Conversation

Before I go to bed, I want to talk about what I saw earlier. When I was on the bus, a man tried to get on with a wheelchair. He asked the bus driver if he could use the ramp. The bus driver refused, and said “not if the wheelchair isn’t yours” - likely because the man was standing and not sitting in it. The man said “this is my wheelchair”. He asked multiple times and the driver continued to refuse. So the guy starts loading his items one-by-one onto the bus so he can lift the wheelchair in.

As the guy is loading the items, the bus driver tries pulling away and driving off multiple times. Each time the guy has to grab onto the door or gets in front of the bus. Once he’s finally in the bus he asks for securements so his wheelchair doesn’t roll around. The bus driver doesn’t respond for minutes - and I think he called it in to the police. Eventually he gets to securing the wheelchair.

During the ride the dude is rightly upset, so he talks to the bus driver and says “thank you for doing your job” in a kind of perturbed tone. Then one lady starts screaming at him to “shut the fuck up”, saying “nobody cares about what you’re going through”, things like that.

I was appalled. I didn’t really do much except back him up and say that he had to fight to get his wheelchair on the bus. Finally we ride a few stops and he gets off, apparently before the police could get there. I’m still bewildered that the driver called the cops on a dude who just wanted to get his wheelchair on the bus.

Honestly, I don’t think it should have mattered if the wheelchair was his or not. I don’t see why someone can’t get help transporting a wheelchair. I also know that some people that look fully abled do need wheelchairs. It really pissed me off to see this happen.