Pushchairs on bus take priorirty - WTF?

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

So this caught my eye.

Not only is the driver insane, surely, for saying pushchairs take priority, but the First MD is utterly wishy washy on the issue, saying 'they'd like' wheelchairs to take priority.

How rubbish?

Bristol news

utter shite, you can take a baby/child out of a wheelchair but not the other way round.
thank god i don't have to use the bus with dd

What crap! They're breaking the law there surely?

Haven't read the link (browser takes ages to open links) but tbh how can one take priroty over another in reality?

Our buses have a system where wheelchairs take priorty and if this can be acheived it will but its not always possible, so the wheelchaor has to wait for the next bus.

For example, if a packed bus pulls up to a stop where there is a wheelchair and there are three prams with newborn babys on, the only way to accomodate the wheelchair is for 2 of the mums to get off (which is isn't feasible as they would have already paid their fare) or for other people to stand up to let them sit down with their newborns so they can collapse their prams - which isn't likely and even if it were likely the driver wouldn't have the time to wait while this happened.

I have happily collapsed my buggy (with a toddler in) to let a wheelchair on the bus, but not so sure I'd be as happy about it if I had a newborn.

Things are different on buses now, bus companys make no allowwnce for collapsing buggys. Back in the days when you had to collapse, The buses had places to store buggys and bags but on our buses their is no where to store collapsed buggys and no one really to put bags (think this might be something to do with the terroist threat) and who do you give your newborn baby to while you are collapsing and then holding on to your buggy?

Its easy to say you can take your baby out but buses are not designes for you to do that now.

Please excuse awful typing and spelling - I am on my iPhone on a juddering train

oh that really is crap. On the buses in our area there is a sign saying that buggies may have to be folded up if a wheelchair user wants to get on, and I have got off a bus on occasion because of a wheelchair user coming on - and I felt that was the right way round. I wouldn't want them to miss the bus just because I had my able-bodied neurologically-typical toddler in a buggy in the wheelchair space.

I can understand one driver getting it wrong (the drivers round here can be tyrannical) but it sounds like his company is backing him up on this.

I have sent a link to Riven.......

I think in London the bus drivers give wheelchairs priority, even if that means chucking buggy off the bus into the rain, and they can be reported to TfL if they don't. Surely the best thing to do really, hard enough to get round London in a wheelchair as it is. Also hard to get round London with a buggy, especially some of the monster ones around these days!

That's crazy, of course wheelchairs should take priority over buggies. Its easy, take baby out, pass to nearest mother with older child or old lady to hold, fold buggy, retrieve baby. If you can't cope with that, then get off the bus!

What's the big deal with folding a buggy? If you have a newborn ask for help and it's sorted. I hate all the let people struggle crap that goes on, FFS get your finger out and help.
Your post pissed me off Riven. Is her head still attached to her ignorant evil shoulders

I regularly get the bus with my buggy, and if DS2 needs his nap I use the big, comfortable Loola buggy. It's a bugger to fold, so if a wheelchair gets on, I get off and walk for a bit, simples.

When I'm using the lightweight buggy, which I use if I need to stay on the bus for reasons of time etc, I fold.

bytheMoonlight, I agree that buses don't have much space for storing folded buggies these days, but still, at least as a mother with a buggy I have the option of walking for a stop or so, and getting on the next bus. Wouldn't dream of refusing to fold up.

I wouldn't be getting off the bus unless I got a refund tbh, I cannot afford to pay two lots of bus fare for one journey, bus journeys are expensive enough. And seeing as the drivers on our buses cannot even get access to the money, I can't see how I would even be issued with a refund.

I think some people are ignoring the fact there is no where to put the buggy once you have collapsed it, so you might find it quite difficult to retrieve your baby from the stranger holding it, as you are stuck holding a buggy.

In theory and an ideal world, wheelchairs should come first.
However this isn't an idealistic world and ignoring the practicalties and standing on your soapbox shouting won't help resolve the problem.

Bus companies need clear defining rules that would help wheelchair users (and their carers) use the bus easily as everybody else:

Bus drivers should:

Only let a certain amount of buggys on so the wheelchair space is always free (this would be a max. of 2 buggys on our buses)

Not expect people to collapse buggys when they haven't provided adequate space to store them.

That said, Riven I am , no one has the right to speak to anybody like that.

Why are their limits on space - surely some seats could be flip up - people could stand to let the wheelchair person have space.

i had to get dd on bus at 4 days old to go to the hospital - 8 mile journey, managed to fold pram to let wheel chair user on. not one of the 3 old biddies in the priority seats moved or offered to fold there EMPTY shopping trolleys in front of them to allow us both to stay in place. The guy in the wheelchair held my baby for me. When the bus driver commented that they could actually move to the other seats they commented that one of them was "registered disabled" and as such they would not move.

when the driver and i agreed with the guy in the wheelchairs comment that they were "pig ignorant" they threatened to report the driver and get him sacked for the remaining duration of the journey.

Don't know what you lot are talking about no room for a folded buggy, mine folds down flat and has a carry handle on the side.

there are more storage places on buses now not less, apart from the wheel chair section (2 wheel chair sections on bendy buses), there is the shelf over the front left wheel arch with the barrier round it and on some of the smaller hopper buses afew fold up chairs too.

Now the old route master just had a little cubby hole by the exit, the 80's Dennis style buses just had a cubby next to the side seats by the stairs.

I miss side seats.

Don't know what you lot are talking about no room for a folded buggy, mine folds down flat and has a carry handle on the side.

there are more storage places on buses now not less, apart from the wheel chair section (2 wheel chair sections on bendy buses), there is the shelf over the front left wheel arch with the barrier round it and on some of the smaller hopper buses afew fold up chairs too.

Now the old route master just had a little cubby hole by the exit, the 80's Dennis style buses just had a cubby next to the side seats by the stairs.

I miss side seats.

Well, I'm one of those who thinks they should abolish automatic free bus passes and travel for over 60s (not old, IMO) and means test or for those in receipt of high-rate DLA.

And abolish front seating for 'elderly'.

Sorry, but most are pretty rude and so if they're young enough to be so dog eat dog then I don't see why they should have to stand up in the back like anyone else, particularly seeing as they haven't paid fare.

The buggy should not be on the bus at all. It should be folded up before you get on and put in the front storage area (I've yet to see a bus without one).

Either buy something collapsible for public transport or use a sling. Those huge prams and stuff that can be folded, if you want to use one of those, then you shouldn't be allowed to get on a bus with it.

Even without a wheelchair, those behemouth things tripped up more people than not even on modern buses designed to accommodate the disabled.

Ryoko you're assuming everyone lives in London

Bristol double decker buses have a wheelchair space on one side and one flippy seat next to it. So room for two/ possibly three buggies unfolded, or one wheelchair and possibly a buggy as well with some manoeuvring.

There's a sort of joke platform thing for bags above the front wheel arch, but it's really high up and curved so nothing stays on it very well and it's hard to hoist your buggy onto it.

The single deckers are better, with flippy seats at the front on both sides, so buggies and wheelchairs can be accommodated, or seated passengers, but they only run on two or three routes, mostly the posh Clifton ones

expat the buses in Bristol don't have a front storage area. it's daft, it really is.

Maclarens have a carry strap. Mine always have.

I used to use Lothian buses all the time and always folded down the buggy before getting on because half the time there were other buggies on it already.

I completely agree expat, buggies should be folded and carried. It has to be said though that First Bus in Bristol has a particularly rubbish reputation for this kind of thing.

What did people do when there were only those old-style buses which you can't get any buggy on?

What do they do in London with all those steps to get to the Tube?