Metro transit not fair to parents with bigger strollers
Olivia Schneider, Staff Contributor
Mohammad Ehsan has filed a human rights complaint against Metro Transit saying the transit authority should change stroller regulations to grant bus access to all sizes of strollers.
Ehsan, a Dalhousie PhD candidate who also teaches political science at the university, took this stand after he and his wife were told they couldn’t board a Halifax bus with their five month old twin boys unless they folded their stroller. The couple refused, saying this would leave them to juggle their children, the stroller, and bags they were carrying.
Doing so, they said, would risk the safety of their boys as well as others on the bus.
Ehsan says hasn’t seen anyone asked to fold their stroller once in the last five and a half years he’s been using the Metro system.
Following the incident, Ehsan made a formal complaint to Metro Transit and contacted the Human Rights Commission of Nova Scotia. He says the current guidelines discriminate against parents with strollers.
“I’m not seeking anything. It’s not about me,” Ehsan says. “All I need is a change in the guidelines so parents are free to take the buses.”
Space on buses is an issue many people, including Ehsan, acknowledge as being a problem.
“The physical area of a bus is only so large,” says Lori Patterson, the manager of marketing and communication at Metro Transit.
A Dalhousie second-year student thinks the size of stroller is irrelevant and all strollers should be allowed. “Little babies have to get places too and it’s no more inconvenient than a crowded bus,” she says.
Second-year King’s student, Alanna Pyke, sees Metro Transit’s point. “I get that people need to bring (strollers), but it takes up a lot of room. I think they should at least fold them” she says, “as mean as that sounds.”
Metro Transit’s current guidelines limit the size of strollers to 42 inches by 22.5 inches—the size of many single strollers. Ehsan’s stroller is 46 inches by 19.5 inches. The double stroller is longer to accommodate his twins.
Riders are encouraged to fold the stroller once on the bus, but if they chose not to, they must use the brake attached to the stroller. If a stroller is larger than the guideline dimensions, drivers have the right to decline access if they believe it could make it difficult for other passengers to enter or exit the bus or pose a safety risk.
“We’re trying to ensure the ease of travel for all people,” says Patterson. “If the bus is full, the bus is full.”
Ehsan says the driver did not give him a valid reason to insist the stroller be folded. He says there were no more than twenty people on the bus, and plenty of room in the courtesy seating area.
“He didn’t give me a reason. To me, the bus was empty and I should have been able to take the bus,” he says. “(The Human Rights Commission) should be able to tell whether these kinds of incidents are allowed.”
Dave Ervin, a human rights officer, could not comment on Ehsan’s case, which is ongoing. Ervin says public transit issues in general depend on the element of safety.
“It depends how the stroller was at odds,” he says. “If it constituted a safety issue, (denying access) may be valid. If there appears to be no valid reason, it may impose upon family status.”
For Ehsan, the main reason for his human rights complaint is to change the guidelines for the benefit of all parents. “We have to understand each other’s limitations,” he says. “People have been going through or facing incidents like this and nobody is taking a stand, and that’s why I’m taking the stand.”
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