Open Baby Strollers On Roosevelt Island Red Bus During Rush Hours - Necessity For Parents With Infants And Toddlers Or Hazard For Everyone Else?
No Strollers On Red Bus During Rush Hour Flyer From 2007
It looks like another attempt is being made to reverse the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) policy of removing children from strollers and then folding the strollers before boarding the Red Bus during rush hours. This issue was addressed back in 2007 with RIOC concluding:
The prohibition against open strollers during rush hours only has apparently pitted one set of riders against the other. Everyone should realize that this rule is SOP on the MTA. My mail from adult users without children is highly supportive of the ban. I empathize with the stroller set. Rush hours seemed a reasonable compromise.The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) is getting behind the idea of allowing baby strollers on the Red Bus during rush hours. According to the Island Services Committee Report to the RIRA February Common Council Meeting:
Strollers on Red Bus during rush hours – Change RIOC policy so strollers are allowed on bus at all times. (Frank Farance is lead person.)Commenting of this idea, a reader wrote:
What's with the desire to keep strollers unfolded during rush hours? I myself have three small children but I would never be so inconsiderate and bring a stroller into a crowded bus during rush hours. That thing has wheels and most likely came with a rain cover for bad weather. Walk it to the train/tram or home. No need to use up space on the bus and block the way.How does the MTA handle strollers on New York City Buses? According to the MTA site explaining how to safely ride the bus:
When traveling with an infant and a baby stroller, the stroller should be folded before entering the bus and should remain folded for the duration of the trip.Here's how Madison Wisconsin proposes to handle strollers on their buses.
You Tube Video Of Madison Wisconsin Bus Stroller Proposal
21 comments :
There is only one thing that I hate more than people who don't remove their child and fold their strollers on the bus - people who leave their stroller open when there is no child in it at all!
Oh, and people who don't watch their child and then their child puts its grubby little hands and feet on me and I have to tell it to sit down and behave.
I guess that's two things.
If parents are allowed to bring their open strollers on the Red Bus, than I, as a person without children, should be allowed to bring my bike on the bus during rush hour.
We should not be making special accommodations for anyone who isn't elderly or disabled.
The rush hour times listed indicate 2 hours in the morning and evening. This is not unreasonable when you consider the other 20 hours when there is no ban. I feel it's more of a problem when someone loses a job or gets in trouble for being late to work because they can't get on a bus that has a stroller blocking the way, than having parents being mildly inconvenienced. Employers, current and prospective, don't care why you're not on time.
Another issue at hand is that the drivers don't enforce the rule. This inconsistency causes confusion and makes it seem like it's ok to bend the rules. I've seen a few disable people who can't board the bus because of these strollers. That isnt right.
Not sure how a bike would count the same as a baby in a stroller.
True story: one Sunday afternoon at the elevator on 63rd/Lex on the downtown platform. Lots of people (mostly lazy) and I with one child in the stroller and another walking next to me holding hands. Then there was this woman with a bike (I am very sure we all have seen and experienced her somehow on Roosevelt Island at some time or the other). While she was constantly trying to cut into the line and make sure she would get on BEFORE my stroller I was able to fend her off. Once all people and I with my children were in the elevator there was no room for her bike anymore. Guess what she did? She jammed the door with her bike and told everybody that she and her bike have priority over everybody else in this elevator. She would not budge for a few minutes while yelling and screaming at others (and others screaming back at her, of course) until it was suggested to push the alarm button and have somebody call the cops.
Am I wrong to assume that priorities for elevator use should be something along the lines:
1) disabled
2) elderlies
3) strollers
4) everybody else (bike or suitcases or big boxes or not)
This order makes sense because it's about getting upstairs without using steps or escalators. Disabled, elderlies, and strollers have no choice and must take the elevator - a baby or sleeping toddler cannot walk up the steps. Should a bike or somebody with a big Best Buy purchase have priorities over some abled body who is just too lazy to take the steps? maybe. Should they have priority over strollers? I am a bit biased (obviously) but gut feeling says no.
Now we can extend this discussion to the red bus. If you cannot get the elevator you are inconvenienced for maybe a few minutes, If you can't get onto the bus you may wait 15 minutes for the next one to show up. That definitely plays a role.
While the stroller policy is clear and in plain sight on every red bus, the problem is that the bus drivers do not enforce this rule. Additionally there is a lack of common courtesy among the able bodied residents of the island who would never think of giving up their seat to a parent holding a child, the elderly, disabled or a pregnant woman.
