Wheelchair and bus users this way please :)

[nappyaddict]

I have three scenarios for you here. Both I have seen happen in the last month.

Scenario 1:

Rural area - 3 buses into town a week which is a 45 minute drive away. Lady gets on minibus type bus with pushchair. There isn't a sign that says wheelchair users get priority. It's just your bog standard Maclaren umbrella fold. You can't fit a buggy on the luggage rack (I've tried before when I had DS with me) so if you fold it there's nowhere to put it. Halfway into the journey a man in a wheelchair wants to get on. He doesn't even ask the lady to move he just goes back home The lady has paid her fare so probably didn't want to get off. She also would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere for 5 hours before the bus home came.

What do you think about this?

Scenario 2:

Man with non-walking child in a major buggy is already on the bus. Journey is about an hour long. A wheelchair user wants to get on. Driver says sorry we've already got a wheelchair user on (meaning major buggy) Wheelchair users huffs and puffs a bit but doesn't argue. Should the wheelchair have taken priority over the major or not?

Scenario 3:

My friend who uses a major buggy for her DS was waiting at the bus stop. When the bus came there were buggies in the wheelchair space so the driver wouldn't let her on. She explained that it was like a small wheelchair but still he wouldn't let her on - first come first served you see.

Should she have got priority over the buggies?

wheelchair trumps buggy everytime.

regarding major and wheelchair, if either party were able to fold and use a normal seat then they should've compromised there. if neither could, the major would be first come first serve.

first case, is there nowhere to put a buggy? even folded between 2 seats?

wc user gets priority.

agree though if someone can transfer to a seat, they should offer.

I've managed to squeeze ds's wheelchair between seats to make space for antoher wc user, I'm sure a buggy could be shoved somewhere!

What the others have said. Anything that can be folded should be folded.

i take a pushchair on the bus and if a wheelchair gets on i either fold my buggy and slide it between a double seat or get off and walk if am only a couple of stops away.

Scenario 1 - Woman with pram should have folded it and told the man in wheelchair she was doing so. The bloke probably thought it was never going to happen, and has probably had it happen a few times

Scenario 2 - Should have folded the mac major down if someone else was willing to help with the child. I had this happen to me where I couldn't fold mac down when wheelchair used wanted to get on, and got chucked off bus. I was 8 months pregnant at the time and ds2 is a runner so nobody would have been able to hold him

Scenario 3 - In an ideal world the bus driver should have made one or both prams get folded so the mac major could get on. It is after all a means of getting a disabled child around. Again, I've had to wait for next bus a few times when driver couldn't see mac major as anything pther than a pram.

My local bus company love me

In the second case the child was a tall 7 or 8 year old (he was in year 3 cos I asked him where he went to school, what class he was in etc) so very heavy to lift and also kicks, screams and struggles if he has to be moved when he doesn't want to (dad told me this when we were discussing our children earlier on in the journey). Should he still have had to fold it up?

I think it's a bit of a grey area. I will always fold up the major even for another buggy because DS is only in it for safety reasons and running off near roads. He is quite capable of walking and sitting on a seat.

The major buggies fold I think that's why the driver didn't see why it should have priority in the third case?

I agree with Riven but every case leads to a different solution. I think what you need to do is get in touch with the bus company and ask why there is no space for folded buggies/wheelchairs. I have noticed with our bus company that as they are more accessible there is less of a luggage rack to store buggies and luggage.
As it is such a rural route with few buses then it is unfair to move people off the bus and also to deny people on.

Riven the buses i get on have a sign saying pushchairs have to be folded if a wheelchair user is getting on. i am shocked that people think pushchairs take priority over wheelchairs.

Scenario 4 for you all.

A wheelchair user gets onto a bus with a friend (this was a very irregular bus to Alton Towers, a couple of years back with my w/c user friend and myself). People in the first 2 folding seats dutifully move, person in the 3rd seat does not. Manage to get wheelchair in, but then have to stand on other side of the aisle, my leg blocking the aisle (was having to hold w/c in place with my foot, one brake broken )

Should 3rd person have moved to offer me a seat? Bus was full so people were standing, she just sat there and carried on talking to her mates...Me personally, I would move in this case, purely because a) it's a nice thing to do, it's not like the 2 people involved can move further up the bus to chat to each other and b) once I'd seen the issue of having to hold the chair with a foot, I would've moved to make this easier. But maybe I'm just the exception...

Actually, scenario 5.

At the end of the journey, we disembark, neither of us had done buses before (I had but not with this friend IYSWIM) and had no idea to take the chair off backwards. Ended up doing it forwards and the chair half fell off the ramp and I had to really work to stop my mate hitting the floor! Bus driver was standing at the bottom of the ramp and said nothing.

If you'd seen us attempt it forwards, would you have said something?

Situation 6-happened on my bus route a couple of years ago - bus has space for 1 wheelchair, and one space you can (just) fit a mac major in. OT clinic running, 2 people with non-walking DC's in mac major get on together to go to OT clinic (had appointments one after another), halfway through bus route, wheelchair user at bus stop-WWYD? (bear in mind that both/either of the parents with DC's in mac majors would have missed their DC's OT appt by waiting for next bus, had had to drop older DC's at school and rush on next bus to appts)....

OH- and both parents w/ mac majors were pg at the time, one 5months, one 8 months, so couldn't hold DC still on bus as not enough lap left...

I have had 2 bus journeys today.

Bus 1 I get on with dd in wheelchair, and couple occupying wheelchair space with buggy.

Dad sat in single seat and mum on double seat,buggy in between in wheelchair space,no offer to move.

Bus driver didn't seem to mind dd wheelchair blocking aisle so stayed on bus.

Return journey,I got on with dd in wheelchair.Bus conductor chappie made woman with double buggy get off (Felt v guilty and offered to put dd wheelchair in double seat aisle thingy so she could fit double buggy in wheelchair slot)He refused saying wheelchairs had priority and was against company policy.

Make of that what you will,lol

It is a bus driver lottery!

where i used to live buses have the sign o bt when i challenged it was told well if there on firt ie buggy ty can not and will not be asked to fold.

mind that was in main town , actuallt town i lived in was not issue since no buses were acessiable.

where im living now its firt come first served .Next month im moving to little village where bus company insist all buggys folded and that they will enforce it

Ok, missed example two. WIll emend my post: anything that can be easily be folded- so that leaves out anything with a disabled child in it.