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Priority seating on buses

2 replies

HVR2014 · 06/12/2014 22:06

When I was pregnant with my first child, I got on a bus at 38 weeks with very few empty seats on the ground floor and two empty priority seats, I decided to sit in one of them. At the next stop I could see an older lady (around 60/70) and daughter running across the road to get the bus. They obviously wanted to sit together so the older lady aggressively asked me if I was disabled. I had a bag infront of my bump and perhaps she didn't notice it but she didn't give me a chance to speak and just kept saying are you disabled? I was really upset by her aggressiveness so just stood up and moved as I didn't want to get in to an argument. If there were no other seats of course I would have moved if she had needed it but there was a perfectly adequate seat next to me. Funnily enough as soon as I moved both her and her daughter sat in the priority seats. A couple of years have passed now and I'm pregnant with my second. I'm just over 4 months and feeling pretty rough. For the first time in ages I got a bus home and again, there were two priority seats at the front free whilst the rest of the bus was full so I decided to sit in the seat and move if someone less able came on. Within 5 minutes, an older lady came on. I assumed she would sit next to me but instead she sat in the fold down seat in the disabled area, looked at me and said 'you don't look disabled'. I was speechless at her rudeness. Of course I would have moved but there was a free seat next to me. I simply asked her 'would you like my seat' and she said no. I get upset pretty easily but an astonished and saddened by how rude people can be. Now put off using public transport for the rest of this pregnancy!

OP posts:
superram · 06/12/2014 22:20

They are both rude, ignore and don't worry. I took a buggy on the bus today, a wheelchair got on. I moved the buggy and asked if they needed me to fold. He said no too much room,could fit his wheelchair and 2 buggies. Everyone happy. Most people really needing a seat would be polite.

iwantgin · 07/12/2014 13:58

You were unlucky to come across rude passengers.

To me - a heavily pregnant woman is quite deserving of a priority seat. If they could run across the road, they weren't actually any more in need of the seat than you were?

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