Prams or wheelchairs ?

There are signs on our buses saying wheelchairs take priority, but I have seen some mothers get quite belligerent with drivers who have asked them to fold up their pushchairs. Rather than risk a broken nose, they take the easy way out! It is not always the case - I saw one mother voluntarily get off the bus once to make way for a wheelchair user, but the weather was good, we do have an every ten minute service, and she clearly wasn't time pressured. I have some sympathy, in that some of these pushchairs are complicated pieces of kit; they take some folding down and still take up a fair amount if room when they are folded. It used to be a nightmare for us to get the one DD had into the car. If you have a sleeping baby and a load of shopping you aren't going to want to do it. DD never took GS on a bus, but we did when he was old enough to go into a small fold up stroller. It was worth its weight in gold!

Heaven help any bus driver who tried to reason with some of the young mums today.

We had pushchairs for walking distances and a lighter fold up buggy for going on buses. Mine had a rain over which was a bit hard to fold up with buggy but if you wanted on a bus you had to fold it up. To not fold your pushchairs up for a wheelchair is plain rude. I've even seen mums going on buses with huge prams. Definitely would not be allowed that when my kids were young.

A wheelchair user did not chose his or her disability and cannot move from the wheelchair but a mother (presumably able bodied for the sake of this discussion) chose to have children and can fold a pushchair. It is a balance between inability and ability with added inconvenience.

I do, however, take the point that legally there is no distinction between able bodied people and the disabled now. However, that means that good manners should come into play and the stronger should pay respect to the weaker as is the chivalric code.

Buggies and Wheel users users (39 Posts)

Not sure how to copy over an entire dormant thread, but this was the title of the thread from back in 2014.

As I recall a judge ruled that wheelchairs should not be given preference over buggies

I do wonder too in this day and age how you can sit at the front of a service bus upstairs with a baby in arms, when you can no longer do that in a car.

Retraining needed for the driver methinks. More assertiveness would surely have solved it all. If I had been in the wheelchair I would have kicked up a fuss later with the company out of principle, and asked them to report back on what they were going to do about it for the future.

When mine where in buggies or pushchairs they where always folded or you did what comes naturally and walked,where are the H&Safety brigade when these oversized prams take up so much space and cause possible accidents when trying to get past them.

I find that hard to believe,words fail me,AGAIN.

This often happened to my mum and dad and I am sure there must be an old thread on the very subject hiding somewhere. My (late) mum and dad depended on the bus ( or me) to get out and the bus from town to home only runs once an hour. They were often unable to get on the bus as the mums with pushchairs/buggies refused to fold them up . The drivers policy was to ask but not to argue. On many occasions my dad has had to ring me out of work to go and rescue them when they were unable to get on the bus. I did on one occasion ring the bus company and was told that the drivers do act correctly by asking, but cannot insist that buggies are folded .

Why are pushchairs so huge nowadays??? I had a lovely MacClaren Buggy with my 3rd son that folded up easily.

I'm 70 at the end of the year and enjoy sitting in the front seats but if an infirm person or someone with a shopping trolley gets on the bus I always move further down the bus.

I also move if a mum gets on and wants to sit next to her child in the pushchair.

I feel sorry for the drivers having to cope with the pushchair/wheelchair problem.

I can't see a driver making a mother and small child get off a bus.

Our buses have a notice saying the same thing, buggies are carried at the discretion of the driver and can be asked to move or get off. Wheelchairs have priority.

Shameful, really. Especially as most modern pushchairs are HUGE !

A major bus company up here clearly states that wheelchairs have priority and pushchairs have to be folded or get off the bus if necessary.

I'm sure I read an article where a woman took this issue to court after being asked to fold her pram to allow a wheelchair on. I can't remember the exact details but I'm sure the court ruled that wheelchair users have no priority over anyone else. I assume it's because disability laws make everyone equal. That said I personally couldn't sit there knowing our pushchair was taking up a space needed by someone genuinely in need

I have family member who drives for TFL (transport for London)
He has mentioned this problem.
He says it occurs all the time regarding push chair V wheel chair Unfortunately the drivers have to be stringent and adhere to the rules.
They are also on camera.
In london bus follows bus so there is not along wait for passengers to get next bus.

As regards to the two push chair passengers. I think that they are extremely selfish and should be ashamed of themselves.
It must have been awful looking out of the bus window and seeing somebody in a wheel chair left behind.
I think it would have been another story if it had been grandparent with the buggy.

I can (as you say beth)remember a time when I managed on the bus with two toddlers a folded buggy and shopping.

Yes this has been in the news recently, appalling behaviour from the Mums. Of course it's not easy with buggy, toddler and shopping but we would have made room in a heartbeat. As I remember the pushchairs of our day were much heavier too.

Yes he certainly had priority, simply pathetic .

Legally the wheelchair has priority over pushchairs. The driver could have insisted. What a pair of lazy selfish besoms!