Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
This surprised me:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8021703.stm -- Ian Jelf, MITG Birmingham, UK Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk |
Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
Ian Jelf wrote:
This surprised me: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8021703.stm Possibly less surprising if you read "buggy" as shorthand for "my-other-Chelsea-tractor-is-even-bigger-than-this-2-tier-ankle-breaker". As for a "buggy" being folded .......................... about as common as Gordon Brown's apologies. -- Robin |
Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
On Mon, 27 Apr 2009, neverwas wrote:
Ian Jelf wrote: This surprised me: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8021703.stm Possibly less surprising if you read "buggy" as shorthand for "my-other-Chelsea-tractor-is-even-bigger-than-this-2-tier-ankle-breaker". Quite. And what's this 'buggy park'? Do they mean 'wheelchair space'? I do wish people with buggies would fall down and die. If your children are small enough to need a pushchair, they're small enough to lift out of it with ease. If they're big enough that you can't, they should bloody well be walking. It does nobody except the parent any favours, and certainly not the children, to keep them strapped in a buggy. Sterilise the lot of 'em, i say. tom -- .... the gripping first chapter, which literally grips you because it's printed on a large clamp. |
Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
"Tom Anderson" wrote in message rth.li... On Mon, 27 Apr 2009, neverwas wrote: Ian Jelf wrote: This surprised me: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8021703.stm Possibly less surprising if you read "buggy" as shorthand for "my-other-Chelsea-tractor-is-even-bigger-than-this-2-tier-ankle-breaker". Quite. And what's this 'buggy park'? Do they mean 'wheelchair space'? I do wish people with buggies would fall down and die. If your children are small enough to need a pushchair, they're small enough to lift out of it with ease. If they're big enough that you can't, they should bloody well be walking. It does nobody except the parent any favours, and certainly not the children, to keep them strapped in a buggy. Sterilise the lot of 'em, i say. tom -- ... the gripping first chapter, which literally grips you because it's printed on a large clamp. Yea, they should have started with your parents I think. |
Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
In message . li, Tom
Anderson writes On Mon, 27 Apr 2009, neverwas wrote: Ian Jelf wrote: This surprised me: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8021703.stm Possibly less surprising if you read "buggy" as shorthand for "my-other-Chelsea-tractor-is-even-bigger-than-this-2-tier-ankle-breaker". Quite. And what's this 'buggy park'? Do they mean 'wheelchair space'? I do wish people with buggies would fall down and die. If your children are small enough to need a pushchair, they're small enough to lift out of it with ease. If they're big enough that you can't, they should bloody well be walking. It does nobody except the parent any favours, and certainly not the children, to keep them strapped in a buggy. Sterilise the lot of 'em, i say. "Incoming......."! -- Ian Jelf, MITG Birmingham, UK Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk |
Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
rth.li... If your children are small enough to need a pushchair, they're small enough to lift out of it with ease. If they're big enough that you can't, they should bloody well be walking. I've often wondered why having procreated gives people the right to invade everyone else's space with their ridiculous means of child transport. Either use a foldaway buggy - and fold it up on a bus - or carry the brats. Ian |
Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
On Apr 28, 8:21*am, "Ian F." wrote:
"Tom Anderson" wrote in message rth.li... If your children are small enough to need a pushchair, they're small enough to lift out of it with ease. If they're big enough that you can't, they should bloody well be walking. I've often wondered why having procreated gives people the right to invade everyone else's space with their ridiculous means of child transport. Either use a foldaway buggy - and fold it up on a bus - or carry the brats. I don't really see why someone who is putting in 24 hours a day to provide the people who will look after us in our old age should be forbidden to travel. However much anyone is annoyed by very occasionally being delayed a couple of minutes by a buggy, at least you don't have to look after their children. There are probably societies where everyone on the bus would see it as their responsibility to help, eg hold the child while the mother folds the buggy etc, but in a society where everyone is on their own, while others just look on and tut, they'll make whatever arrangements they see fit, and good luck to em. |
Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
When I was a child in the 1960's my mother hauled a pushchair on and
off RM and RT buses, either on her own or probably with the help of the conductor. (Blimey, I'm starting to see Boris's point about buses here!). This was normal practice and no-one complained. My mother is hardly the largest or strongest person either. I also travelled in the guards compartment of trains as well, and can remember doing the same thing whne my sister was little in the early 1970's. Neill |
Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
In message
, MIG writes There are probably societies where everyone on the bus would see it as their responsibility to help, eg hold the child while the mother folds the buggy etc, Malta is one! We travelled back from Valetta to Qawra one day on a crowded bus [1] where a child literally screamed his head off to the point where we were ready to do the same ourselves but everyone else on the bus just smiled indulgently and admired the little boy and his impressive little lungs! I think it's just the Mediterranean temperament and love of families. As Northern European Anglos Saxons this was completely alien to us! :-)) but in a society where everyone is on their own, while others just look on and tut, they'll make whatever arrangements they see fit, and good luck to em. Being serious for a moment, London and other places have made good progress in recent years making space for buggies. The problem seems to arise when the space is full. Parents or carers have become so used to not folding the buggy, they feel that they never have to. Now, I *have* heard stories of drivers refusing to wait *while* a mother folded a buggy (First 121 or 126 in Somerset, for reference) but for the most part the problem does seem to be the adults not accepting when a space is already full. [1] There seems to be no other sort in Malta! -- Ian Jelf, MITG Birmingham, UK Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk |
Buggy On Bus Discrimination Claim
On Apr 27, 10:50*pm, Ian Jelf wrote: This surprised me: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8021703.stm Ditto. There's a few issues at play here. There does appear to be an expectation amongst a significant number of buggy-wielding bus users that they can - or should always be able to - get on a bus without folding the buggy up. This is daft - those with kids in buggies should be prepared to evict the little'un from said buggy and fold it up when getting on the bus. I reckon it's also fair to say that babies in prams should take priority over buggies - and of course wheelchair users take priority over both (there is enough space in most buses for a wheelchair and a buggy/pram though). The other thing of course is the preponderance of ridiculous overlarge 4x4-style buggy and pram designs. There's no need for these huge contraptions, especially in London! The fact they are so big is in and of itself a problem with regards to bus use - it makes them difficult to manoeuvre when inside the bus (and indeed outside on the street to!), and also of course means they take up more than their fare share of bus floor real-estate, which can result in there being less space for other buggies. The other issue with these mega-buggies however is that they're a complete faff to fold up - these are not simple beasts, and thus don't lend themselves to rapid stowing. The answer of course is to have a simple back-to-basics pushchair - easily collapsible with a nifty kick or kung-fu chop to the critical artery - and then one is free of the burden of the 4x4 monster-buggy and can be totally flexible. I know plenty of friends and acquaintances who do - or did - just this. If they expect the bus to be busy then the pushchair is already folded up at the bus stop, otherwise they and their tot are poised to evacuate and fold-up the pushchair if needs be - an action that takes five seconds - and voila, they're on the bus going where they need to be going rather than pathetically hanging around at the bus stop waiting for ages until a bus with some spare floor space arrives. The Children's Society are being daft. The basic thing is that this is a side-effect of the success story that is the London bus network. Parents with buggies should however get real and 'empower' themselves instead of expecting some sort of silver service.. The TfL spokesperson quoted in the BBC article has it right, I think: ---quote--- Michael Weston, from TfL, said: "I think what we've done is that we've made the bus network in London very, very accessible and we are seeing the success of that in terms of a lot of buggy users being able to get on the bus without folding their buggies. "There are also a lot of wheelchair users using the bus network, so at times we ask passengers to compromise and be flexible about how they use the space on the buses." ---/quote--- |
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