There are also those residents who feel that the line to enter the red bus at the subway station does not pertain to them and they should go directly to the front.
to add ... now I see we have another group of haters on the island: Baby Haters. Add this to the long list of: dog haters, car haters, southtown haters, new people haters, bike haters, squirl haters, bird haters, open space haters, etc ... cant we just say once in a while "Please excuse me neighbor, I would like to get on the bus would you kindly move your stroller/bike - Thank you"
I'm sure there is some pretty serious overlap among the groups of haters you listed. As a percentage of the Island's overall population, I assure you, haters are quite a small one.
Ref above comments (7.22 pm)I dont think groups of islanders hate others but some islanders have grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of enforcement of rules reflecting courtesy and common sense be they concerning
Bus etiquette, or
Dogs (unleashed), or
Elevator etiquette or
Parking pivileges, or
Shopping carts/Strollers/Suitcases
RIOC/PSD employees often look the other way and/or set some of the worst examples of jay walking and privileged parking.To paraphrase an old saying.They live in a glass house and are hesitant to throw stones.
The problem is the glass house is growing bigger and bigger.
Life must be pretty awesome if the most important thing we are talking about is whether or not it should be against the rules to leave a stroller unfolded on the bus. Particularly a bus I can often walk faster than. I laugh everytime I see the able bodied hoard rush to the elevator or get on the bus to go three blocks, and cry when people don't make way for those with limited mobility.
"there is a lack of common courtesy among the able bodied... who would never think of giving up their seat to a parent holding a child, the elderly, disabled or a pregnant woman."
Elderly and disabled? Sure, i will give up my seat.
Pregnant or with a child? Sorry, no. That was your choice, and you have to make you own accommodations. Don't put you personal decisions or poor planning onto other people. Just because you fulfilled the simple act of breeding does not mean you get privileges.
Trevre, how's that sense of superiority working out for you? Smug much?
As an island parent who formerly had a child in a stroller, I don't have a problem with the rush-hour fold policy.
I do have a problem with misanthropic losers like the first poster.
It takes a special kind of douchebag to not only refuse to give up a seat to a pregnant woman, but then crow about it anonymously on blog comments.
I'm a little worried about Trevre. All of that laughing and crying seems a bit unbalanced. :(
This rush hour policy seems more than reasonable, it's certainly more allowance than strollers get on MTA buses. I think we could all be a little more considerate of others, no matter our status or what hate group we do or don't fit into. (I think I must be in the Bike on the Bus Hater group. I will never understand it. If you've got a bike with you, ride it.)
Poster from 9:49am: guess who is going to pay for your retirement down the road? There is a reason why having children is supported and even encouraged by the government. People like you make me sad.
To Poster from Feb 8 at 8:08:
What does PSD Officers Jay-walking across the street to their work cars which are parked in their assigned spots have to do with strollers? You must be one of those who take pot-shots on every topic - for no reason. Get a life!
@ 9:49
I'm not talking about special privileges I was referring to the lack of common courtesy and thank you for proving my point.
I admit, I am smug sometimes, but I don't see it in those comments. And one day I will video the elevator rush, maybe people just don't realize they are doing it.
I think Trevre hit the nail on the head with his "rush to the elevator" comment. Able bodied people literally outrun elderlies, disabled, and stroller pushing parents to get first dibs on the elevator. Roosevelt Island and the 63rd/Lex station are notorious for that.
@2:13
Don't worry, i am going to pay for my own retirement, and am well on my way to my nestegg (far more ahead than other people are). I don't depend on others, and i don't wish for others to have to depend on me. I am better than that.
Who is going to send the cops over if you have a burglary to report or the fire fighters in case your house burns down? Who collects your garbage? Who is going to educate your children if you ever decide to have some? Who maintains the roads and tracks? Do you think the few dollars you pay in taxes covers all that? Think again. It's an effort that is carried by everybody and more children, i.e. bigger population, means better life for you and me.
The abortion rate in NYC is way above the national average possibly because the high cost of living makes it impossible for many to afford the expenses of having a kid. Others may have abortions to continue single/"free". NY is a mecca for single people after all. RI has many singles but also many families and is kid-friendly. The trend may be for more single people living on RI as it becomes more expensive.
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