What is the logic behind folding up prams on a bus?

I love going out with my 3 kids. On most weekends, we bring our good old pram along. The pram serves us very well.

It is for the baby to sit on.

It is for the baby to sleep in.

It relieves us from the heavy diaper bag, water bottles, music lessons bags, shopping bags, etc.

It is for the older kids to sit on when there are no available seats on the train.

But the very thing about this pram is:it is an unwelcome thing on a bus.

I have travelled many times alone with my 3 kids plus a pram fully loaded with bags.

I sling on my baby, make sure my 2 elder kids got up the bus safely and ensure that they tap their fare cards, while I push the pram full of bags up the bus, moving up clumsily with the baby in front, dish out my fare card to tap the machine.

In Singapore, for some weird logic which I’ll explain later, prams have to be folded for “safety” to other passengers. But if I am alone with 3 kids, it’s almost impossible to unload the bags on the floor, fold the pram all the while with a baby slinged in front of me. It is even impossible to ensure “safety” of myself and my baby if I had to hold on to the folded pram, fear for the bags of rolling off all over the floor when the bus makes a turn or sudden stop. So, I usually risk being shooed off the bus by bus driver and just push the pram up the bus and quickly take a place at the wheelchair space to park my pram, and lock it. Because I was worried about how the driver may insist on the pram to be folded, I stood with my baby in sling, lean against a high padded support and hold on to my pram tight. To me, this is really safe since I was able to lock the pram, hold on to the railing with one hand and hold on to the pram with the other. I could not leave the pram alone.

Today, I was travelling with my husband and 3 kids plus a super loaded pram.

This was one of the unlucky days where we met a bus driver who refused to start the bus because he wanted us to fold the pram. We only needed to travel 2 bus-stops. We told the driver since it’s only 2 bus-stops, the hassle of folding the pram, putting down all the loose bags on the floor and in less than 5 minutes, we had to open up the pram, load back all the bags again, was simply not necessary. His reason was this is LTA’s (Land Transport Authority) regulations for fear of the pram bumping into other passengers and hurting anyone. The whole bus was full of passengers. It was 9pm. Everyone was tired. My kids were tired, Kel and I were tired, all the passengers were tired too. We all wanted a fast ride home. But here the driver went by the book, could easily achieve his fame for following strictly to LTA’s rule. He refused to start the bus.

I was totally unconvinced of “safety” being the reason of folding up the pram. So, I told him that if he insisted on the pram being folded, he would have to unload our stuff and fold the pram for us. He would have to open up the pram and load the things for us too when we reached 2 stops later. He walked to my husband, and when my husband tried to explain to him that it was not necessary to do this and how it would be more dangerous, he treated his explanation as an uncooperative gesture and walked back to radio the office to complain us. Someone came from the office, walked to us and apologized, mumbling this is LTAs’s rule and in the end did help us fold the pram. And she ensured that the driver would help us put up the pram again when we reached our destination.

20140322_204439
Me + 3 kids + a super loaded pram
Folded pram and loose bags - if these were to be put on the floor of a moving bus
Folded pram and loose bags – if these were to be put on the floor of a moving bus, I will really fear for the safety of other passengers!

The whole saga left us with the same lousy feeling which we had before. We had nothing against the driver who was following RULES. We just did not understand the logic behind this. On the brochure of child safety, it was stated:

Are prams/strollers allowed on board the bus?
Yes, they are but they must be folded up when travelling on our buses for safety reasons. In an emergency braking situation, opened prams can pose as safety hazards to both the child within and fellow passengers around as it can be thrown forward. As passenger safety is important to us, we do not allow opened prams/strollers on board our buses.

READ: “….safety hazards to both the CHILD WITHIN and fellow passengers around as it can be THROWN FORWARD

Number 1: My child is NOT within the pram.

Number 2: The possibility of an open pram, locked in its wheels and held on tightly by our hands, being thrown forward, is certainly way way lower than a folded pram lying on the floor with loose bags around it.

