I got back from my afternoon trundle earlier quite hungry and tired. It had been a lovely afternoon rolling along the Lea up to the Olympic park, but I was eager to get home. I had taken the DLR back, and was waiting for a bus in Woolwich. When one arrived, though, the wheelchair space was taken up by two prams. I think I have noted here before how irritated I get where that happens: wheelchair spaces are wheelchair spaces, not pram spaces.  Besides, prams can be folded.

When this has happened in the past, there have been times when I have just accepted it and waited for the next bus. Today, though, as eager to get home as I was, I decided to stick to my guns. I started to shout, demanding that space was made. Things became somewhat heated, but eventually the driver extended the ramp and I got on the bus.

The thing is, this meant that the mums with the prams had to get off the bus and wait for the next one, rather than just folding them and taking seats. Of course this instantly made me feel rather guilty: I know that, as a wheelchair user, the bus wheelchair space is rightfully mine, but having said that the last thing I want to do is impede anyone’s journey. What should I have done, then – held my ground, or waited? I find myself torn between knowing that I too have a right to use busses, and the guilt which comes with knowing that I made someone suffer for me to access that right. I honestly can’t decide what the correct attitude towards situations like this is.