Petition to allow open strollers on New York City MTA buses

Jim Dolan Image
Friday, October 27, 2017
Parents banning together to change stroller rules on buses
Jim Dolan reports on stroller struggles on a bus for many parents and caretakers.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Have you ever tried to juggle a baby, while folding up a stroller, then climbing on a city bus?

Parents and caregivers will tell you, it's not easy.

But New York City doesn't allow open strollers on buses.

Now parents are banding together to change the rules, they say for good reasons.

"I got to get it up," said Denise, a caregiver.

Denise had already missed one bus, but just couldn't get the stroller closed, and really, we weren't much help.

"Is it harder taking the bus?" Eyewitness News Reporter Jim Dolan asked.

"Yeah it is, we have to take the stroller and go up the road and he can't do all the walking," Denise said.

Eventually, Denise figured it out, but why exactly should she have to?

"The problem is New York City buses they don't allow strollers as they are on the buses, you have to fold them, and I don't even need to describe how uncomfortable as that is," said Eran Livne, started petition.

Eran Livne is the dad of a young child and he's gone as far as to start a petition to get the MTA to consider allowing open strollers on buses. He says it would be safer.

"If the child was sitting in the stroller buckled in, locked, because you can lock a stroller, you can hold the stroller and I think that's safe for the child and safe for the passengers," Livne said.

One woman who signed the petition wrote, "As the mother of a 16-month-old, being able to use the bus with an open stroller would be so life changing for us, especially with the colder months ahead."

Another wrote, "Not allowing parents onto buses with open strollers is hostile to those of us just trying to get around safely with our children."

By the way, Denise got the stroller folded, but after waiting 20 minutes for a bus that didn't come, she and the kids got in a taxi.