Wheelchair users and prams on public transport, whose priority

[Daven]

You still haven't explained how a single parent would manage to keep 3 toddlers safe whilst folding down a buggy.

 

Gracious me - how on earth did I mange 22 years ago when I had 3 small children under five I wonder ? Really, my heart bleeds ! Back in those days taking a pushchair that wasn't folded down onto a bus wasn't an option. The pushchair had to be folded down at the bus stop whilst you waited for the bus and then carried on to the bus along with any children and shopping I had whilst paying the driver and then negotiating my way down the bus whilst the bus moved off - the drivers didn't wait for you to be seated all those years ago.

Needless to say, I did a lot of walking in those days.

Mothers have it so much easier these days - don't get me started on 'Parent and Child' parking spaces !

[martok]

Gracious me - how on earth did I mange 22 years ago when I had 3 small children under five I wonder ? Really, my heart bleeds ! Back in those days taking a pushchair that wasn't folded down onto a bus wasn't an option. The pushchair had to be folded down at the bus stop whilst you waited for the bus and then carried on to the bus along with any children and shopping I had whilst paying the driver and then negotiating my way down the bus whilst the bus moved off - the drivers didn't wait for you to be seated all those years ago.

Needless to say, I did a lot of walking in those days.

Mothers have it so much easier these days - don't get me started on 'Parent and Child' parking spaces !

 

Are you suggesting that just because you managed to struggle your way onto the bus, everyone in the same situation should have the same abilities that you clearly have. My experience is that people tend to be different and when some people can cope with a given situation others fail miserably.

[Daven]

Are you suggesting that just because you managed to struggle your way onto the bus, everyone in the same situation should have the same abilities that you clearly have. My experience is that people tend to be different and when some people can cope with a given situation others fail miserably.

You have misread my post or maybe I didn't make myself clear. I didn't even try to use the bus with 3 small children, a folded down pushchair and shopping. I walked everywhere and shopped locally unless I had someone to look after at least one of my children.

The point I was trying to make was that 22 years ago , a mothers lot was far more difficult with regards to travel than it is today.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Daven

[martok]

You have misread my post - I didn't even try to use the bus with 3 small children, a folded down pushchair and shopping. I walked everywhere and shopped locally unless I had someone to look after at least one of my children.

 

Got you now, the shops I used 30 years ago are now gone and thankfully I have never needed to use a bus, but just about everything I need involved a very long walk or getting into the car. I wouldn't really expect a mother with three toddlers to walk 8 miles into town and I understand that many can't afford to run a car so they rely on public transport, which based on this thread appears to be failing them.

[cgksheff]

Got you now, the shops I used 30 years ago are now gone and thankfully I have never needed to use a bus, but just about everything I need involved a very long walk or getting into the car. I wouldn't really expect a mother with three toddlers to walk 8 miles into town and I understand that many can't afford to run a car so they rely on public transport, which based on this thread appears to be failing them.

 

... or they are failing to understand the limitations of public transport and selfishly expecting the world to jump to their wants.

[spilldig]

I think that you'll find that they don't, necessarily.

 

---------- Post added 20-11-2014 at 00:24 ----------

 

 

The disability training with the buses involves the etiquette that the wheelchair user is boarded first, to enable them to park-up in the wheelchair space, and be out of the way when the ambulant passengers board, (rather than have the wheelchair user trying to make their way through the other passengers, some of whom seem incapable of realising that the bus does not finish by the front wheel arches, and that they can actually move further down the bus, allowing any other passengers waiting behind them to also board the vehicle.

 

The etiquette for letting the wheelchair user disembark the bus, and deploying the ramp is, that they alight last, after the ambulant passengers have got off, for the same reasons as above, that they are not getting entangled with the other passengers who are alighting.

 

---------- Post added 20-11-2014 at 00:28 ----------

 

 

Well said, snorbuckle. and, of course the sort of example they are setting their children by their "self-entitlement" in refusing to put their land-rover-sized pushchairs down. The point being made very well earlier in the thread, that there are more appropriately-sized, lighter, and more easily collapsed pushchairs on the market that would be far more practical for using when travelling, generally, let alone by bus.

 

---------- Post added 20-11-2014 at 00:32 ----------

 

 

what does the wheelchair user do when they are on a bus with a pushchair handler who on the bus with an empty pram, (no child, not even one seated further back after climbing out of the pram) and they refuse to put the chair down, and place it in the luggage rack?

I wasn't talking about who boards the bus first. That would be irrelevant if everyone was able to board the bus. I was talking about somebody being left behind at the bus stop, in this instance a woman with three children.

Edited November 20, 2014 by spilldig

[martok]

... or they are failing to understand the limitations of public transport and selfishly expecting the world to jump to their wants.

 

I understand the limitation, obviously for now buses appear to be limited to one space that can accommodate a wheelchair or a pushchair, I accept that in most circumstance a pushchair can and should be folded, but I also understand that on rare occasions this may not be possible, what I am failing to understand is why some of you think a women with three very small children should be expected to get off the bus miles from home in an area that may be unfamiliar, just so a disabled person can use the space.

[cgksheff]

..... what I am failing to understand is why some of you think a women with three very small children should be expected to get off the bus miles from home in an area that may be unfamiliar, just so a disabled person can use the space.

 

... and there you have it.

[martok]

... and there you have it.

 

and there you have what?

[Cyclone]

That you don't understand.

 

---------- Post added 21-11-2014 at 08:09 ----------

 

I don't think there is but lets assume there is, if someone is paranoid about stranger danger, telling them that they are paranoid isn't going to stop them from being paranoid, so will result in the same outcome, they won't want a stranger touching their children so will have no means of getting their kids from buggy to seat. Paranoia is a mental health disorder and would be classed as a disability so asking them to give up the space they need would be discrimination based on their disability.

 

The central presenting feature of individuals with paranoid personality disorder is their unjustified mistrust and suspicion of other people in general. Paranoid individuals are rigid, angry, and have an urgent need to be self-sufficient.

 

Given that you were speaking hypothetically, I don't need to change your behaviour.

If you don't think it's paranoid (in the light of your 30 years ago comment) then you'll be able to show that 'stranger danger' has increased measurably in the last 3 decades?

Being paranoid about this topic isn't an accusation of having a personality disorder.