelled.

Totally understand that a wheelchair user needs the space but chucking a mum out with her newborn in the dark?

That's the risk she took when she occupied a wheelchair space.

Davinci
You and / the other able bodied bus users should have helped her to fold the buggy. Not sit in silence and let her get thrown off.

Davincitoad if you are using the wheelchair space you know you are going to have to fold or get off if a wheelchair user gets on.

So what if the baby in the buggy is disabled? What if the baby is being taken to an urgent hospital appointment? What if the parent with the buggy is disabled? So many different scenarios that need to be taken into account. My friend is a wheelchair user as he has MS. If he needs to go somewhere during busy times he books a taxi paidnfor through his DLA because he knows it's a nightmare getting in a busy bus at rush hour. He personally would not want someone with a buggy to have to get off a bus for him.
Every wheelchair user is different, every parent with buggy is different. I actually don't agree that anyone should be made to get off a bus to let someone else on. No one knows the personal circumstances of every passenger! That being said, I would move or get off if a wheelchair user needed to get on.

I get that the wheelchair user takes priority but busses need proper storage spaces for folded buggies. All the ones round here don't have a luggage rack so fuck knows what people are actually meant to do with folded down buggies.

I would have got off the bus myself and walked to create space. I used to walk home from work most of the time anyway (about 4 miles) so it wouldn't have been a bother. Better me than a baby in a pram.

@Mummyoflittledragon it didn’t fold it was a old style pram. I am not able bodied. As if you just turned that around on me!

How rude are some people in this world acting like mums with babies are taking up space by using buses? Not all mums can fold a buggy and hold a baby and stand on a bus. So much for promoting public transport use.

"He personally would not want someone with a buggy to have to get off a bus for him."

His choice. Others have different needs and it is for them to make the choice not non wheelchair users to impose it because they want the space.

Davinci
The pushchair wasn’t foldable. Then she shouldn’t have taken it on the bus. Surely not being able bodied you can see a baby can go in a sling or collapsible pushchair unlike a wheelchair user.

I can well imagine how someone not able bodied would be unable to both hold a baby and fold down a pram on a bus in any case.

@SnuggyBuggy I agree, but people aren't really arsed about mums, just stay home unless you can afford a car, evidently.

Soon to be 60. Most people onDLA carnt afford to use it for taxis.

You cannot have debates at bus stops about whose need is greater. What if both people think their need is greater?
It is no different to bb spaces. If you don't have a bb you don't get to use it no matter if you have an urgent appointment or any other reason.

Parents need to do what people with disabilitys did years ago campaign for spaces on buses. These spaces didn't suddenly appear there was years and years and hard work and campaigning for equal access so people in wheelchairs whete no longer housebound. Instead of abusing their long fought for spaces why don't patents campaign for their own? Oh I know why, it's because it's easier to take someone else's and whine that it's unfair.

That’s why I said it is the societal responsibility of others to help the mother. It’s not about not caring for mums. The wheelchair spaces in buses were won by wheelchair users for their use. There are so many threads about men encroaching on women’s spaces yet a lack of critical thinking on wheelchair spaces

I suspect it would have been better if collapsing prams and buggies before boarding had continued to be the norm for mothers and busses had a space for the folded down equipment.

This current system of getting on and hoping there won't be a wheelchair user joining the bus during the journey is crap. I just don't take buggies on the bus as I find the idea of getting turfed off halfway through the journey stressful. It's either the sling or walking.

So what if the baby in the buggy is disabled?

It's a wheelchair space, so the person in the wheelchair gets priority.

*What if the baby is being taken to an urgent hospital appointment?8

Tough. Parent needs to factor that into their timing.

What if the parent with the buggy is disabled?

Irrelevant, unless the parent is in a wheelchair.

It's a space for people in wheelchairs. Once you get that, none of these questions are difficult to answer.

I agree fully that if there was space for collapsed buggies, then it would be fair to make it mandatory for them to be folded; a win for both. Never any prams in the disabled spaces, and somewhere for parents to put the pram so they aren't worried about getting turfed off part way through a journey.

That’s awful.

I’ve always sorted something with my buggy, either collapsing it, or getting off and walking the rest of the way, but I would have gone a bit “ugh” if I was shouted at like that.

No need for it

This is why I refused to use the bus when DD was in a buggy. I walked everywhere (did wonders for baby weight lol) or I took an uber for longer distances or after shopping. Luckily I'm in London so its easier but that OP story sounds like a nightmare and exactly why I avoided them (buses.)

I also don't understand how space is made by collapsing the buggy if it is full of shopping /rainy day for example.
You'd have to unload shopping bags, changing bag, remove those cosy things in the buggy, take off rain guard, remove child, fold buggy.

With it all dismantled it would take up a lot of room surely?

"So what if the baby in the buggy is disabled?"

Personally I would see a baby in a buggy with a disability that would make it unsafe to move them eg being on oxygen, as being in a wheelchair and I would react accordingly but it is ultimately the individual wheelchair users right to decide.