The rules of the road for bus riders are well-established, if often unofficial: Don't take up more than one seat when it's crowded, don't sleepily drool on your neighbor's shoulder, keep cell phone yakking to a minimum and, perhaps most importantly, give up your seat for those who need it more than you do.

It's this last one that's routinely broken -- with the tacit approval of bus drivers -- on Metro Transit's bus service, contends longtime bus rider Robert Watson.

The city bus service has long had a policy requiring passengers with strollers to fold them up and carry their children.

But Watson said he's never seen a driver enforce it. Instead, he said they often allow strollers to take up areas at the front of the buses set aside for the disabled and senior citizens.

"What I'm seeing is a disenfranchisement of certain people with a handicap," said Watson, 48, who has been riding the bus regularly for about 10 years.

He said the only exception is for riders who use wheelchairs. Drivers will find a spot for them even if it means asking someone else to move.

Watson's interest in the matter isn't selfish. He doesn't have a disability or friends or relatives who might regularly need to use the handicap spots. He said he only became attuned to the issue this year when he saw a bus driver do nothing after a blind man boarded the bus to find both rows of seats for the handicapped taken up by strollers.

"I felt really bad for several of the people that I've seen," Watson said, adding he wants "people to do the right thing."

In an effort to clarify what drivers are supposed to do about stroller-toting passengers, Watson said he's spoken with or tried to speak with drivers themselves, Metro management, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, Ald. Tim Bruer, state Rep. Mark Pocan and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin.

The answers he's gotten -- to the extent that he's gotten answers -- have varied. But the consensus seems to be that drivers don't have the authority to force passengers to fold up their strollers.

That's kind of true. Under the bus line's internal policy, drivers can ask a passenger to leave the bus if he or she won't fold up a stroller, Metro spokesman Mick Rusch said, but there is no local city ordinance to back that up.

Ejection also isn't the recommended first option, he said. "We're not looking to create that kind of atmosphere with this policy."

Roger W., a Metro driver who declined to give his full last name, said most people, if asked, are good about moving a stroller from the area for the handicapped. But, if they don't, Metro transit supervisor Tim Groves said, "we don't want to hold up the whole trip just for an issue like that."

It's clear that Watson isn't the only one who thinks Metro needs to get a handle on its stroller policy.

Rusch said the bus service has been fielding an increasing number of complaints from parents who don't like being told to pick up Junior and fold up the strollers -- which these days are often the size of a small car.

Metro officials are now reviewing the policy, he said.

Watson said he understands Metro's reluctance not to force parents to fold their strollers, especially if the bus isn't crowded. And he has some sympathy for parents dealing with the hassle of taking a young child on the bus.

Nonetheless, "they have a policy they don't enforce," he said, to the detriment, oftentimes, of the people who rely on the policy the most.

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