Not sure if my title makes much sense but here’s an example.
I finished some shopping today and waited at the bus stop. I have a double buggy and I already checked that there wasn’t a wheelchair user or another buggy that was there before me. The bus came and I got on. Parked the buggy in the wheelchair user space and then saw there was an elderly man behind me with a seated zimmer frame. He kind of just hovered near the buggy and I asked him where he wanted to go but I don’t think he heard me.
There were seats directly near the wheelchair user space so I didn’t sit down but stood near the doors assuming the man wanted to sit there and fold up his zimmer frame. So I’ve moved to the doors now and the gentleman is still standing there and at this point he’s blocking the aisle for people to walk past. Quite a few people asked him if he was okay and where he wanted to go. There was also a British Transport Police officer on the bus who also asked him what he wanted to do.
One woman started speaking up saying it’s my fault and I’m in the way as he clearly wants to put his frame where the buggy is. Straight away I responded saying it’s a double buggy so not sure what you expect me to do. A zimmer frame can be folded up. Out of the blue she started to get rude and raise her voice which was totally unnecessary in my view. The transport officer interrupted and told the woman that I haven’t done anything wrong and I only need to make space for a wheelchair user. The man eventually sat down in the seats mentioned but kept his zimmer frame open which blocked the aisle and people struggled to get through.
Now my question is, why did that woman feel the need to jump in so quickly and blame me simply because the man was elderly?