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I’ll get to the nitty gritty first:
I’m suing a bus company because their repeated lack of enforcing the wheelchair space is making me angry, especially after January’s Supreme Court declaration that bus drivers need to do more to ensure wheelchair users can board their buses. After January things in general got a tiny bit better, and then slowly reverted back to how it used to be – and then it got worse on one route that I use several times a week! Any instance where access gets worse rather than better, in my opinion, needs immediate attention. Since the spring, I have sent numerous complaints to the bus company in question, and each time I get the same response – “we will investigate the driver if we can identify them”, but of course I am not allowed to know the outcome of the investigation. But whatever has happened in said investigations, I see no overall improvement.
The company I am taking to court is based in London. TFL bus drivers can do three things when a parent with buggy refuses to move from the wheelchair space of their own volition. They can play an automated announcement requesting that the space is cleared for a wheelchair user; they can leave their cab to ask the parent/caregiver to fold the buggy; lastly, they can offer a transfer ticket for free boarding on the next bus if folding the buggy is either not an option or not something they want to do. In the numerous instances where I was not permitted to board the bus this year, including four times within two weeks, the most a driver did was to ask a parent to move but did not mention that the space was a priority space for wheelchairs, or offer a transfer ticket. I’ve even had multiple bus drivers claim that having two buggies on at once was an exception and that they couldn’t do anything if that was the case.
Holding my ground/delaying the bus. This tactic didn’t work.
Despite this, when I am already on board a bus, drivers have no problem letting buggies on to push into my feet and ankles, block mine and others’ exit, or to huff at me when they find they have to fold their giant buggy up because I have unexpectedly occupied the wheelchair space with a wheelchair. It seems like there is a massively uneven system at work, and, by forcing a bus company to address this in court, I hope to further the rights of wheelchair users on buses and public transport.
Lastly, I’m doing this for the wheelchair users I know who are too scared to take buses on their own because they don’t feel that the bus drivers, companies, nor the other passengers have their backs. They feel, unsurprisingly, that they are seen as a nuisance, even though many bus companies have clearly marked priority wheelchair spaces. It’s the co-opting of these spaces by people who then refuse to move or make a big fuss over it which makes us feel that way. I’m doing this because we deserve to use the spaces that disabled people previously fought so hard for.
[I have checked with my legal team, and I’m okay to talk about this case on the internet as long as I don’t name the bus company in question.]
Nina Childish 
As a fellow wheelchair user and parent. I believe you are wrong. Why should you take presedence over another. No able bodied person would expect another traveller to come off the bus for them. So why should we.
I am all for access. But I believe there are other ways. In London the buses are so frequent that waiting is hardly an issue.
Of course if a buggy can be collapsed great. But if you have a double or twin why should you be forced off a bus that you waited and paid for. First come first served.
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You’ve already stated all of this in on Facebook, but I have more responses to you than I wrote there.
1. Able bodied passengers are not protected by laws.
2. Buggies do not have to leave the bus – merely be folded.
3. Even in London, sometimes we can wait 30+ minutes for a specific bus, and this is on the assumption that the next bus will not have a buggy already on board.
4. Buggies that can’t be folded, as I stated in my post, are supposed to be offered transfer tickets so that they do not have to pay twice for their journey if they need to take the next bus.
“First come first served” ignores the legacy of the wheelchair users who fought for access to the bus in the first place – and whose work has also benefited parents with buggies. It is a privilege that buggies can use the wheelchair spaces that this campaign resulted in, and not a right.
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And remember that the wheelchair Bays on buses have pictures of wheelchairs on them and NOT prams and pushchairs. Therefore they are priority use for wheelchair users.
Behind you all the way Nina.
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In London you may well only need to wait a few minutes for the next bus, but outside of London that may be a wait of an hour. Because a parent won’t pick up their child.
I didn’t choose to require my chair, however a parent makes an active choice about which buggy they buy. A foldable chair is much cheaper & a viable 2nd chair if you use the bus.
Most importantly, it’s not a pushchair space, or a luggage space, it is a legally protected wheelchair space.
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They’re wheelchair spaces. Would you put your pushchair across multiple seats? Would you park in blue badge spaces? Would you buy yourself a RADAR key and use disabled toilets?
I’m all for buses being made as adapted for as many groups of different people as possible, including buggy spaces. But in the meantime, don’t abuse faculties that were put there specifically and only for wheelchair spaces
To quote Baroness Hale (non-disabled mother and grandmother, and frequent public transport user)
“Wheelchair users face formidable difficulties in making use of facilities that the able-bodied can take for granted. If inconvenience to the travelling public because of delay is the price which has to be paid to allow those who depend on a wheelchair to make maximum use of the transport system which is made available to all, I do not consider that this is, in any sense, unreasonable.”