Singapore government wants us to have more kids. The government encourages us to take public transport. Kel and I did that dutifully. But we were slapped with such inconvenience and to us, is hazardous, of having the need to fold up a pram and leaving the loose bags on the floor all for the reason of “safety”? How safe can this be? If the bus makes a turn or sudden stop, wouldn’t all the loose bags plus the pram be jerked out of place and the probability of hurting other passengers be much higher? Kel was with me today. But if I were to travel alone with the kids and pram, who is going to help me look after the folded pram and bags to ensure they do not pose as a hazard to others? When a pram is fully opened, its wheels can be locked to prevent it from moving. But when a pram is folded, it has to lie on the floor together with many bags, they would be out of sight from other passengers and someone might step on them and fall. While all these happen, you have to remember I have 2 young kids to look after their safety on a moving bus, while my baby is all the while slinged onto my chest. What safety are you talking about here? Whose safety?

Do you think it’s possible to heed the government’s call for a fourth child? My first concern is we had better had a car. How can you take a public transport alone with 4 kids + a pram or even double pram? You may say just take a cab. Well, even a normal sedan will have problem accommodating 4 car seats plus 2 adults, if going by the compulsory law of strapping a kid to a car seat. So how shall a family of 6 take a cab, especially with rules that 1 adult + 4 kids is the maximum that a cab can take. Which means a family of 6 has to hail 2 cabs and it is extremely difficult to get one cab nowadays in Singapore, let alone catching 2 cabs! If you have tried to hail a cab on a Saturday morning 1030am, you will know what I mean. We have encountered so many times that once Kel hailed a cab, it pulled up and left the moment I appeared with my kids who were all the while hiding under some shade a distance away. The driver probably thought that we had too many of us and not willing to take us in his cab.

So the solution to this is:

If you want to have 3 or more kids, you had better be a rich person who can afford the exorbitant price of a car or rather MPV (for those who do not know Singapore’s famous Certificate of Entitlement, one sedan easily costs SGD120,000).

If not, you had better not have so many kids and you are welcomed to take the public transport but still the pram needs to be folded for all the inconvenience and “safety” reasons.

A cab probably can solve this with lesser kids but I was hoping there will be some concession for parents with young kids in tow to take cabs. If I have the money to take a cab everywhere I go, I might as well get a car.

Or better still, mothers should probably stay at home and not bring so many kids out since public transport does not welcome kids and strollers.

This issue with folding prams on buses is an old story put on replay again and again. Occasionally, parents complain and bus transport company or the Land Transport Authority explains with unconvincing reasons. It probably needs one incident whereby a mum or her children get hurt because the mum is busy folding up the prams on a moving bus and fail to take care of her children’s safety before serious solutions will be made. Until then, we can only rant in our blogs and complain to the forum in the main papers with at most a courtesy reply with totally no solutions.

Give me any day, I will do whatever I think is “safety” for my children! I will continue to push an open pram up the bus!

Do you have bad experience with open prams on public transport? How do you bring your kids out if you do not have a car?

40 thoughts on “What is the logic behind folding up prams on a bus?”

    1. Thanks granny! I feel extremely exhausted running the whole episode inside my head while ranting out in this post too. I do not think the person who sets this regulation is a parent himself, or rather has never taken a public transport with children in tow.

  1. I feel as though that is a ridiculous set up. I am in Canada and here if you take the bus, there is a designated spot for wheelchairs and open strollers. I agree with your points, a closed stroller and bags are definitely a lot more dangerous then maybe being bumped with a stroller (If by some chance it got away from you even with the brakes on)

    1. I believe Canada and many other countries which are probably much child friendly compared to here will be thoughtful towards parents with little ones in tow and strollers. I agree that if we have space for wheelchairs, we should have for open prams too. Indeed I feel it is more dangerous with loose bags and all. Thanks for sharing how Canada public transport works! Really useful to know for me to put up my argument!

