Great Western Coffee Shop

I have a smaller gripe, but one that is shared by many others: Travelling with young children on public transport is a wholly unpleasant experience. For something else that never improves are the manners of fellow passengers and, worse, public transport employees.

In London, where I live, hassled mothers with children suffer the equivalent of being passed round like a hot potato as commuters’ eyes dart to the floor to avoid having to lend a hand. During one recent journey into central London and back with my children (one of whom was in a pushchair), I was booted off a bus between stops because another buggy was parked awkwardly, taking up both available spaces.

I wasn’t allowed to make my case, and was asked to leave, having got on and, of course, paid. Later, a second bus driver shut the doors prematurely, breaking the link between my hand and my young daughter’s while I was alighting by stepping backwards on to the pavement, my other hand negotiating a child-carrying pram.

Years ago, TfL introduced the now-ubiquitous ‘Baby on Board’ badge that expectant mothers can wear to encourage others to offer them a seat. I have never approved of these – I refused one during my pregnancies – but sadly, they do seem to get the message across to our corpse-like, mute fellow commuters, and work.

A glaring irony here is that once these women have had their baby, and really need preferential treatment, they often become invisible again.

[snip]

So popular has the whole exercise been, that in April 2017, TfL launched another badge which requests: ‘Please Offer Me A Seat’. It was created for ‘customers who struggled to get a seat because their need was not obvious’. More specifically, the badges are apparently designed for ‘disabled people and those with invisible impairments, conditions or illnesses’.

Not a word was said about busy mothers, you’ll notice. But, aside from that, laughably, TfL has made it surprisingly easy to obtain one of these badges, regardless of your status. Anyone can order one online – no questions asked – in a sense undermining the entire point of the badge.

It is a sad day when anyone has to use a badge to label themselves enough to be able to communicate a message to others. Whatever happened to inbuilt compassion, kindness, or even, conversation? It is worse when a mother’s options narrow to not using public transport at all. TfL’s slogan is ‘Every Journey Matters.’ It seems this isn’t strictly true.

I'm waiting for the first complaint that someone can't drive their mobility scooter onto a bus.

Ahh, the old days. Glad I don't live in them anymore.

[Devil's advocate on]
One could argue that mothers are responsible for their travel arrangements, and asking commuters for assistance while using public transport (commuters, so that's in the rush hour, right?), along with priority over said commuters, is too much. ...

[devil's advocate off]

23.2. You will normally need to be able to manage your luggage without additional help; however, if you have a disability and require assistance, you can book this in advance of your journey. Please see Condition 21 for more information.

23.1. You may take up to three items of luggage into the passenger
accommodation of a train unless:
23.1.1. your luggage is such that it may cause injury, inconvenience or a nuisance or it may cause damage to property;
23.1.2. there is not enough room for it;
23.1.3. your luggage would obstruct doorways, gangways or corridors;
23.1.4. the loading or unloading may cause delay to trains;

...commuters, so that's in the rush hour, right?

there isn't sufficient capacity as it is in the peaks, and these prams are getting ever bigger

In the old days, buses had no space for prams/pushchairs, and so they had to be collapsed before getting on (don't I remember it!). 

Now, there are mandatory spaces for wheelchair passengers, but with relatively few such passengers, parents have taken to use them as a suitable parking space for an uncollapsed pushchair.  So an expectation, wholly unreasonable in my mind, has been built up in the minds of people that they have a right to bring their pram/buggy/whateveryouwanttocallit  on all the time.

I'm waiting for the first complaint that someone can't drive their mobility scooter onto a bus.

Probably not allowed now, but at 4/5 my mother used to put me on Sothampton's No 1 route bus at Bittterne to Woolston,  in the care of the conductor, and my gandfather would meet me at the Radstock Road stop.

Hah!

When I was a kid, we were expected to stand up so that our seniors could have a seat. So when & why has that changed?