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?

I've only caught the bus with DD once - it was when the car needed repairing so in fact she was in a carseat on pram chassis.

The bus was nearly empty so no need to fold it up (there were four people on it, all near the back) but God it was stressful! The door had a railing thing down the middle so I could barely get it on and the driver just glared at me. Heaven knows how I would have got it off if a nice passenger hadn't helped. I don't know how you all do it every day, I really don't - esp those who are using Maclaren Majors...

and of course is they actually made the luggage racks big enough to accomodate more than 3 bags of shopping then it would be considerably easier to fold a pushchair and put it in the rack........however even if it's a big(ger) rack trying to fit another pushchair in it along with the the 4 already stacked precariously on top of each other does often prove a little difficult.

I am going to Edinburgh in the summer, I shall be taking the pushchair, I fully intend to leave DS3 sat in it while on the bus unless the space for the wheelchairs/pushchairs is already taken.

There are good pushchair spaces on our buses which are very well-designed. You can fit several umbrella style buggies on and then the parent can fold down the seat next to them and hold onto the buggy (for dear life).

What isn't acceptable is when one - single, non-special needs - buggy, takes up three or four spaces on a crowded bus.

pushchair uncomfortable I really should check my spellings before I submit!

Norma - on the grand scheme of things, do many AIBU threads really matter?

lol Norma about the size of child/pushchair/comfort made me smile - DS3 is rather large for his age and is rather squashed in his little fold-up that I bought when my Quinny died

Toccata Shame your Quinny died, nice aren't they?

"What isn't acceptable is when one - single, non-special needs - buggy, takes up three or four spaces on a crowded bus."

why isn't it acceptable - if they got their first, and your child doesn't need to be in the pushchair either then imo it's always been first come first served.

Now I have the smaller pushchair it doesn't bother me one jot if someone got on the stop before with a large pushchair and I have to fold it up (unless it's the luggage rack is one of those stupid small ones).

Just seen the thing about the trains somewhere banning unfolded pushchairs - glad I'm not travelling there in the summer then..........

I don't think anyone other than me and people I nominate should be allowed on buses. It would make my journeys much nicer.

I kept on getting punctures in the one back wheel, I got that slime stuff, I have the tyre changed.........still kept getting punctures (I suspect it was probably due to the glass on the pavements on the long walk to school I had at the tme).

DS3 loved it, I loved it, was so much easier to push - and put my shopping on.

im very considerate to fellow passengers, we tend to walk everywhere, but as i cannot currently drive, I NEED to use the buses for dc2 hospital appointments( 10 mile away) , dc1 walks everywhere. I never have shopping hanging off my p/chair also, as we do that when dh has finished/off work!

i need to go to the hospital at least once a week, this week has/going to be 4 times!.

I also use the public transport to get dc2 prescription, which are 6 miles away from home weekly.

I need to use public transport, it is not a want but a need!

YABU its just a rubbish arguement imo..FFS most people I have seen fold them and those who dont obviously cant..its no badge of honour not to have taken a buggie on the bus it just means you have been lucky enough not to experienced how irritating it can be as a parent ...I hated it and hated the way people acted towards me (tuts and whinging) ...thank god not everyone was the same though..

Trains here don't allow unfolded pushchairs. Some major route buses allow two unfolded pushchairs. Minor route buses allow one folded pushchair, none unfolded. Irrelevant to me as I've never ever needed to take a chair on pt, with just the one kid.

Yeah riven you knw that I have Jack too who is severely disabled, and cannot sit in a seat, can't hold himself up, so yeh Jack and other disabled ppl come first.

But I feel it's not right to put a newborn in a bloody umbrella fold buggy that is not comfy for them, I have always had a big pram for both my kids and thts my right

I'm just grateful that I live in the centre of town with all these judgey people about. I can't drive at the moment (epilepsy), and if I had to use a bus to get my shopping home, I would clearly be one of these wicked people who take up lots of space on a bus with 'bags hanging all over the place', despite having an umbrella fold now my DS is bigger.