  2. You have much more gumption than me! Although part of that is feeling like an outsider and not being my place to complain. Truth be told, it doesn’t worry me too much with only two, with a big enough age gap that I can use a single stroller plus or minus a baby carrier.

    We’re allowed to have unfolded strollers on buses in most places in Australia, although it’s controversial. Users of wheelchairs complain that they take up space which is more rightfully theirs. Nobody’s brought up the safety of other passengers that I know of, though. (We took buses and trains today – ask me how much space the folded/unloaded stroller took up compared to the loaded one – bet you can guess!)

    Unfortunately it’s just a fact that young children are more hassle to cart around, and there’s always this tension over how much of that burden should be shared around. I think it’s unreasonable to ask mothers to just stay home all the time and bear all the burden, which is what a friend of mine was doing for a while with three young kids, husband often away, no grandparents or other adults around and not being able to use the buses! Luckily she quickly found friends who could help her out a bit.

    1. I am sure your voice matters even though you are an expat and sharing your own country or widely traveled experience helps. I don’t know which other country has folded pram rules. Anyway, the reason of folding up prams for the safety of other passengers does not buy me over at all. Every time I board a bus with my young ones I feel stressful even without a pram to handle. Because in most cases the bus just moves on without waiting. Occassionally we meet good and understanding drivers of course. I can imagine your mention of wheelchair users feel that strollers fight for their space. Seriously in Singapore we rarely see them take buses. If they do, I will think they should have the priority and they should be more stressful than us. Since pram users are increasing, the authority should seriously consider changing this rule. Maybe they should try carrying a baby, hands tight with 2 other kids and try folding the pram and get hold of bags on a moving bus. Then they’ll understand how it is for us!

      1. I’m pretty sure Hong Kong has the folded pram rule. It’s definitely not exclusive to Singapore, but it’s not universal, either.

        It’s true that I rarely see wheelchair users on buses, which seems a shame, though I notice more wheelchair accessible buses are being introduced so perhaps that will change as access improves and people get used to the idea.

        Some regions in Australia have restrictions on the number of strollers which can board at one time, the idea being that a space or two is always kept free for wheelchairs. Mind you, I don’t think the same restriction applies to standing passengers, so that seems a bit inconsistent, but I suppose that only becomes a problem if the bus is very crowded!

        I definitely agree about bus drivers waiting, and I have to say that though they don’t all do it, Singaporean bus captains are better than their Australian counterparts on that one. Once when I was 8.5 months pregnant my 2yo was sent flying across the bus and I nearly was, too, because of the way the driver pulled into the traffic without waiting for us to be seated! P cried loudly for the entire journey because he really hurt himself.

        I also once saw an elderly lady sent flying under similar circumstances. At least in that case the driver stopped immediately and went to help her up, check that she was ok, and apologise profusely – and he learnt his lesson because he was very careful to wait for people to sit down for the rest of the journey. We didn’t get so much as a peep from our driver for our pains!

        Whereas in Singapore I would say the captain frequently watches til we’re seated (although much less often lately, but I assume that’s because the kids are now older). Trying to remember exactly how “frequently” for you but it’s a bit hard to put a figure on!

        I feel like there was something in the air here on Sunday. I also have a rant about safety concerns gone awry on my blog!

        1. The flying experience is terrifying to think of, something I always warn my kids about. I hope things will get better here and more people can highlight that open strollers indeed can be safe in locked wheels. Limiting the number of open strollers is good to consider too. We should study other countries’ practices and make it more child friendly to take the public transport.

