Pushing back not enough

Tym has a great article on what to do when people try to push their way into MRT while you are trying to get out: http://www.toomanythoughts.org/blog/2005/12/push-back.html

Here are some meaningful comments I extracted from her post:

leah said...

on a related note, i was on a public bus that day, standing, and a very pregnant woman came on, and nobody offered her a seat (which is startling, seeing this is america, not "i will mysteriously fall prey to narcolepsy in the presence of pregnant/old/handicapped commuters" Singapore) and the bus driver got so pissed off he just pulled up in the middle of nowhere, and yelled, 'WE'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL SOMEONE OFFERS THAT LADY THERE A SEAT, OK?'(and somebody did, duh) How cool is that? we should get our drivers to do that too =)

Darkharf said...

In Japan (any part of Japan especially Tokyo and Osaka), if a person charge into a train, or simply stand in the way of others, that person will be stared at by other commuters like he/she is an alien. And so are those who invaded the right side of the escalator, obasans will scold the person for blocking people's way.

mimosa said...

been to taipei and tried their train (jie yun) system in taipei city. and i'm surprised that even their govt is screwed up, their people do have better train habits than we (whom declared us o' so civilised and above all) do.

the communters over there do queue for the train, one line per cabin door, even though it's the peak hours and the queue snakes like hell! they wait for their turn to board the train after the exiting pple come out, even though it means that they'll have to miss this train as the train gets full. anyone who cuts queue gets the EVIL GLARE and those with more guts will actually stand out to give u a lashing in the open. same wise goes for the escalator. all of them file neatly along the right side of the escalators, leaving the left an empty lane for those in rush.

In my recent trip to Korea, I noticed that commuters would choose to stand even when the reserved seats are empty and there are no elderly, pregnant lady or disabled in sight. My Korean friend freaked out when one of my friends sat at one of those empty seats. “The grandpas and grandmas will scream at you!” he gasped. How cool I thought. ;p Hard to imagine that happening in Singapore. Maybe we should do more than just "pushing" back for ourselves (though this is already a big step for many of us), maybe we should do more, like the super cool US bus driver in leah's comment, the Taiwanese and Japanese commuters and obasans in mimosa and Darkharf's comment. Maybe we should take one more step ahead to teach that inconsiderate bunch a lesson, i.e. by embarrassing them in public. I once saw a pregnant lady standing right in front of this whole row of school boys (not more than 15 years of age) in the MRT. All of them treat her as if she was invisible. I had a hard time believing what I saw. It is very sad, NONE of the five or six boys moved. These are the future of Singapore. I wanted to walk over and make them gave up their seats. However, I took too long pondering about what I should say. The next thing I know, the boys alighted. A swarm of commuters rushed in to fill up the newly emptied seats. Luckily, the pregnant lady had managed to grab one for herself.

I am ashamed. What if the lady hurt herself before finding that seat? Should others like me not feel responsible to look out for people like her?

Sometimes I thought maybe I should grab a seat just so I could give it up for the needy someone who boards at the next stop or something. You know, like "choup" for them in advance with my butt. It's a lot easier than asking someone else to give up his or her seat. From the references to Japan, Taiwan and Korea, it seems like social pressure kind of plays a part in maintaining the graciousness of the society. Maybe we should all learn from them and make sure those selfish, inconsiderate people are forced to show respect and consideration to others. In her reply to the comments, Tym puts a note to herself to “cultivate that modicum of initiative and courtesy.” I hope I can finally put my thoughts into action.