Not so much a complaint as a bemused wondering.
The buses on my local route can 'tilt' to one side to make it easier for people to get on the bus. Elderly people, people with pushchairs, people on crutches or in wheelchairs etc. They all come along, and the bus driver tilts the bus so they can get on and off.
Then people like me come along. We're able bodied, yes, but we are also burdened with a large suitcase or a heavily-filled shopping trolley. The floor remains stubbornly at it's usual height, about a foot or so off the curb.
Now yes I know I'm not elderly or on crutches or what have you. But it's just as hard to manoeuvre a heavy shopping trolley on a bus as it is to get a push chair on there... and no-one ever helps with the shopping trolley either. And I can't understand why the same courtesy is never extended to me (or people like me).
Why don't the bus drivers take pity on other people with heavy or unwieldy items and tilt the bus for them? It wouldn't hurt them, and would actually mean we board the bus faster because we're not huffing and puffing to get all the shopping on the bus...
Or, come to think of it, why don't they just tilt it as a general rule?
Is it just people being a jobsworth and thinking 'I don't HAVE to lower the floor for her so I won't?'
Any thoughts?
Some people get up on the wrong side of the bed every day.
Bus drivers don't like cats, sorry
Is there an extra 'stop' button for push-chairs, wheel-chair users, elderly, etc. on your buses? In Geneva it's blue, the normal one which is red.
This calls the driver's attention to people who might be slower getting on or off the bus, or need help in some way.
Perhaps that would help? He might not realise you're struggling... although I wouldn't bet on it!
What worked for me was to go in first and block the door so it wont close and ask him politely to lower the bus, if he didn't the bus wouldn't advance, his choice.
Now I might get groans from some, but I had a double buggy with my boys inside almost 50kg in total. Sometimes a woman needs to take desperate options
Dont see any issue on not lowering it, the tram drivers and train drivers dont lower the door either. If you have an issue just ask for help nstead of assuming the driver needs to make a special effort that slows the whole servoce down. Of ypu ask most people here are more then helpful if you dont speak upmthey tend to be plite and asssu,e you are coping and will actually be insulted if they make a fuss.
Lowering the floor of the bus does not slow the whole service down.
On the contrary, by making it easier for people to get in the bus, it actually makes the process go faster.
I can't think of our normal lines, but our postauto lines usually have a blue button for handicapped folk, which after a stop lowers the floor for you.
If this is the only problem we have we the buses we are doing well since I find the door entrances already very low
(I know I'm asking for groans but...)
My first thought?
Shop lighter. Why fill your trolley so full that you can't lift it yourself?
This was a lesson I had to learn the hard way, and learned that trolleys are useless to me because if I shop enough to make it useful, I can not carry it up the 5 flights of stairs from my entry to my actual apartment - even though I can get it on and off the bus / tram without a hitch.
Super advice! This should also apply to luggage at airports if you cant easily lift your shopping or luggage then you should not expect someone else to be able to.
It's these small problems which annoy you in life.
Doing groceries with the Ferrari is just as much a pain for me.
Maybe life would just be easier as a garbage collector rather than as hedge fund trader...
Well, it's likely you'd be more capable of (or at least accustomed to) lifting heavy loads, so that's a plus on the garbage collector side.
Yeah, but I've grown accustomed to 2-3M CHF a year incl bonus. Not sure I'd like to step back to 300-400k a year what i suspect a garbage collector roughly makes. No way i could live on that.
Never go on holiday carrying more than you can carry yourself (for me the choice is bike or kayak, not both at the ariport or train station.)
Thanks for the replies everyone... I must admit using the blue button had never occurred to me as I'm not handicapped.
And perhaps I'll try and figure out how to ask 'Could you lower the floor please' in French!
I do try not to buy too much, as I'm shopping on a budget... but when you have to buy a bag of cat litter every other week and milk and fruit juice etc... the trolley soon gets heavy.
Perhaps I should go shopping twice a week...
A) you look tooo fit and youngish
B) you of course never returned from CH military service with some heavy stuff ? We routinely blocked the entrance with the 1st piece and then move everything else inside and finally went up and the chap in front had to wait.
C) so, if you are enroute, block the entrance with one piece and then get inside. You will be astoished how helpful the chap is when you leave
Yes, sure, but it works the other way round also. For example, I once arrived from holiday and took a direct train from the airport to Zürich Enge. There, some chaps blocked the exit. I rammed my heavy suitcase into the knee of the first "enemy" and put my heavier travel bag onto the foot of the other. They came to senses
Any statisticians or conspiracy theorists out there that could confirm my impression that posters with feline avatars always feel suppressed?
Of course we are suppressed. We are cat slaves. We live under the daily tyranny of having to care for our feline ruler, who demands that we put his or her needs above our own (particularly with regards to meals) and who is capricious and unstable in their affections!
(My particular tyrant's favourite trick is to try and trip me up every time I head for the kitchen).