Mind you, we need to move, as I'm 20wks and our house isn't big enough. So soon I'll have two young children and probably be further out. Yes, I will be taking up space with my 'oversized' pram so that my new DC isn't harmed (I've never seen a cheap umbrella fold which lies flat, and can't afford more than the cheap prams) and I will have another child with me, so am not prepared to fart about folding it up after unloading all the shopping into the undersized bay. Thank christ all the busses here have enough room for two buggies (well, not huge ones) and a wheelchair.

Yes, the spaces are for disabled people, but why should I have to physically get off a bus and wait (in what weather would you deem it unreasonable?) because I have a malfunctioning brain and therefore can't drive? I agree with you Riven that the priority must be for your disabled child, but I think it's too black and white to have a blanket 'you get off' statement. In a situation where the bus comes every ten minutes, fine. But living further out often means waiting for half an hour to an hour. Why should any mother with a small child be simply ejected onto the roadside because the bus system is so unflexible? There should be additional legislation to provide as much space in the front as we have here on ALL buses.

And to the poster who was angered by the prams making people stand, why should people without children present object to standing because a small child needs the space? I used to catch a very oversubscribed bus service which ran every hour between my village and the town, then onto another town which actually had proper shops. The bus drivers were (mostly) excellent, and did not stop people getting on even when (very often) they were jammed standing in the aisles because of several prams on at once. It was a poor area - clearly the people using the service could not afford to drive. If they had not been allowed on the bus, they would have been confined to their homes. Very nice.

You know what I'd like to ban from buses? Those people who refuse to go and sit upstairs because they're not going very far. They take up all the standing space downstairs, and mean that the bus driver then can't let people get on to go upstairs to take the spare seats.

Sorry, tangent.

Our bus service has a mixture of good and crap buses. The good ones allow three unfolded buggies on, the crap ones no unfolded buggies at all. The bus company has just bought four new buses for the route I live on; they are much smaller and take either one unfolded buggy or one wheelchair. However the drivers are fairly flexible; last week a woman in a wheelchair got on when there was a pregnant woman with a sleeping toddler in the space, and they both fitted in without difficulty with plenty of room to get on and off.
Personally I utterly fail to see the point that an able- bodied person should get the folding seat instead of the child in the buggy. It's called a buggy space- it says so on the window! They provide handles for standing people. If my DD is asleep and I have heavy shopping hanging off my buggy, like fuck am I going to wrestle with the whole bloody shebang just so someone perfectly able to stand for the short journey can sit.

My god, Riven, where do you live? Am that lots of your buses have no wheelchair access at all. Around here they all have that - I thought it was a legal requirement.

I certainly do not want another umbrella buggy, i hate the bloody things, mine is like the 4x4 of buggies and i love it, thinking back to those poor buggers trying to pull theirs through the snow, where as mine handles any surface i wouldnt give it up for no bugger . Cant we all just agree to disagree, and the next time it happens just dont judge first.

Blah, blah, blah. Have Stokke Xplory, take bus, would get off for wheelchair user or if bus extremely busy i.e. no available seats. My Stokke actually takes up just one fold-up seat space despite other uneducated idiots' people's opinions, yet I get nasty comments from all and sundry on buses that AREN'T full/have empty seats just because people are rude knobheads want to find something to whine about.

I love my Stokke. My DS is high up which, given my chronic back pain, removes the need to bend over continuously to adjust his clothes/pick him up/put him down/comfort him etc, it moves like a dream and has a humongous shopping bag for the occasions where I have to do emergency grocery/assorted shopping which means I don't have to carry/balance massive shopping bags on it or on my person, I use it as a highchair when I need to feed my DS when out and about etc etc etc. Those who don't like it simply because they have their humoungous judgey pants on can lump it. Just my tuppence on the matter ...

well yes Riven folding works - if there's somewhere to put the folded pushchair

"Irrelevant to me as I've never ever needed to take a chair on pt, with just the one kid."

well you obviously have other means of getting around then - as those of us who rely on our feet and pt do invariably at some point have to go on pt with a pushchair

YABU