Babies on buses

I AM writing regarding the recent news about a disabled man’s fight with a bus company for allowing a pushchair on board in favour of a wheelchair. I appreciate that disabled 
people deserve obvious consideration in a civilised society. However, I myself am disabled and own a wheelchair, and what is of major concern to me is that the bus companies and our legal system seem to think that disabled people have more rights to a bus than a mother and baby.

I recall being on a bus on several occasions when a mother and baby were forced out into the pelting rain to allow someone in a wheelchair to take their place.

Apart from the obvious fact that the baby is also vulnerable and should have a right of protection, we would not accept this as moral behaviour if it were an ethnic issue as happened years ago in South Africa and the USA, where black people had to give up their seats in favour of whites.

What should have happened when the buses were first designed was to build them like the airport bus, with enough free space for at least a wheelchair and a pushchair.

It would not be wasted space as there could be wall chairs for able-bodied passengers if the space is not being used.

What sort of society are we that forces a baby off a bus into the rain?

Elaine Pomeransky

Restalrig Gardens

Edinburgh