  3. Here we don’t bring prams if we use the public transport because buses are only for long distance travel. We have jeepneys which is like a meter and a half wide inside including the seats! yikes. But there’s still taxi only that it’s expensive to take the taxi all the time. So if we have babies or toddlers, we have to carry them everywhere! Backache! LOL

    1. Backache is certainly part of parenting equation if you want to take public transport! Just 2 days of carrying a baby I sling and you would think twice about taking buses again. Still, we are physically able to handle the weight for now. My toddler is 12kg and that’s almost the maximum my carrier allows. If I want to relieve backache and put my toddler in the stroller, I will have to try to plan my route solely on trains. Wouldn’t be able to reach many places then.

  4. I just can’t imagine! That sounds way too stressful and I would NOT be having any more kids!! LOL. I couldn’t handle the stress of traveling with them – so I give you big kudos for doing it on your own so often! 🙂

    1. I would NOT consider more kids too with such unfriendly public transport to get around! My husband often jokes about if the government wants higher birth rate especially beyond one or two child, they should throw in a car to entice. We will certainly be the first to take it. It will be so much more helpful for 3 kids like us. Unlike the states where everyone has a car, over here it is so exorbitant, it is just not worth spending money buying one which the money would have otherwise put to better use for other child related stuff!

  5. Wow, sounds tricky!
    Funny how different it can be; here I think people would get quite annoyed if you’d start unpacking and folding up a stroller blocking a fair bit of a bus! And we actually mainly do have kids in the stroller while on the bus, especially if it is full.
    Our stroller has ones done a summersault, but obviously that was a time when I didn’t stand by it but sat instead with the child on a seat…
    Anyway, you are quite skilled to manage all of that!

    1. I just love how child friendly your country is! I will repeat that for issues we are struggling with while over at your side is having such an easy time. No doubt Finland is number 1 for being child-friendly. That’s just so much to learn from your country. I am sure the Finnish will think it ridiculous to fold up prams on the bus.

      1. We have our moments 🙂 But then there are other moments less positive too – all countries can learn from each other! I just find it interesting to read about these issues and find out how differently they can be approached!

  6. I am all in for the folding pram thing as much as I agree with you that it’s so much hassle to unload-fold-carry-unfold-load. I am with the folding pram rule because when its peak hours an unfolded pram will probably be stuck along the aisle instead of being able to park at the wheelchair area or the standing area, thus blocking other people from boarding the bus and causing resentment from others. I have also seen parents who forgot to lock the pram’s wheel even with a loaded pram, so when the bus stops, it rolled. What happen if the parent could not grab hold of the pram on time and it crashes into some one?

    1. Actually, we have never board a packed bus with an open pram. This incident happened from the interchange where we are usually one of the first few to board. Even if we are not, we always make our way to the wheelchair area to park our pram. For crowded buses if we were to board at a bus stop, we will fold it up as there is not even standing space, let alone for the open pram. But it will be really clumsy and we always fear for our kids’ safety while busy tending to the folded pram and bags. And the bus usually moves before you are done. We have never left it in the aisle too. I have seen open prams in the aisle and they are indeed in the way. If transport companies designate the wheelchair space for open prams too, I think it will be the best. If wheelchairs can be open, why not prams?

      Thank you Dinomama for your point of view. It’s good to hear from the other take on this issue 🙂

  7. I understand what you are getting at. I once met a driver who refuse to let us board the bus because our stroller is open and my girl was sleeping inside. We told him we will carry our daughter up after we board the bus, and fold the stroller. He refuse and insist we do it outside the bus. So we complied with me carrying our daughter and my husband struggling with my boy and the stroller. And he started driving before we were seated.

    Like DinoMama state, open strollers can take up space during peak hours and cause inconvenience to other riders. And they certainly cannot ensure that all parents will be like you who holds on to the stroller and lock it’s wheel while on board. So they did what they do best here, blanket rules. Punish the 99% for the 1% of people who don’t know how to ensure safety.

    I guess the minimum they can do is help us with the folding and unfolding of strollers. Ensure we have a seat where possible. And only drive off when we are properly seated and things are secured. If they could have the training for wheel bound person, why not for parents with strollers?

