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

am and disgusted at this - and that bloody rude woman, Riven - however did you contain yourself??

Ryoko - in answer to your point about shopping, my back is in a parlous state and I wouldn't have been able to carry DS and shopping, even in a backpack. Lucky for me, I lived within walking distance of the shops but I could not have managed to carry even just the shopping (or even just DS!) that far. Had to have the buggy for both.

I am very relieved I didn't have to face this situation often - but the times I/we did take DS on public transport, disabled and wheelchair users always got priority from us.

Whoever mentioned PT/disabled parking spaces, no this will not go the same way - most people would give the wheelchair user priority rather than leave them for the next bus.

Good point Riven - I sometimes really hate people.. The world is a revolting place at times - that you should live in fear of being targeted for hatred just because your DD is not the same as other people is just awful.

I assume the Govt don't help with the costs of motability cars, or you'd have one, wouldn't you.

Riven, hope today went smoothly.

People have such a sense of entitlement! I hate all this "my pram's too big to fold", "I can't hold my baby". Take a sling or an appropriate buggy then! You have an option, someone in a wheelchair doesn't.

Maybe they should start charging double fares for unfolded pushchairs, since they take up extra space - bet people would find ways to fold them down or carry their babies then.

Was told the same thing on a First bus in another city: 'if a buggy comes on, you'll have to get off'. Even though dd and her wheelchair were there first. Stupidly, I didn't react until afterwards.

That is so wrong Cory. On London buses it clearly states in their literature that wheelchairs have priority over people standing in and buggies being in the designated wheelchair space.

Some people really do not read posts do they!

Missus84 You cannot even collapse and store the smallest buggy on our buses since the bus company did away with the storage space. How on earth is a mother meant to hold a buggy and a newborn at the same time on a moving bus?

And what about those people who cannot use a sling for medical reasons? Should those people just be banned from all public transport?

wheelchairs should always take priority on buses.
people don't have a choice about being in a wheelchair.
if parents won't fold and make room, they should get off.
easy

(oh I never take dd on a bus as think they are dangerous for wheelchairs)

Missus84 I agree that wheelchairs should take priority and of course most of the time people are able to fold their pushchairs. Sometimes it actually ISNT possible to fold a pushchair no matter how lightwieght. As I said in an earlier post I got off a bus once to allow a wheelchair on rather than fold the reason being that I was on medication which lose my balance very easily (fell and injured myself a few times over those months)as well as making my arms shake and didnt have the stability or energy to carry my baby and fold the pushchair at the same time. Obviously a sling would have been ridiculous. It isnt ALWAYS just being awkward.

bytheMoonlight Mon 03-May-10 17:25:07

"Missus84 You cannot even collapse and store the smallest buggy on our buses since the bus company did away with the storage space. How on earth is a mother meant to hold a buggy and a newborn at the same time on a moving bus? "

You can put them it on the seat next to you. And get another passenger to hold the baby while you are collapsing the buggy. I used to manage this with one of those 2 in 1 prams with no problems. Well, at least not with any problems that don't dwindle into insignificance compared to taking a disabled person around. And even that is nothing compared to being a disabled person.

What the buggy brigade on these threads tend to forget is that those of us who are now taking wheelchairs around have been through that stage of taking buggies around. We can compare.

fernie's is a special case as her illness clearly made her disabled too. Though I wouldn't say I felt the need to be able to hold baby and fold buggy at the same time: it is so much easier to ask the driver to hold the buggy than to ask him to hold a 13yo.

I've never tried to hold a baby and fold a buggy at the same time tbh - there have always been other passengers on the bus I've handed the baby to.

In Bristol at least, the small storage space at the front is big enough to store a folding buggy - or it can be placed on the floor, under your seat, leant in a corner. It's not massively convenient, but I find it hard to believe that a non-disabled person can't manage.

Yes, if people think having to hand the baby over to the driver and storing their buggy under the seat is anything similar to the experience facing a disabled person trying to get around town...then you can understand why our society is still so badly adapted to disabled people. People really don't have a clue.

Its not a hassle to give the baby to the driver if you have to... just don't let them (the driver, I mean) have time to think. I've done that on several ocasions, the best one being on the way to Alder Hey Children's Hospital. Its a children's hospital FFS and NONE of the buses going there are wheelchair or buggy friendly.

So, sorry driver, but you're holding the 2 month old when I get the buggy folded and sorted and heaved into the luggage space. Then you are holding her again when I take out and unfold. This was when I had the relatively bigger Mothercare Atlan (cheap, but effective)... I moved to a Maclaren soon after.

bytheMoonlight, you sit on a seat (ask for one) and prop buggy up next to you, baby on lap. not easy but possible

I don't know what buses you have in your area, very big ones by the sound of it.

On our buses (not first, ones one by local council)

1.There is no room to put buggy on seat as buses are always packed. How you can you put a buggy under a seat without hitting other peoples legs? And once dd is sat on a seat, where am I to store the buggy, if I take up a seat space I get moaned at by the other passengers for wasting a seat.

1. Our drivers are sat behind plastic safety glass, the only space you have access to is a small gap to pull your ticket through, so no room to pass your baby through. And they are trained not to leave their seat for safety reasons.

1. When I put my Mcalren on my shoulder using the strap and stood up, the bus was so packed I hit an elderly woman with it by mistake.

And the wheelchair brigade shouldn't assume that someone simply saying there is no room to collapse a buggy on the bus anymore, has never pushed a wheelchair. I use a wheelchair on a bus at least once a week, but I don't expect anyone to get off the bus for me, I don't expect that its my god given right to get on the first bus that comes alongs with the wheelchair - if its packed I wait, same as everyone else.

I take my sister out dressed according to the weather, if its bad weather so if we have to wait for a bus its not the end of the world. I also push her to the stop that has the best shelter to protect us from bad weather incase we can't get on the bus.

I accept that taking her out is my responsibilty and not everyone else's.

There should be a public (and schools) awareness campaign designed to shame and deter able-bodied people from just plonking themselves on the folding seats near the front of the bus then refusing to move.

It's not fair to make parents with pushchairs the villians of the piece when the real problem is that many buses have inadequate provision for wheelchairs and buggies, and the space that there is gets cluttered with people who can't be bothered to move out of the way.

Moving around a jerking bus is dangerous enough for anyone, let alone trying to do it in a wheelchair, or with one or more babies/toddlers, shopping and a folded buggy. It's shocking that there isn't more Health and Safety legislation requiring bus companies to make provision for this.

it would be a good idea for bus drivers to be required to wait until everyone is sat down/stood safely before going. When I have folded the pushchair the driver has driven off while I am still folding it, my baby is sitting on the floor (no one will help) and the person getting on is still getting into postion. If they waited before moving it would be alot safer but they almost always refuse to wait even when asked.

No - probably their overstretched schedules cause bus drivers to tear around like lunatics, especially on the smaller buses.

They also expect you to be waiting in place to disembark as they screech up to the bus stop, then slam on the brakes. Several times I've been daft enough to wait till it stops before getting up, to avoid my (walking, not in pushchair) toddler getting catapulted down the aisle, only to have to yell for them to STOP as they go to tear off again before you can get anywhere near the door.