I swear I suddenly want to let my city be identified as a semi-rural backwater, which I would normally protest, just so they can then have it be pointed out to them that Perth, Australia, nearest other major city 1325 miles away, this shit is way past being even a problem worth thinking about. I've spent a lot of time on buses, and I've seen a lot of people in wheelchairs get aboard, and they don't need a caregiver with them, or to argue with the driver. The way it works is, the person in the wheelchair is at the bus stop, the bus stops, the driver extends the ramp, the disabled person rolls in, parks in the wheelchair parking area at the front of the bus, and the closest you can get to drama is if someone is inattentive and occupying the parking area, because it has seats that flip down if the area is not in use by disabled persons.

Not only is it standing policy, with signs (which also tell people to leave the seats flipped up, but no-one does, but if someone in a wheelchair turns up people flip the seats up immediately or the driver does it if there's no passengers around), that if a disabled person turns up they get the area, on the one occasion I saw someone being an ass about it, the driver told them that if they didn't give up their seat, they would be getting off the bus or he would be calling the police.

I feel like every city with pretensions to being a notable metropolis, which Perth doesn't really have at all, should be ashamed of itself when it can't match Perth for basic standards of civic amenities.