that huge buggies should be banned from buses

[donkeyderby]

I was on the bus yesterday, and a woman got on pushing her child in an oversized buggy that took up four fold-up seat spaces.

AIBU to think that if you travel regularly by bus, you should invest in a cheap umbrella-style pushchair that takes only one space up?

Hahahahaha ilive!!! Brilliant!!!

I use an old Mamas and Papas pram with fixed wheels DS 14 months. I have used on of these since birth, am on my second one.
A friend recently gave me a Mamas and Papas pramette that she no longer used.

I walk at least 4 miles a day but usually make 1 bus journey too. (Walk to where I am going but then bus home)So the pram has been on untold number of busses with (next to) no incident.
I used the pramette for the first time this weekend and even though it looks smaller, the wheel base is the same as the pram so it takes up the same amount of space on the bus.

Again, what about twins? Would you expect me to move my twin buggy with newborn twins in it to give way to you, or get off altogether, Riven? If I happened to be on the bus before you boarded. Hypothetical question.

Oh Gawd, of course I wouldn't want to ban SN pushchairs, or wheelchairs, or double buggies from buses. My God, I've got a severely disabled child myself and I have battled with Maclaren Majors and wheelchairs, so I don't need it spelled out to me undertheboardwalk. It always makes my heart sink when I start a thread and it goes off in a direction I never intended. Must be the way I tell 'em.

I am referring to people who travel regularly with uneccessarily huge pushchairs (the massive three wheeler variety for instance), who have the option of buying a piss cheap fold-up number that takes up one space, not three or four. I had no money when the DD was young and I got them from jumble sales etc.

Electric wheelchairs are refused entry onto our buses, so why not - at the very least - insist that those with the biggest pushchairs fold them down when the bus is very busy, rather than refuse a place to someone waiting at the bus stop?

YABU

I have 3 under 3, I have a P&T double with 2 toddlers in and baby in sling. I get the bus home from town sometimes if it's raining/freezing cold.

There is NOWAY that alone I could get them all out and hold all three of them whilst folding buggy down and then get it all together again the other end.

And my only other buggy option is a side by side double which would take up even more room.

YABU

people should be encouraged, not discouraged to use public transport

"banned" very harsh

YABU. I chose not to use buses until ds was old enough to go in an umbrella style buggy but why should people have to do this?

Its not surprising that everyone has cars. I have had nightmare problems catching buses with a toddler in tow. I don't blame anybody for buying a car to avoid using public transport. I just wish I could afford to do the same.

Of course they shouldn't be banned. But people who travel regularly on public transport would have a much easier time if they relied on slings and a lightweight lie-flat umbrella thing. This is what I did, in the end. Fortunately I didn't buy one of those big fat ones, as someone gave me one, but as someone who has travelled a lot on public transport with a child, I am glad I didn't spend the money because I haven't had much use for it.

I suppose, what I'm saying is, I don't have a problem with people taking these massive things on buses, but for their sake, life would be easier if they didn't, and I wish someone had advised them about this before they chose their 'travel system'.

Obviously, this doesn't necessarily apply the wheelchair ones, twin buggies, etc.

"that huge buggies should be banned from buses" OR everyone could just take a chill pill and not worry about it? As long as the buggy is moved when a wheelchair user needs it, who actually gives a fuck? I mean really?

I don't have a car so giant oversize buggy is needed, for storing shopping in the carrier etc. It is sturdier than those fold up ones, and I regularly have to walk half an hour to get to work with DS, swap shifts with DP and he takes DS home. DS can also nap in it as I can cover it with the hood and have him lying down, as the time I start work/DP finishes normally means we have to interrupt a nap.

I don't think those fold up ones could handle walking for an hour each day, 4 days a week.

I take the bus about twice a week, to the swimming pool and my aunts.

I take the train once a week, to visit my sister.

I am not going to buy a fold up buggy for 3 outings a week. The buses and trains are never overcrowded at the times I take them, I make sure not to take them during rush hour.

as long as they move for wheelchairs(even if they have quads) I don't care

We got a Quinny Zapp precisely because I'd be regularly using public transport and I didn't want to inconvenience other people by having a huge buggy. However, I would say that I still had trouble getting it into the pram space so I think buses could be better designed too. It was brilliant on The Tube last week, I'm not sure I could have done that with a big pram.

