Taking bicycle on peak time Scotrail service

[43066]

Indeed, which is why I asked if it was a habitual problem. Generally, other passengers seems very happy to be accommodating and actively helpful on trains I have been on when people get on with pushchairs and certainly a wheelchair. Often helping to lift pushchairs, help with the parent's luggage etc. Less so with bicycles.

If the story posted about bus drivers refusing to allow wheelchairs to board because "it is too much trouble" are true then that's a bit of a different story

If my experience is anything to go by there are more “scummy mummy” types on buses, who are likely to be difficult…

I don’t mean that to sound snobby, but I’m sure we all know the sort!

 

[Dave W]

Not directly the same issue, but back when I was a student in Bath it wasn't that odd to have a driver stop the bus and refuse to move unless drunk idiots stopped acting up or got off the bus. Not sure how much trouble a driver would get in for delaying journeys like that but it pretty much always worked as nobody wanted to be the reason for the entire bus load of pepple getting delayed! So there's absolutely ways and means. Though I must admit I suspect other passengers would likely be more sympathetic to someone with a pram than they would be to drunk idiots!

We've heard from guards etc on these forums before about the power that a bit of peer pressure can have - if it's one person's poor behaviour, everyone can get behind the action of stopping and refusing to budge - easier to get a result.

A LOT more nuanced if it's two passengers against each other. "Scummy mummies" aside (bit of a downgrade from yummy...!) - who is going to be happy with the act of delaying a busload to insist on the removal of a woman with a young child off a bus, at an unfamiliar stop? If a bus driver acted one way or the other, they'd probably take some abuse from someone whichever side they plumped for.

Provision for bikes has long been a problem really; not sure mandating one way or the other is the solution though.

 

[al78]

"Wheelchair users should be given priority over pushchair users. If there's a pushchair in the wheelchair space, when you try to board the bus, the driver should ask the pushchair user to move. However if the pushchair user refuses to move the driver can not force them to do so."

This is a recurring theme, rather like the inability to force fare dodgers to pay up if they resist in a determined way. I cannot think of an easy way to solve this (in a civilised way at least) but it would be desirable if a solution could be found, because the current situation encourages an attitude of entitlement and bullying when morally dead individuals cannot be called out for bad behaviour.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This is a recurring theme, rather like the inability to force fare dodgers to pay up if they resist in a determined way. I cannot think of an easy way to solve this (in a civilised way at least) but it would be desirable if a solution could be found, because the current situation encourages an attitude of entitlement and bullying when morally dead individuals cannot be called out for bad behaviour.

On a bus it'll often be solved by the newspaper method. That is, stop the engine, get out the Sun*, shout back that you're not going until the wheelchair user is in the bay safely, and wait for other irritated passengers to resolve the matter for you.

That does carry the risk that some people might side with the pram owner, though.

* The Mirror is also an option, particularly in Liverpool.