“It is important to bear in mind that non-disabled people are not entitled to be treated in the same way as disabled people. There is no duty to make reasonable adjustments for them.”
FWIW I support “Tories Out 2017” 100%.
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“Would you park in blue badge spaces? Would you buy yourself a RADAR key and use disabled toilets?”
Sorry, of course you would and should as a disabled person 😀 I was meaning non-disabled users of wheelchair spaces.
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(For clarification, my current Twitter display name is “Tories Out 2017” – what can I say? I’m an optimist.)
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A buggy is quite literally a luxury. A wheelchair is not. You can carry your baby in a form that doesn’t require a large, bulky buggy. You can also fold almost every buggy in existence.
A wheelchair user can’t be picked up and held when travelling, a wheelchair user can’t fold up their wheelchair and just move to the next available seat. A wheelchair user is protected by law. A wheelchair user has ONE space on a bus that they can use, a parent has around 40.
It’s a protected by law space, it’s not even comparable between a buggy and a wheelchair.
– I work alongside the UNCRPD, UK based disabled people organisations, expert in disability legislature and am myself a wheelchair user.
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Good work. Its prejudice not to give wheelchair users priority to the wheelchair space. Plus being disabled isn’t a choice and having children is, so you’ve opted to take on those extra challenges in life if you’ve chosen to be a parent
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Cherry human. I am a wheelchair user in London and due to buggies I have been left at the bus stop for 4-5 buses in a row on many an occasion. I will try and fit a buggy on with myself wherever possible but regularly do not get the same consideration back. I’ve been sworn at, screamed at, threatened etc all for the crime of wanting to use the WHEELCHAIR space on a bus (and on occasion train). It was never first come first served as it was always a wheelchair priority space that buggys could use when not in use/needed by a wheelchair user, it’s a shame that even after going through court as long as it has wheelchair users are still forced to sit at a bus stop watching bus after bus go past due to buggies taking up the wheelchair space.
When a parent gets on a bus with a buggy and pays their fare they are agreeing to the rules of carriage which state that if the wheelchair area is needed by a wheelchair user the buggy must be either moved from the space or folded. Too many parents refuse to follow this rule and it needs to stop now. I don’t know one wheelchair user who won’t do what they can to get themselves and a buggy on a bus but I don’t know one buggy user that doesn’t think it’s their space and wheelchair users need to wait for the next (5) bus(es)
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I don’t live in London and won’t take the bus now because of a few bad experiences. In our town we can wait anything from 30 mins to an hour or even more for the next bus. Well done for trying to help xx
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with you all the way, I have been refused so many times and thats not even when someone in the space I get excuses like oh the ramp not working or the kerb to high I am fed up with it there is always some excuse, I live in an area where the buses stop very early and those buses I have nothing but trouble with, the Other bus company that goes out of town do their best to accommodate me but even then I can have some problems …
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As a wheelchair user that has been banned from my local bus company First as they say my chair is too big but it is the same size as my last two chairs. I have tried to get them to change their minds but they wont change their views.
This is making my life hell because I live in one of the highest points in Bath so this means I have to go up a lot of steep hills to get home. I have to be carefully because I have make sure I don’t run out of battery.
Also I had an accident last year going down into town where my powerchair tipped over and I still have issues with my neck and shoulder. First annoy me because some parts of the company allow my type of chair on their buses but not the local one to me. The other bus companies in the area are ok letting me use the bus but they stop quite early and most don’t run on the weekend.
I feel quite isolated because at times I don’t see or out as much as I did because of the lack of way to travel.
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Let us not forget WHY there are wheelchair spaces on buses.
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It seems so basic for the company to make sure drivers announce the free transfer ticket and use the automated announcements properly. Why can’t they manage that low bar? I’ve only been using a wheelchair for a couple of months and already have several complaints awaiting response from TFL via Transport For All.
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This is really important. Wheel chair users are relegated in society to a lower league and we are meant to take it with good grace all the time. Why? There is a wheel chair space for a reason. Fold up the god damn buggy, and let someone have equal access.
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Pingback: Bus industry set to face fresh legal action over access to wheelchair space – Black Triangle Campaign
Up on the Wirral one of our bus companies (Arriva) had a pushchair space, marked with a picture of a pushchair, and a separate wheelchair space. London bus companies should take notes from the north 😄 And they have wifi.
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But was a second pushchair allowed to use the wheelchair space if a wheelchair user wasn’t on board? I find once you let someone use it temporarily, they’ll be reluctant to vacate.
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