Driver flouts rule on mums with prams
A PREGNANT young mother has been told she couldn’t ride a Wellington bus with her 2-year-old daughter unless she folded up her pram – just a day after the rules were changed to let her do so.
Ceri Jones, 19, of Island Bay, who is 25 weeks pregnant with twins, was delighted to read on Thursday that Greater Wellington Regional Council had relaxed its rules for prams and scooters, which meant daughter Aquanetta could stay seated in her pram on the bus.
But when she tried to get on a Go Wellington bus in Newtown the next day, she was told she had to fold up the pram – or she would not be allowed to ride.
She pointed out the rule change to the driver, after it was reported in The Dominion Post .
‘‘All he said was, ‘That’s the council rules, it’s not the law. They can’t change the law’,’’ Jones said yesterday.
Bus drivers can still require passengers to fold up prams in certain situations, if there is no space to accommodate them, or if they present a safety risk.
But at 1.05pm on a Friday, with the bus’ wheelchair area free and only five other people on the bus, Jones said there was no good reason to make her fold up her pram, which delayed the bus by five minutes.
NZ Bus, the company that runs Go Wellington buses, has apologised to Jones, saying it supports the rule change.
‘‘I’m sorry she had a bad experience,’’ said Tonia Haskell, the company’s southern chief operations officer. ‘‘We supported the rule changes because they make life easier for parents, carers and children riding on our buses, and that’s important to us.’’
The message would be sent around drivers early this week, and she would personally follow up Jones’ tale with the driver in question, Haskell said.
Jones, who does not drive and relies on public transport, was trying to board the No 1 bus outside Little Wonders Early Childhood Centre in Rintoul St, Newtown.
She and other mothers from Little Wonders had complained in the past about one particular driver’s attitude towards prams, and often waited 10 minutes to catch the next bus, which had a pleasant and helpful driver.
‘‘It does make my day harder because it unsettles my child,’’ she said of having to struggle with a squirming Aquanetta while trying to fold her pram.
‘‘After getting her up, she doesn’t want to get back in the pram . . . then I get angry and frustrated because of that one little thing that ruins my day.’’
Wellington city councillor Iona Pannett, who had been lobbying the regional council to change its guidelines since 2013, said the driver’s response was disappointing. Even if he had not known the new rules, it would have been common courtesy to let Jones on with her unfolded pram.
Pannett, who has children aged 5 and 3, said after last week’s rule change: ‘‘The only time I’ve ever felt like a second-class citizen, as a woman and a mother, is when I’ve got on a bus.’’
The rules were changed after council staff admitted the old ones had been the subject of complaints from passengers and operators.