Bus Priority - Wheelchairs or Prams?

I believe wheelchair users should definitely get priority on buses. They have a lot less mobility than people with prams. It is more of an inconvenience than anything for people to fold up or move their pram. For Wheelchair users it is a seriously painful struggle or they may even be physically incapable of moving out of their wheelchair by themselves.

Of all the time I have been catching buses I have never came accross this problem though. On the buses I use there are two dedicated spaces that can be used for wheelchairs users or people with prams. Bus companies would be better off figuring out how they could better utilize the space on their buses rather than getting involved in a wheelchair vs pram debate.

I'm not entirely sure what a "pram" is, but based on context, I'm guessing it's a "stroller" (what we call them in Canada).

Based on that assumption, I would give the priority to those in a wheelchair. As someone else mentioned, a stroller can be folded up and the baby can be carried by the parent/guardian.

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Originally Posted by Kyle

buses have side bars available next to priority seating for reduced mobility passengers to ease their seating transfer. prams with children in will still take up space and will take more time to fold when we consider that they may also be being used for storage. as for missing a stop, this is simply not the case. if you want to get off, you ring the bell and the bus driver will stop, wait for you to get off, and continue their journey. the bus wouldn't be in transit when the person was moving into/out of their seat.

more thought needs to be invested in bus design in all i think. it's not a case of wheelchair/scooter v pram, it is a case of looking to accomodate for both. make buses longer and add more wheelchair/pushchair bays at the front. if both are foldable (bearing in mind that some wheelchairs and prams are not) then it becomes a moral question of who is more deserving of a seat which is just silly and in that case it should just be first come first served.

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I'm with Gina here. The whole point of someone being in a wheelchair is that they NEED to be. We should not be expecting wheelchair users to just hop onto a bus seat and fold away their wheelchair. For some users this is impossible as they may have lost all movement up to their waist.

And your argument about bus drivers waiting for you to get off the bus is simply not true. Sure, you get some nice bus drivers who'll wait but you can get some really nasty ones too. Sometimes I can be sat at the back of the bus and I don't even have time to get out and I'm fully mobile. And I suppose the wheelchair user could call out for them to wait, but some might be ashamed and a lot of users don't like to ask for help because people always see them as vulnerable anyway.

I understand your point about these spaces being first come first served but that just means we're going to get more cases like this one here. I agree with Jord; bus companies really need to rethink the design of their buses and perhaps work out a way to fit two wheelchairs/two prams/one of each on a bus.

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Originally Posted by Empired

I'm with Gina here. The whole point of someone being in a wheelchair is that they NEED to be. We should not be expecting wheelchair users to just hop onto a bus seat and fold away their wheelchair. For some users this is impossible as they may have lost all movement up to their waist.

And your argument about bus drivers waiting for you to get off the bus is simply not true. Sure, you get some nice bus drivers who'll wait but you can get some really nasty ones too. Sometimes I can be sat at the back of the bus and I don't even have time to get out and I'm fully mobile. And I suppose the wheelchair user could call out for them to wait, but some might be ashamed and a lot of users don't like to ask for help because people always see them as vulnerable anyway.

I understand your point about these spaces being first come first served but that just means we're going to get more cases like this one here. I agree with Jord; bus companies really need to rethink the design of their buses and perhaps work out a way to fit two wheelchairs/two prams/one of each on a bus.

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passengers as well can be really nasty and if you're taking 10 minutes to just get off the bus
i know where i like a lot of bus drivers dont give you a chance lol sometimes they wont even stop if its 1 person ;l rude people

wheelchair has legal priority. it's also part of the DDA

buggies can be folded + child sits on a seat, wheelchairs cannot. the space is designed for a wheelchair also and 'may be used by buggies if not needed by a wheelchair user'

what did people do when buses had step entrances? they folded their buggies down and stored it in the rack or by their seat. theyre just lazy (and often arrogant) now

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Originally Posted by Yuxin

passengers as well can be really nasty and if you're taking 10 minutes to just get off the bus
i know where i like a lot of bus drivers dont give you a chance lol sometimes they wont even stop if its 1 person ;l rude people

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and to be fair to bus drivers, they're pushed very hard to keep on schedule so THEY get in trouble for waiting if someone is taking a long time. that's also why sometimes they'll drive right past a stop even if someone wants to get on.

The local bus system here requires passengers with strollers to remove the child(ren) from the stroller, and to collapse the stroller if necessary.

I think it's a law here, federal or maybe state, that says people have to make way for those with special handicaps.

Wheelchairs.


This actually happened during one of my bus journeys. A bus driver told an elderly man in a wheelchair that there was no space and he'd have to wait in the rain for 20 mins for the next bus. The man in the wheelchair managed to somehow fling himself in rage, onto the edge of the bus, out of his wheelchair and sat on the side of the bus not letting the bus travel until the pram was requested to be folded up. As much as I wanted to get home, I saluted the elderly man.

I'm late to the debate but wheelchair users should have priority. While it certainly might be an inconvenience if the parent has a foldable pram they can easily put the baby on their knee but obviously it's a lot different for wheelchair users.

In the same light, elderly people generally have priority seating over younger people

I think it's really selfish for people with prams to have the audacity to even suggest they should have the priority in public transport. Many prams these days can be folded over to fit into smaller margins of spaces so they could always take their child out to carry/stand and tuck it away if it came to lack of space. It's not like you can get out of your wheelchair and fold it up. It can take ten minutes to hush an awakened child, but what about the man who spent hours trying to get home because someone refused to have a little common courtesy? She has the legs and the mobility to stand with her child.

The fact that it has to rely on the good will of other people and not what you should be doing is shocking.
Wheelchair user for the win.