    1. You are so right about punishing 99% for the minority’s mistake. And the buses usually moves on before we are all seated. Now who’s talking about safety here. I agree totally that bus captains should be trained to help parents fold up prams/strollers and ensure all are seated before he drives. If they insist on folded prams, they should ensure safety of the vulnerable kids. Thank you for sharing your experience. We, being tough mums, will not keep our kids at home because of such rules that are made without addressing the real “safety” reasons.

  8. I’ve always been pretty lucky with the public transport here, and i especially love taking the bus. I don’t like to bring an open stroller up a bus though, and this was way before any rules were set. It’s always close when we board and I’ll do my best to be seated near the stroller (which i will tie to the bars along the standing/wheelchair area). i don’t know why… but i think cos it’s easier to carry the stroller up the bus while it’s folded.

    a couple of times, fellow commuters will be happy to hold the stroller for me while i’m seated. many a time, they’ll (sometimes the drivers too) also help me carry the stroller up and down the bus. i guess it helps being alone and looking ‘weak’, cos it’s usually the men who help me. haha! either that, or they’re reminded of their wives struggling up and down the bus on their own.

    but nowadays, i don’t bring the stroller out when we’re taking the public transport. i travel super lightly now (and don’t buy so many things while out, or bring a huge toys’r’us reusable shopping bag to throw all the barang in), and make the kids walk! hehe 😛

    i hope your bus taking experience will get better!

    1. Thanks for sharing Mabel! You are lucky to have drivers help you. I will have to wait till my toddler is older before we leave the pram at home. Right now, it really serves us well. Travelling light helps too, but then again, until my toddler is older, I will have to continue to lug the milk powder, diapers, extra clothing, water bottle, etc. The weight of it plus my toddler adds on to my backache. Well, that’s part and parcel of being a mummy who loves to go out 🙂

      1. My girl is about 16 months old, and my elder boy is 3+ years. we’ve been going out with only a back pack with their water bottles, diapers (2 each), one set of clothings each, and wet wipes. That’s how light we pack. Hehe. Try it!!!

        1. Mabel, you must be still bf! My supply ran out long ago haha! So I have to bring milk powder, bottle filled with water, biscuits, baby’s water bottle, 3 diapers (kiasu), 2 kinds of wet wipes (hand and bottoms), changing mat, 2 elder kids water which are so heavy. My kids take turns to help me carry the bags. But I usually let them carry awhile as I find them heavy let alone the kids. I used to carry baby spoon and bowl too. But now is not necessary.

  9. It is near impossible to fold the pram/stroller when I go out with my 1.5 year old girl. So I have totally given up the notion of taking bus when we go out by ourselves. It is either the mrt or taxi, even it takes us longer to flag down a cab or walk to a mrt station.

    1. That’s so true. But so sad that the public transport could only serve us well partially, i.e. the train. There’s still way to go to entice more people to use the public transport from the convenience of cars. As long as they don’t improve on making it easy for parents, I think every family will want to have a car for young kids. That is going in the opposite direction of what the government is promoting: more kids and more users for public transport. They should seriously consider these issues to improving birth rate and cutting down car population. Thanks for sharing your experience Michelle!

  10. I have never heard of such a thing! Every where I have taken transport I was able to lock the stroller wheels and keep z buckled in it.
    Actually we apparently broke the rules in Singapore on our way to the zoo because we totally left z in the stiller opened on the bus there. I guess we got a nice driver (thank goodness!).

