It was widely reported in the press yesterday that the DfT are consulting on a proposal to "crackdown" on parents with buggies on buses (see the BBC News for example). The actual wording of the DfT consultation is slightly milder identifying concern with buggies taking spaces for wheelchairs and detering wheelchair users from using the bus.
This was an issue CCD looked at for Transport for London in a research study into the use of buggies on buses. We looked specifically some of these attitudinal and emotional issues for parents and other bus users including those in wheelchairs. The case study of the work can be found on our website.
We concluded that there were a number of issues around the design of the interior of the bus, the lack of available help from staff, issues with buses moving off and communication with/from the driver that made the use of the wheelchair/buggy space more problematic. It seemed that these make the options open to buggy users to make the space available are limited especially on crowded buses.Labels: buggies, bus