Shopping Carts & Strollers

[artthouwill]

What is the official policy of the three agencies (CTA, Metra, Pace) concerning shopping carts and strollers?

On CTA: I have seen passengers with shopping carts with groceries in them on the bus. Sometimes, the accessbile area is available and they park carts there. Sometimes those areas are not available and they have taken up aisle space. Nothing has been said. The same with children in strollers.

On Metra: No one grocery shops and rides Metra. I've seen strollers with babies in them only in the accessible areas. On more crowded trains passengers have taken their child out of stroller, folded up stroller. I've never seen a conductor give any passenger any problem concerning strollers.

On Pace: Some drivers have allowed shopping carts with groceries in them with no problem. Some drivers only ask that the cart not be in the aisle, and have refused to move bus until it was out of the aisle, i.e accessible area. I have seen at least two drivers insist the passengers remove the groceries from the cart and fold it up before moving the bus. Recently this frustrated one passenger because she said she transferred from another Pace problem where this was not an issue. She was particularly peeved because she had the cart in the accessible area out of the aisle with the cart wheels facing east/west (bus was traveling north). The same with babies in strollers; some drivers don't bother, others insist child comes out of stroller, even on a near empty bus.

Regarding the last scenario with shopping carts and groceries, what happens if you get three or more passengers with shopping carts full of groceries, say on a route with a lot of shoppers?

CTA is trying to walk a thin line with their stroller policy, but drivers really don't say anything. It is other passengers complaining that CTA is trying to pacify. I must admit some of these strollers are more like mini cars, but this is the world we live in now, now to mention the electric wheelchairs and scooters which seem to have exploded in popularity.

[Busjack]

I can't give you official but note:

• CTA: There is a lot of griping about it on the CTA Tattler, and this post purports to have CTA's official policy.
• Metra: The only thing I have seen is a conductor telling someone to put their luggage on the luggage rack.
• Pace: I have told someone "the Niles Free Bus goes by Tony's and Jerry's; why don't you use a shopping cart and ask the driver to drop the ramp?" But she won't.

The electric scooters are protected by the ADA, so they basically have the same rights as wheelchair passengers.

[Railwaymodeler]

Stollers are a bit of a problem, as some are hard to fold, and even then, with a stroller, any carry on bags, and then a baby, if it is one parent with the stroller, that is a LOT to hold on to. On the other hand, some drivers believe the stroller is the safest place for a baby in the event of an accident or a hard brake application, and some drivers believe the opposite here.

Most of the drivers here are pretty lenient overall: As long as the stroller, shopping cart, what-have-you is not causing a problem to the flow of passengers, then they leave it to the passenger to figure what is best. Some drivers insist passengers with strollers fold them, which does cause brief confrontations between passengers and drivers, but as long as the driver states that s/he is doing what the boss told them, that another driver may have been told different, usually that is about the end of it. A lot of people, to some extent, have had workplaces like that too, where one person is told one thing, another person is told another.

Policy at Pace is that strollers must be folded up, though. Again, if there's only a few passengers, this tends to not be enforced heavily. Shopping carts are overall easier, as they have a smaller footprint than a stroller - often no bigger than a folded up stroller - and on the 2400 series NABIs, there's a 15" or so space between the rearmost door-side priority seat and a partition in front of the rear door. Very handy for carts and strollers.