    1. You are so well traveled and you confirmed what I thought! I think many countries are not like us to implement folded pram rules. You are indeed lucky on your trip to the zoo! I can’t imagine drivers here allow open prams with child inside. Oops for spilling the rules to you in this post! Haha! I hope you visit Singapore again and just pretend you have never read about this here 🙂

  11. Completely agree with you there. It was a bit of a shock coming back here from Vancouver, where I could just wheel my stroller onto the bus and sit down with my baby (in the stroller) at the spot reserved for strollers and wheelchairs (btw, those spots could accommodate 3-4 strollers/wheelchairs, much more generous than the space here). No need for any nonsense about taking baby out, folding up stroller/pram and then struggle to carry both (minus any shopping or diaper bag??) up the bus and try to hold onto both while bus is moving… Honestly, who came up with that logic??? How would my struggling to hold onto wriggling baby/toddler, an unbalanced fold up stroller (and any other items) possible be safer than having baby nicely strapped in, any items stowed away in the stroller basket and stroller with its brakes on (and of course most parents would and should hold onto the stroller anyway even with the brakes on). I nearly cried when doing it for the first time in Singapore…. It also meant that other than taking taxi, I could only take baby out with me on the bus if I had my husband or someone else who could help with either baby or stroller.

    The limitations to mobility was such a drastic change compared to my experience in Vancouver. I can’t imagine how isolated I would have been if I couldn’t take baby out on my own to run errands, visit friends etc. while I was in a country where I couldn’t afford a car (err, same here haha… although now we could at least afford to take taxis more often). I couldn’t afford to take taxis there as a regular mode of transportation, I didn’t have any family/relatives to help me out on a regular basis and public buses was the only feasible way for me to get around. I am sure there are many parents facing the same situation here. Does that mean they should just stay at home with their kids if they cannot afford a car or taxi rides? Improving mobility and public access is certain better here than it was a decade ago, but we still have a long way to go. Public buses in Singapore is still focused on getting the maximum number of people on and off (efficiency) rather than ease of use and accessibility to a wider range of users. The driving is also sub-standard. So much is focused on bus frequencies and being on-time (which are important) but the actual driving standards are often poor, with terrible braking and swerving, which is surely dangerous when combined with loose bags and folded strollers that could not be held onto because the parent has his/her hands full with kid(s)!

    1. Whoa! Thanks for sharing your Vancouver experience vs Singapore’s child-unfriendly public transport! I love Singapore in so many ways. You can tell that in my many blog posts promoting Singapore and I am proud to be a Singaporean. But, like typical Singaporeans, I do feel I have to speak out whenever that’s a need to! Public transport is certainly one of them. Now that I read so many comments here on how open strollers are a norm in other countries, I feel all the more we should be improving. You are right that they emphasize much on frequency and all but safety. I feel safety should never be compromised and it’s an irony that they actually think that folding up prams is a “safety” measure! That’s just completely the opposite if those who made the rules have tried it out in actual scenario. The thought of denying mothers from going out because of the hassle of folding prams on buses really turns me off and infuriates me. That’s exactly this rule is all about, making it extra inconvenient to bringing young kids out alone!

  12. I have so much sentiments with this you don’t even know homygosh. I went as far as to email SBS Transit to question them on this particular rule cos as much as I understand the safety ruling and stuff, shouldn’t it apply only to when the pram is in the bus? And not before we board the bus? It just DOESN’T make sense for me to balance an 8.1kg baby with a 6.5kg pram, coupled with a diaper bag, whilst going up the damn bus with no help at all ALONE. Ugh. I had requested that I carry the entire pram with my baby up the bus first so I can fold up the pram in the bus, but no, the bus driver had to insist I fold up the pram first before boarding. I had to make sure I don’t drop by baby on one hand, lug the pram up with the other. Safety? What safety?
    I wrote in the email that at least the driver should disembark to help us, to which the bus company replied that all drivers would be outlined on such. Which of cos, as you’ve already experienced, didn’t happen. Ugh.

    1. You wrote to SBS transit! Kudos to you!! I was thinking of writing to the forum which would most likely trigger some furious comments for and against and probably fish out some standard replies from the authorities concerned. Sigh… didn’t we always see the same replies for many other forum topics? You are positive to their rules in that you will fold up the pram but easier to do it on the bus. And after all the protest about it, the driver did not even help you at all? Seriously, I think we should consider making this a big hoo-ha to force them into thinking what is really safety. Even if the solution is to make drivers aware and have them help us out in folding prams and making sure we and the kids are properly seated before driving off, is considered a good start to addressing this old story. Thank you so much for adding your voice here!

