After reading this subject, I’m glad I don’t need to use the buses yet, I’d be so angry if I had to wait for the next bus,
My suggestion would be to the bus companies to provide an area for pushchairs & one for wheelchairs if one is at its capacity then no allowance is given for overspill in the other. A bus has a maximum capacityfor people it should have one for push chairs & one for wheelchairs. Then we don’t have to rely on the good nature of others and the embarrassment when all too often it is not there.
This would probably never happen because it would mean less people therefore less fares unless they charge for the pushchair & wheelchair, or manage the loss by increasing fare’s.
I haven’t listened to the interviews yet,but I reckon I’ll be joining the disability Mafia afterwards.
if there is a bus that i need to be on at a certain time (cos there are so few around here) i have contacted the bus company and ‘booked my space’. thats mainly cos they dont all have ramps so by booking then i am certain it will be suitable bus. why should i have to book?! for me thats all part of the come and go to try and ensure i am not stranded!
has the court made a decision yet? i havent heard…
I’ve read with interest (and listened to) the many views expressed on this subject. At the end of the day I think it comes down to the equality act. The rights of people who are disabled to use public transport are protected by law. Disabled spaces were created to ensure that the transport companies met their obligations to provide access for wheelchair using customers. The fact that these spaces are just perfect for buggies is incidental. The wheelchair space wasn’t taken from a spot for buggies - prior to this there was no option but to fold up or walk. Some of the newer buses in my area have fold up seats in the first third of the bus creating flexible options for other passengers whilst protecting the wheelchair space. It has to be said that the wheelchair spaces were not a special gift from the bus companies, they were the result of a long hard campaign by disabled people. The present court case centres round the fact that transport companies must now provide a space but there is no use doing so if they don’t make it available.
milkman suggested a very sensible idea that parents with buggies be informed at the outset that they could use the space only if it wasn’t needed by a wheelchair. I would suggest that parents (who are a very powerful group) should undertake their own protests with the bus companies to provide more of the flexible buses that I have described.
I suspect this this will rumble on, it is hard to see all points of view as being of equal validity but as I said at the beginning - the right to access to public transport for wheelchair users is protected by law. We do not have access if baby buggies are in the way.
I noticed over the last couple of weeks that each of the buses I have been on had the “wheelchairs have priority” sign removed, just leaving the “if a wheelchair user needs this space please move to another part of the bus”
seems First were pretty confident of winning! On the whole my bus experiences are positive ones I hope that continues
I think that was a correct (I don’t mean just) interpretation of the law as it stands. The law at the moment does not say bus companies can or must enforce wheelchair priority. However, the judge did point out that it was within the power of Parliament to change that if they wish. Parliament makes the laws, judges only interpret them. The bus company wanted clarification about whether they must (indeed can) insist able-bodied passengers move, and the position at the moment is no.
That is regrettable, but in line with the law, so it’s the law that needs changing.
I am disheartened, though, by some of the comments on the BBC website (though that’s nothing new; I’m always disheartened by them).
Some commenters feel this was a case of genuine equality in action - i.e. neither passenger took priority. But that misses the point that the mother was at no point asked to get off the bus to make way for the wheelchair user; only to move to make room. If it had been a case of either could travel, but not both, I would agree it’s first-come, first-served, irrespective of disability. But it wasn’t like that.
I have heard the verdict…maybe the adamant parents of babies in buggies, who feel they have rights over a wheelchair user to occupy the ONLY space that is suitable for a wheelchair, would feel differently, if they or their child was in a wheelchair, eh?
Biased? You bet I am when our choices are so limited.
