Saturday, November 22, 2008

Priority Seating

There is a sign in the MRT train that reads:

Be considerate.
Give up this seat to a
passenger with special needs.

I wish to send this message to the operator of the
MRT trains:

Be considerate.
Run more trains, so that more
passengers have the chance to have a
seat.

It is difficult to expect a passenger to give up a seat if it is available only once in a long, long time.

5 comments:

  1. We should paint those priority seats in different colours, maybe with some patterns (ie, Hearts)?

    As a first step to remind commuters to be more gracious and considerate, there should be an announcement (PA system) on the trains to encourage commuters to give up their seats to those that need them more (elderly, pregnant woman etc)? (i do heard these announcement when i travelled overseas (Taiwan) and use their public transport)

    ReplyDelete
  2. 应该有四种官方语文:英文,华文,马来文和淡米尔文.

    这是爱心座位:关怀别人,请让位给老人家,孕妇和体弱者.

    There should be 4 official lauaguages and not only English to remind commuters to give up their seat to elderly, pregnant women.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When I was in Taiwan, I observed that the passengers were very orderly (queueing, non-hogging the escalator, giving up seats, etc)

    I also observed that the security guards or crowd controllers on the platform were very assertive and instructing the passengers to be orderly, etc. They were firm but polite.

    I think that over the years, the Taiwanese passengers got used to this and automatically queue up when boarding the train or standing one side on the escalator.

    Maybe we need this in singapore too.

    We need to stand up and tell disobedient passengers to cooperate.

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  4. your last sentence is very true ... if u only got to sit once in a long while, u would be very reluctant to give up your precious seat.

    anyway all this discussion abt public transport boils down to one thing - singapore is overcrowded, and the infrastructure cannot cope.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Even if a seat is hard to get, I do not understand the mentality of perfectly-abled teenagers snatching or keeping the seats right under the noses of the elderly, the obviously pregnant and those with walking difficulties. I've seen this happen too many times. So what if a seat is rare? If it is rare for you, then it is just as rare (or more) and even more precious to other people with physical challenges. This is a disgusting excuse for anyone to use. By all means, more must be done to improve train frequency but also to shame and discourage this selfish behavior.

    ReplyDelete

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