  13. Agree with you that open and locked is safer than folded and lying around. But for many of us whose bus journeys don’t begin at an interchange, it doesn’t make sense to use a regular stroller at all because it’s so hard to get it – folded or open – up or down a bus, especially when there are already some people standing around, much less on a crowded bus. We bought an umbrella stroller for ease of movement and folding but found it more convenient to use a carrier in the end. I have only one kid now but we’re planning for more without a car 🙂 With two kids, we’ll take one each; with three – hope we get there – well, the oldest one will be old enough to walk while the younger ones are in our arms!

    1. The thought of getting up a crowded bus in the middle of the bus journey freaks me out! I don’t always start my journey from the interchange. In this case, we only needed 2 stops before we alight, so we find folding up pram is redundant in this case. Every time we need to get up a bus from a bus-stop, I feel very stressed! Some old buses have steps and are not wheel-chair friendly. We have to skip the bus and wait for the next one. When we get up on one, not all the time we have people giving up seats to my kids. It’s scary to think about that when I have so many things to take care of. For any number of kids, a carrier is certainly very useful as it frees your hands to take care of other kids. You and your hubby intend to sling a carrier each! And you are planning to ride it all out without a car! You are a versatile mum and I am sure you can handle more kids very well! Congrats on your pregnancy and thanks for leaving your thoughts here! Another supporter! 🙂

      1. I hate the idea of travelling with a pram on a bus. When my girl was younger, pram is indispensable. I can’t imagine getting around without it. But folding a pram on a bus is such a hassle. My pram was super duper steady that I need 2 hands to fold it and I need to exert quite a strength to do so. When I travel alone, I just hate to travel by bus. How can I get my hands free to fold the pram when I am carrying a sleeping baby? I do not know whether relaxing the rule would be any better because there probably would be more prams on bus? Probably a longer waiting time ? But I do agree a closed pram is more dangerous, be it lying on the floor or leaning against the side. When the little ones need your 100% attention, how in the world can you focus your 100% attention on the pram when you are travelling with the kids? It’s quite a task. Luckily, I live near the MRT station, that is my best travelling mode with a pram.

        1. Nowadays prams are rather bulky with big wheels. Not easy for smaller strollers to be folded too. These rules are really set for us to boycott buses. Sometimes we need to plan the route that goes by train entirely if possible and at most walk a longer distance home. Such inconveniences for parents with young kids!

  14. Wow, such a stupid rule! This surely makes getting on and off a public transport alot harder. If you have a stroller with you, then what is the point in a baby carrier too? But if you have to fold the stroller then you need to put the baby in the carrier. Wow. I would surely get a stroke if I had to do this often….
    And what is the rule for wheelchairs? Do thye have to be folded too?
    I have actually never taken the bus or street car here with a stroller.
    It is hard to put them on the public transport, usually maybe only one door is wide enough to get on, the stroller is heavy to drag up those steps. Not many people help. So I usually just walk everywhere, or if something is really far, we go by car. But I only have 2 kids, so they fit in any kind of car…
    I have tagged you: 🙂
    http://theblackberryboys.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/twenty-questions-the-mummy-tag/

    1. Oh so many people here find it a stupid rule! I should consider writing to the main paper to get it published for garnering a change. Wheelchairs are fine and need not be folded. Imagine the wheelchair passenger has to get off the chair and then get back on again. Even with help, I am sure no wheelchair users will ever travel publicly on a bus. Then it will surely defeats the purpose of converting all buses to wheelchair friendly. The wheelchair area on the buses right now are very under-utilized. If only open strollers can park there. There’s still a long way to go to reach world class public transport standards here. It’s a shame.

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