Wheelchair vs buggies. Showdown on the bus

[SweetiePi3]

Today wasn't a good day for me. I had to go to the Princess Royal hospital. I waited for the bus, but when it arrived, the ramp wasn't deploying properly.
After the 3rd attempt, I lined up my chair, and as it came out, hanging an inch or so from the ground, I stormed up the ramp and into the bus.
Coming back, I had to change buses. The bus was full with three buggies in the wheelchair space.
The driver opened the back door and told me he had asked them to make space, but they refused.
I put my good foot in the doorway, preventing him from closing it and driving off.
He told them that I was holding the bus hostage until they made space. One mum folded her buggy, and one moved out of the way.
The third still refused, and while I was trying to explain the law to her, over her shouting, her partner started yelling at me.
I asked them what the sign said, but they said they were there first. I told them that the bus went move until I'm on it.
Meanwhile, people were leaving the bus. They gave in and took their buggy off while I boarded the ramp, then came in after me.
The bus driver drove off with the four of us lined up, one folded buggy, the other two, and me

On every thread of this ilk, including this one, there are posters saying just that.

In London, you can take unlimited journeys on buses within an hour for the price of one journey, so you’d be unlikely to be charged again if you had to get off the bus and get on the next one.

Unfortunately you need to disembark then if a wheelchair user needs the space

You get off the bus!!!FFS!! It's not that difficult to understand surely!!

More power to you OP.

Shame on the buggy wankers and the driver.

Unless the person with or the child in the buggy is disabled, you'd have to be a complete prick not to get off and get back on again.

Should it not be a wheelchair space but a first come first served for anyone space

No it should bloody not. A wheelchair user isn't doing it for shits and giggles. They cannot bloody walk or stand and can't exactly fold their wheelchair.

I cannot believe you took time to write such a mortifying comment.

I think when an actual human cannot get out and collapse their wheelchair then this first come first served bullshit goes out the window

@jannier It still doesn't answer what happens when it's the end of the drivers shift? They can't just abandon passengers at the road side and disappear...

You would hope but these threads come up time after time I think some people can't see past the fact they have children in a pram or a pushchair and can't seem to realise their situation is fairly short-lived compared to people with disabilities where it's life long and think wheelchair versus prams/ pushchair ,s are the same ,clearly it's not .

End of driver’s shift is another rare outlier case distracting us from the main issue. If drivers not at the end of their shifts routinely stood with wheelchair users, social norms would shift in their (wheelchair users) favour. Contentious cases would become few and far between, much like smoking on busses is now.

The next bus comes along just like a breakdown ....they all deserve to stand waiting for not backing the wheelchair user

@jannier It's not as easy as 'backing the wheelchair user' though. Most people would probably love to verbalise their backing of the wheelchair user but with random stabbings etc, people don't due to fear. Sad but true.

New rule: if you refuse to get off the bus for a wheelchair user then you have to remove your child before the buggy gets thrown off.

I'd support that! Although better yet, throw off the entitled parent too

Sure.
It just frustrates me that the discourse tends to go 'simply pop baby out and hold the buggy, easy', when it's not a cost-free course of action for some of us.

Which is why I circumscribe much of my life to avoid stressors.

Is there some kind of fine for people who refuse to move? If not thre should be.

It's a a wheel chair space .

Never ceases to amaze me that people with kids in buggies/prams do not realise that they are only enjoying this wheelchair space on buses because of tireless campaigning over the years by wheelchair users to ensure public transport was accessible for all. They should be bl**dy grateful

It just frustrates me that the discourse tends to go 'simply pop baby out and hold the buggy, easy', when it's not a cost-free course of action for some of us.

Are you comparing the "costs" of having to juggle a baby and a pram for what - maybe 18 months to 2 years - with the life-long "stressors" of mobility disability? With the increased susceptibility to cold, and the increased risk of serious respiratory illness from exposure, with the constant "stressor" of having to act in the way that @SweetiePi3 has described??

Every.Single.Day.

Don't use a space that's not there for you then, it's a wheelchair space, it isn't a buggy space.

The wheelchair user doesn't have the option to circumscribe their life.

Yeah, obviously that's exactly what I'm doing. You nailed it, good job.

@ClemFandango1 life can be hard as a neurodivergent person. Can’t you appreciate it’s hard for disabled people too- they campaigned to have one single space on a bus, and you think it’s ok for you to take it? Imagine if all the fold down disability seats you are entitled to were removed? Or someone removed the things you need (ear defenders? Quiet hour shopping? Sunflower lanyard? Priority queues?) just because they fancied having it instead. Would that be fine?

Nobody has to be kicked off thigh, there was actually space for everyone…