Double pushchairs and public transport!

[Bearslikehoneyintheirtummy]

Hi, I have our next one due in October and have been wondering whether to get a double (little one will be 2 years exactly when this one arrives) She is a good walker now at 18 months but we do walk some long distances sometimes which she wouldnt be able to hack there and back so I leaning more towards a double buggy option for a while.

As we live in London we do use public transport quite a bit and especially buses so I was wondering which sort of doublt would be best for this. Side by side or tandem? (The buses do get pretty packed as well at times)

Also with some of the tandem buggies, it looks to me as if baby is very low down near the ground,almost if someone could accidentally kick it or something. Is this so? Not sure if I like the idea of having baby so low down. Has anyone any other experiences?

I've had a First Wheels City Twin, P&T E3 v2, a borrowed Mothercare Urban Detour Double (now called a Vista/Vesta?) and a Baby Jogger City Mini Double all on our local buses. The MCUDD is enormous and I really wouldn't recommend it for public transport/town living.

The FWCT is lovely and I did adore having DD2/DD3 in the carrycot but the seats aren't the biggest so if you have larger than average children or plan to use it past 3 I wouldn't bother getting it.

The BJCMD is great (though not rfing my little quirk) amazingly quick to fold and cn take a ton of shopping on the handle bar even with my 3y/o & my 18m/o walking. It will even comfortably take my tall 5y/o in it with no problems.

I will go against the grain here as I hated my P&T I couldn't steer it with one hand (could do with the FWCT & BJCMD) I kicked the baby in the jump seat or when lying in the back but as it was a 2005 model they may well have ironed all those issues out by know.

HTH

Sorry to highjack this thread, but can I ask you TruthSweet about the First Wheels? I can't quite work out just how big it is when folded. Will it fit in a normal boot? If not, do you think the chassis would go in the boot and the chairs in the car maybe? I'm hoping that you'll say it's teeny tiny weeny and that I should definitely get one.

We have a Mazda Premacy (mini MPV with a MASSIVE boot - DH has had an office photocopier in there before) and it swallowed it whole though you couldn't pull the flap over as it stood upright rather than laid flat. We could get shopping in as well as DH's mound of junk essential car stuff that he carts everywhere. The seats fitted upright next to the frame.

The FWCT folds book style i.e. goes flatter not slimmer though you can take the wheels off the back which helps make it a bit more compact.

It's not teeny tiny weeny though by any stretch so sorry This was the 2007 model though so the newer one might be more small car friendly?

Thankyou Truthsweet. Interesting about your P and T. Not sure we can afford one at the moment anyway. I will have a look at the other ones you mentioned. I am torn between getting a double or a single and using a sling.....:(

Thankyou TruthSweet. It's annoying that it would fit in my sister's Multipla but not our Mum's car. In all other respects it's the perfect pushchair for us.

I childmind and use a single buggy/buggy board/sling combo for a baby and 2 year old.

I'd be tempted by the sling option initially. Having been turned away from lots of buses because I couldn't fold the P&T (well I could, but not with a bus full of people waiting, a 2 year old, a new born, a cocoon thingy, a toddler seat and a bag to think about too) in the end I used our little Chicco umbrella fold cheapy we use for holidays and put dd in a sling. So much easier!

for public transport in london i would say p&t. sidebyside will be quite difficult to fit on a bus i would have thought, and the other one in front of the other tandem type ones are longer so really stick out when you park them in the buggy place, making it hard for people to walk past down the bus?
i am able to steer mine one handed but if the tyres are not pumped up properly then i find it gets too heavy and difficult but if they have plenty of air in it then that issue is fine
when i first put it in the toddler seat mode i did think omg ds2 is soo low, i wasn't happy with it but after using it a couple of times found he was fine and nothing bad actually happened to him as a result of being low down so i just got over it, and now my older one insists on going in the back so that issue is resolved as i know he is fine there since he choses it
i don't think i would want to get a bigger double onto public transport, for eg if you taking it down escalators or anything then p&t is just about managable but a longer double i dnt even know if it would be possible, and side by side would block the whole thing so noone could quickly run down the side if they needed, so people may get annoyed
sling and single would be a good option though if you are alright with slings, and then once your baby is a bit bigger hopefully dd would be okay to walk. although i have to say personally i found it makes life easy just to be able to put them both into double buggy so they are both contained and off we go, rather than having to walk at toddler pace etc, although my gap was smaller so don't think i could have coped without double at all really
tbh i think all doubles seem to have some bad points about them, so p&t is possibly the best of the bunch although it is not ideal in every single way

Thankyou very much for the replies. I have really tried hard to think about it and have read replies to similar questions.
I was on the bus today actually and it was pretty busy and I just thought what a pain it would be trying to get any kind of double on (people standing in the aisles etc) I think I will do what someone suggested after having looked at the options - Buy a buggyboard and take a sling when we go out so that just in case dd gets too tried to walk I will put the baby in the sling and pop DD in the pushchair for a while. I guess that means I would need a forward facing pushchair that would be suitable from birth - 3 rather than a baby pram. I did see one in mothercare which looks nice and comfy and is very reasonably priced.

www.mothercare.com/Mothercare-Xtreme-Pushchair-Travel-System/dp/B004EYGUT8?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_1&nodeId=598244031&sr=1-1&qid=1303764901&pf_rd_r=0WD3W1PZAFGCE2CJKW1K&pf_rd_m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=598244031&pf_rd_p=231490867&pf_rd_s=related-tab-3-5

I have a Mothercare Xcursion which does lie flat for a newborn (with a little insert) and also is forward or rear facing as a pushchair. It fits a buggy board (lascal maxi) either forward or rear facing too.