SOMETHING BUGGY-ING YOU ?

Buggies vs wheelchairs , not as it might sound to the unknowing amongst you, a whole new genre of action film, but a subject that has been in the headlines recently after  a supreme court ruling in a case in Yorkshire ruled that bus drivers should do more to accommodate wheelchair users.

Doug Palley took the case to court after a dispute with a lady with a buggy in the disabled bay on a bus  refused to take her baby out of its pushchair and fold it down to make room for his wheel chair meaning  he was refused entry .

Now I need to get one thing straight first, this isn’t going to be one of those rants against parents with small children on public transport because to be honest with you I’ve done my own fair share of that in my time and i can tell you from experience that i know it’s not exactly the easiest thing in the world to get yourself and your kids from A to B without the aid of a car if the distance is too far to walk and taxis are a tad expensive to be getting regularly.

Neither is this going to be a rant at wheelchair users because they like everyone else deserve to be able to go about their life with the least amount of obstacles being thrown in their way too .

I think we all just need to look at the bigger picture involved rather than the buggy vs wheelchair debate and start taking into consideration where we could all co-operate in making the whole bus  journey a little bit more comfortable for everybody.

I’ve seen parents with children in buggies being tutted and moaned at by others for taking up room or precious time as they try to get their pushchair into the spaces provided and quite disgustingly heard similar whinging about disabled passengers manoeuvring themselves into their correct positions.

I’ve also observed just as many people with buggies being refused places on buses because there’s not enough room for them in the spaces provided and seen disabled passengers manhandled out of the way of others against their will simply because they aren’t moving fast enough for the impatient travellers behind them .

Yes , generally if someone has been capable of setting up a pushchair  they are quite capable of putting it down again while the same of which cannot generally be said about the wheelchair user , however isn’t it worth considering that if everyone not just the two sides involved in this case were all to work together , offering to make room if needed , holding small children shopping or whatever while manoeuvres are carried out so all the onus isn’t just left on the bus driver there would be no need for these silly versus battles and supreme court rulings.