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?

Shocked. Disgusted. Enough with them having to wait or ASK people to move. Be prepared. Fold your buggy. Babies in slings / on knees. Space for wheelchair user. I'd be raging too if I had to constantly ASK POLITELY if someone could move so I could get on a bus because they were too selfish to think forward. It's the same as parking in a disabled parking space just because it's currently empty.

It's the same as parking in a disabled parking space just because it's currently empty.

It isn’t. Those spaces are exclusively for people with blue badges. Accessible spaces on buses can be used by anybody.

@Booboostwo No it isn't an "accessibility space". It's a wheelchair space. Please don't do this, push for it to be considered an accessibility space as opposed to a wheelchair space for those who desperately need it. If it does turn into an 'accessibility' space then it'll be clogged up by people who supposedly need the extra space for their emotional support animals and those with anxiety who can't face walking through the crowded bus. Thus making less spaces for those who need it and those who it was intended for.

I'd be raging too if I had to constantly ASK POLITELY if someone could move so I could get on a bus because they were too selfish to think forward.

Yup. I think I would get very tired of this very quickly. And then the outrage when a person with disabilities/mobility difficulties dares to act as a normal human being, instead of being permanently humble and grateful that people will "fold if they see the need to."

It's not up to people with buggies to determine a wheelchair user's "need."

It's not up to people with buggies to determine a wheelchair user's "need."

No, it’s up to the driver. The space can be used by anyone. The driver is obligated to ask passengers to move for a priority passenger.

ffs here we go again.
no one knows how many times the carer has tried to board a bus. how many times a parent has refused to move.
a wheelchair space is for a wheelchair, not any of the mn what ifs.

People with prams and people with wheelchairs need to stand together and push for change in the way busses are designed so this isn't an issue
disabled people already did this to get wheelchair spaces.
I doubt parents will bother as for them its a very short term problem.

a wheelchair space is for a wheelchair, not any of the mn what ifs.

It’s there for anybody, and in case someone in a wheelchair needs it, they take priority.

ITS A WHEELCHAIR SPACE

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.

^THIS^

I've never seen a person with a buggy not get off when a wheelchair user needs the bus. You can't fold all buggies, and I would not want to wake my sleeping baby up so I'd just get off, regardless of shouting etc. I live between 2 hospitals so at least once per week I get off a bus for a wheelchair user.

For people saying "you don't know how many times the carer has as tried to board" it doesn't mean she had the right to immediately become abusive so much so that I saw a phone in my face before I noticed the wheelchair user.

It's the first time I've been on a bus in a long long time as I was going a distance to go to a family gathering which everyone else had gone in their cars but there wasn't enough room for the buggies plus car seats. Usually I get around by walking or using a tram which has a lot of space for both wheelchairs and buggies.

The woman taking her anger and frustration out on me when I was in fact trying to get my buggy down was so determined to put the situation on social media and caused a huge scene that wasn't even needed. Her acting the way she did put that man in danger because he under up on the floor.

He was fragile I didn't see the exact wheelchair what type but he rolled into the curb and tipped over it was horrid and I do feel terribly sorry for him.

When my son was new born, he was very poorly.. we were released from SCBU after 3 weeks, but I had to take him to the hospital for day care each morning at 10am till he was 9 weeks.. London, so no parking at the hospital (nearby car park was a 3 hour maximum stay and I was there minimum of 5 hours). Getting the bus was a huge nightmare - 3 times in one journey I had to get off the bus with him for wheel chair users, and regularly waited two or three buses for one without too many buggies on already. Due to his medical issues, I couldn't just get him out of the pram and lug him around.. and due to my own injuries, I couldn't walk the 4 miles to the hospital.

Sometimes, just a little common courtesy and understanding would have made a hideous situation for me a little better.

It's true not all buggies collapse, which is why you buy on that does collapse when you know you will use buses.

Thinking back to my childhood in the 70s and 80s. My own mum had 4 kids, used buses everyday and managed us plus bags and a foldable buggy. That's what people did for generations and no one ever had to get off and walk. There was no spaces for wheelchairs so people campaigned hard for them and eventually won after a fight. It saddens and sickens me that today's snowflakes carnt even manage 1 child without trying to take away a wheelchairs users right to THEIR space created for equal access.

