howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
don't remind me,i have seen it too often on our town busses.
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
No winners in the argument over what is right, have to say there are many more people with the me me me attitude now than ever before so common sense and decency resoloutuions are harder to achieve. At Dover game last week an elderly gentleman asked me if he could have my seat for the extra leg room, his need was greater than mine and I willingly moved, I know there are those that would not have.
Audere est facere.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
It used to be called good manners. Where did they go? Every generation seems to breed more and more selfish brats. Probably a product of the well fair state.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I can't find anything on the Stagecoach website but I feel sure there used to be a notice on buses requesting people to fold buggies if space was running short. I can't remember seeing anyone do so in recent years.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
there is/was a sign but it was hidden.
Guest 667- Registered: 6 Apr 2008
- Posts: 919
If the bus is fitted with a disabled area, then it has to by PCV regulations have to have a picture sign showing it to be a disabled area and the picture sign actual has to show it facing in the direction a wheel chair fits into the space. A notice is also required that requests passengers to vacate the area in favour of disabled,
However that is where the problem arrives, you can not make anyone vacate the area not even the driver can do that, it is just down to pure good manners.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
Yes Peter there is a lot of selfishness but I doubt it has anything to do with the welfare state more to do with bad upbringing. We certainly seem to be inflicted with a lot of people who think it is their right to take preference over everyone else.
A couple of years ago I remember having an argument on the internet with a woman about the elderly who had shopping trolleys that were in her child's way when travelling home on the bus after school.
It makes me wonder how I ever managed all those years ago when I had a pushchair and walked everywhere as buses did not have spaces or room for the pushchair, that is if I could have managed to get it on board in the first place.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
A point I have heard from many others Jan, fair enough if people are laden down with shopping as well as a buggy that they take the bus but many have just the buggy and are only going a few stops. Bearing in mind the 3 minute journey from the bottom of my road to the town centre costs £1. 40 single I would think twice.
Guest 1395- Registered: 5 Nov 2014
- Posts: 463
I think in the past 5 or 6 years I have only seen a wheelchair on a bus in Dover three or four times. At the moment no double-deckers other than those on the Folkestone route are buggy or wheelchair friendly - that will have to change by the end of next year.
Lew Finnis
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Many years ago when I had a house out at the bay my first wife would walk along the cliffe road not only with big pram with two in it but also the dog into Dover then walk back out there again with shopping, the all round trip was over ten miles she was a brave girl only about 18 years old at the time.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Gets ever more complicated with Transport for London saying that people should fold buggies if necessary to leave space for a wheelchair user but their is no compunction for them to do so.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/double-decker-wheelchair-odyssey-how-hard-can-it-be-for-a-wheelchair-user-to-travel-around-london-on-buses-9921866.htmlGuest 1395- Registered: 5 Nov 2014
- Posts: 463
The key point of the court ruling is that drivers can request buggies to be moved or folded but they cannot require it - something that would be very difficult to enforce anyway. The situation really is that both buggy pushers and wheelchair users have an equal right to travel, not that one is more equal than the other.
Lew Finnis
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
That's right Lew, most people are helpful down here so problems rarely exist, I can understand things to be different trying to cross a metropolis like London where people are more rushed and consequently stressed out.
I was on a Dover/Lydd bus recently when the driver had to turn away a wheelchair user as all spaces were taken, the person was OK about it as the service is every 15 minutes but the chap that brought the failed legal action was turned away from a Wetherby/Leeds bus which runs every 30 minutes.
Guest 1395- Registered: 5 Nov 2014
- Posts: 463
Oddly enough, Howard, one of the few wheelchairs I have seen locally boarded a Hastings-bound bus at Folkestone Harbour. A mother with a double buggy had got on at the previous stop and was in the wheelchair bay but when she saw the wheelchair about to board, she moved over (fortunately no other buggies!), then stopped 2 or 3 people from taking the seats in the wheelchair bay. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen any unreasonable behaviour by buggy users on local buses.
Lew Finnis