Agree with Riven it is a wheelchair space which buggies can use if a wheelchair user doesn't need it, not the other way around. There are signs on London buses saying exactly that.

People with kids in buggies have choices, those choices may be a massive PITA but someone in a wheelchair doesn't have the same ones.

YABU

No-one who is sane would use a mega buggy on public transport for the FUN of it. If you have several small children, but no car, what are you meant to do?

It's not a problem as long as people behave considerately, and move for wheelchair users.

Oh bloody hell, this is a free country anyone can get on the bloody bus with what they want, you see its you that is the sort of person that makes me not want to go on a bus and i have to walk miles to get to town, its a bloody disgrace, i dont hear you moaning about others that take up a whole seat with shopping, god i am angry.

Rollmops, I think that a wheelchair has a legal right to that space over anyone else. It's just free for buggies as long as a wheelchair user doesn't need it. Which seems reasonable. Although some of the very new buses here in Edinburgh have a wheelchair space AND a buggy space, which is handy.

I had a buggy that some people probably considered "huge" (can we have an actual definition of huge, please? No? Thought not, 'cos everyone has an opinion on what is Unacceptably Big, usually if it gets in their way) and I don't drive so was on buses a lot. Would always get out of the way for a chair if needed though. It was a Quinny Buzz so folding was PITA and more often than not I just hopped off and waited for a bus with free space.

A year or two back, I was on a bus (without DS) in a very run-down area of Edinburgh (dilapidated low-income housing with a sad look about it and no local shops to speak of) and saw a teenage girl with a baby in a big old-fashioned pram, obviously handed down, getting turned away from the bus because this was the period when the Lothian bus company had its Great Buggy War and banned anyone with an un-foldable buggy or pram. Hers clearly could not fold.

She also clearly was upset and clearly had no other way of getting into the bit of town where you might wish to purchase, I dunno, food, or nappies or whatever . I remember thinking, WTF is she supposed to do? Use her copious disposable income to get a taxi? I wasn't on the same bus btw, I was on the one behind and could see/kind of hear the situation from the window while we idled waiting to pull in. I still feel bad thinking about it.

The order of use for a wheelchair space should be:

1. A wheelchair user or a child in a disabled buggy.
2. A disabled person using the fold down seats.
3. Able bodied people using the fold down seats if the other seats are all full.
4. A baby or toddler in an unfolded buggy.

It is absurd that parents are prepared to prevent a wheelchair space, or make 4 people stand, just because they won't fold their pushchair.

I had a big 3 wheel pushchair and a folding double buggy. I folded them up before the bus arrived and put them in the parcel area. So I don't think pushchairs should be banned from buses, but I think bus drivers should be able to have some discretion over an unfolded buggy being allowed on a bus.

YANBU
If you know you are regularly going to use a bus it most inconsiderate to use onwe of these buggies as;
They don't fold up easily

They bash everyone's knees and shopping as they go past

They hold everyone up as they manouvre the bloody thing down the aisle

There is no room for another buggy to fit in

Tired mummy, yes, it is a free country but we all need to be considerate of others.
Why didn't you choose a slimmer model if you knew you were going to use a bus on a regular basis?

No way Milly

I agree with 1 & 2 (and would extend number 2 to elderly people and pregnant women)

Able-bodied people can stand. Or gosh, even go and sit a little bit further back.

I think it's like anything, there are shades of grey and it really depends on your attitude and how much effort you make to be considerate. It is not necessarily the case that getting on a bus with a larger buggy causes other passengers a problem. Often times it is totally fine, there is enough space and as for bashing knees/shopping, I've not been aware of that happening (and believe me I would have noticed as I'm quite self-conscious about these things).

If you are polite and considerate with your buggy, and willing to try and be a bit flexible about avoiding the most crowded buses, I can't see why anyone should be tutting. Different buggies suit different families, not everyone makes their selection based purely on the convenience of bus passengers they might one day encounter.

As for leaving no room for another buggy well, here at least, there is officially only one buggy allowed unfolded on the bus at a time regardless of size so having a small one doesn't mean there is "room" for another, they'd still have to fold down. It's an insurance thing, apparently.