Several are missing the point. The carer was aggressive and due to HER behaviour the driver told them to stay put. If the carer acted this way with any other public service employee she would have been told to change her behaviour, asked to leave, or even banned. She was verbally assaulting and recording a driver and passengers without their consent and still continued as they were trying to move. Regardless of what happened before the bus pulled up, her behaviour was appalling and the driver was well within his rights to deny her access. I’d bet there is a sign somewhere on the bus about zero tolerance and not being aggressive towards the bus driver as there are with most places that deal with the public.

Since this was the rear of the bus, I’m wondering if this was one of those buses with two entrances and exits and if that was the case, why didn’t the carer move to the front of the bus instead of shouting at passengers in the rear? If she had been concentrating on the man she was caring for instead of being belligerent and trying to record, he wouldn’t have fallen over which begs the question where and how did she leave him for him to do so in the first place!

How rude are some people in this world acting like mums with babies are taking up space by using buses?

They are, they are taking up the wheelchair space. As for a folded buggy taking up as much space, maybe it does, but that space can be on a seat, the wheelchair user can't use that space.

It's the same as parking in a disabled parking space just because it's currently empty.

It isn’t. Those spaces are exclusively for people with blue badges. Accessible spaces on buses can be used by anybody.

OK so would you be happy if buggies were never allowed in the wheelchair space? The space is a 'reasonable adjustment' dictated by law for a wheelchair user, as a courtesy it can be used by others but it is not designed for them.

In the town I grew up there was a notice on the bus that children who paid half fare had to give up their seat to an adult. It's the same principle.

I've said this before but I think buggies should pay a charge of £5 or £10 if it is not folded. People would soon learn to fold their buggies / buy a buggy that they can fold.

Equanimitas you wrote quoting another poster
So what if the baby in the buggy is disabled?
And replied
It’s a wheelchair space, so the person in the wheelchair gets priority.

I disagree with you. If it’s a wheelchair space can I load my DD’s wheelchair with my shopping and take up the space? Clearly not, the space is for the disabled person who needs it, not for the wheelchair, which includes the disabled baby in his buggy.

Yes you did write ‘baby’ and I said ‘child’, the distinction is correct but utterly irrelevant.

Mlou32 lovely, judgey post of other disabled people and people in need, you should be proud of that one.

@phoenixrosehere That's absolutely the point I was trying to make. The woman was at the rear doors leaning in and he was somewhere behind her after a good few minutes of her shouting while I'm taking my baby out the man in the wheelchair was down the side of the bus I didn't see what exactly happened to him because she was in my face. She then quickly put her phone away attended to the man meanwhile the driver shut the doors and drove away. At the next stop the driver said the same woman is constantly filming and causing a scene so perhaps she has had people refusing to move which also isn't right but that person wasn't me I was still moving even though being shouted at which literally triggered off my anxiety.

Bus companies need to get a grip and come up with a ticketing system that accommodates people who have to get off the bus for a wheelchair.

It’s there for anybody, and in case someone in a wheelchair needs it, they take priority.

This. It actually says this on the buses here in Oxfordshire. It is not for just wheelchair users. It says that in an event that there may be a wheelchair user you may have to move. In our immediate area, there is maybe two wheel chair users total and the rest are parents with buggies and strollers. Going to Oxford, and taking the S5 bus three -four round trips a week, I usually see maybe one wheelchair user a month if that even if I ride it at different times. It is used more for buggies, strollers, and trolleys and the bus links to the JR hospital which tells you to take public transport to get to the hospital because parking is horrendous there.

You are definitely being unreasonable, she shouldn’t have had to ask you at all. HTH.

no one knows how many times the carer has tried to board a bus. how many times a parent has refused to move
a wheelchair space is for a wheelchair, not any of the mn what ifs

This.

But if the sort of response from ChurchandState is standard:

The space can be used by anyone

then I'd imagine that the carer and the wheelchair user were just exhausted and sick& tired of selfish thoughtless people