Roz - sorry to hear that your experiences have been so negative. This was a low point for me, but I've had lots of positive experiences too - there is one P4 driver in particular who will often let on three or four buggies, if there's space, and blows the bus's horn loudly when we disembark, to the great delight of my tot. I would love to commend him to his bosses, but think I will probably get him into trouble if I do... I encourage you to use the London Transport site, which makes it very simple to lodge a complaint should you have a negative experience - this can give those making decisions about buggy use on buses a taster of our tricky reality.

I am sad to hear that there is a possibility that the wheelchair area should prohibit buggies at all times, though. Dipsolala, I was a bit confused by your "stating of the facts", but I guess you are saying that you are in agreement with this. I am sorry to hear that you and the person you were helping had such a negative encounter. The wheelchair/buggy area is full of signs stating that wheelchair users have priority, I have certainly always understood that and would have had no problem folding my buggy in that scenario. I'm surprised the bus driver wasn't more insistent that the area was cleared.

But I do resent the way those with small children are often treated as a big nuisance. We were all small once, where's the empathy? I use public transport all the time, and in this past year, I recall only one incident where a person on a wheelchair got on board. What is the harm in having us use the space when the bus is empty? When the baby is small, the maneuvre of folding a buggy with one hand, a floppy baby and a sack of nappies in the other, possibly in the rain, is even harder than it sounds. I used to get around this problem by carrying him in a sling. But he is now 12 kg, and that is no longer an option. He is also still very unsteady on his legs, so we can't yet pack the contraption away, as dearly as I'd love to.

All I'm asking for is that the bus treats my son and I with the same entitlement everyone else gets. Stop the bus, give me an option to park my buggy in the wheelchair space (with implicit understanding that I will fold it if the space is required by a wheelchair user) or to fold it should the space already be occupied.