Women with prams on buses – London chat forum

[JRubin]

Recently I have been getting really wound up about women with prams on buses, its just bugging me everytime i see a stupid women trying to get her pram onto a packed bus. they dont attempt to fold it up, like they used to do a few years ago. these days women think they have a right to get the pram on and make everyone get out of the way and budge up, taking up the space of another 3 people. they think they have got the same rights as wheelchair users. the other day i even saw one stupid women insist that the driver put the ramp down on the middle doors so she wouldnt have to maneourver past the green rails at the front. and the dumb driver actually did it! she wheeled it up the ramp and then strolled down to the front to pay looking in her purse for 2 minutes trying to find the money, and five mnutes later we were finally allowed to carry on with our journey.
i have got a message for women with a pram: You do not have a disability. it is not your "human right" to wheel an open pram onto a bus. A packed bus shouldn't have to make room just because you are too lazy to get your kid out and fold the pram up in the luggage rack!

[londonlover]

I dont see a problem with prams and trolleys when there is room for them. But I agree that if they bus is busy and lots of people are standing up then people shouldnt assume that people must make way. Some prams are very big indeed and can take up the room of 4 standing people. Most pushchairs can be folded away in less than 10 seconds, which they have plenty of time to do when they first see the bus coming down the road

[pwyn]

Typical men! They dont what it is like to struggle with all the shopping and a big bulky pram, and a crying child. I suggest that they try to keep a child happy and safe by the side of the road whilst at the same time trying to unload all the shopping from the pram and folding it up, whilst rooting through your bag for your bus fare. Especially when you are surrounded by other people all barging past you to get on first!

[pearlyqueen]

And of course men dont bring on their big dirty bicycles, do they? I have never understood that. If you have got a bicycle then why do you need to catch the bus?

[jandm]

i don't mind women takingf prams on buses... as long as they leave the kids at home. having a kid screaming its head off for half hour is not my idea of fun

[LEON]

Prams on buses arent a problem for me, but it is a bit annoying when a woman (or a man) insists on pushing down the middle of the aisle to get to the big space where it goes, making everyone stand up out of the seats and move, just to accommodate their one pram. 3 people can sit in that space, and yet they expect them all to get up and move just because they can't be bothered to fold up their pram. I sometimes think that is a bit rude

[KMS]

FAO JRubin

MOTHERS WITH PRAMS SHOULD NEVER EVER FOLD DOWN THEIR PRAMS AS IT IS DANGEROUS! THERE ARE NO SEAT BELTS ON BUSES! GOT THAT!

[Guest]

oh come on KMS, that argument doesn't hold any water at all. No other children on the bus wear seatbelts, and nobody thought it was dangerous five+ year ago before they had bays for prams. It's just a modern day thing. The bays were put there primarily for wheelchair users, and mothers are just trying to justify using it for their prams.

I was on the bus the other day and i saw a typical example: Three people were sitting on the fold-up seats in the wheelchair bay, and then a mother got on with her car-size pram and everyone had to justle and squeeze up to make way for to wheel it down the aisle, and then all three people had to get up from the fold-up seats and stand-up so she could wheel it in, and then she sat down herself on one of the fold-up seats. Nobody else could though, so she had de-seated three people and grabbed a seat herself, just so she could keep her 3-year old child strapped into the buggy

I thik sometimes mothers should show some consideration to other passengers, especially when the bus is packed

[Guest]

I so agree with this. I don't really blame the mothers though, because most of the prams etc that you can buy these days are mostly much too big and heavy to be taken on a bus at all. Years ago, once the baby was six months, you could put it in a parasol buggy, with a hood and apron if it was inclement weather, and because it was as light as a feather , you could easily fold it up as the bus approached and put it next to you with the baby on your lap. So much easier. Can't do that with the new style ones, or at least not very easily. I can hardly lift them to put in the car, let alone get them on a packed bus, they're so heavy.

Thank goodness I don't have to do it anymore!!

[pah]

prams these days aren't just prams anymore, they are also shopping trolleys so women can fit everything in there without having to carry extra bags whilst they are shopping. i agree that this is very convenient and useful for the mothers, because it is often a struggle to go shopping with kids in tow (and i know, because i have tried it!) but sometimes i think they can be a bit precious about their "rights", and almost act as if they belong on the same level as disabled people who have no choice but to sit in their wheelchairs.

most of the time it is a lot easier for people to stand up and move, rather than let the mother struggle with putting down the pram. but sometimes (just sometimes!), when the bus is packed, i think mothers should realise that it is probably easier for them to put the pram down instead