The moment the train doors open at the station, all the immaculately-dressed and able-bodied professionals cast all social etiquette aside, jostle their way onto it and snatch up all the available seats. An elderly lady, after bearing several shoves, finally gets onto the train. She hobbles towards the seats and realises that they are all taken up by the young and healthy pretending to be asleep.
More often than not, commuters turn a blind eye to those who need the seats more than themselves. The Prime Minister in his National Day Rally has also encouraged Singaporeans to be more courteous and to move towards a more gracious society. The above scenario is familiar to all who have taken our MRT before, and clearly does not depict the behaviour of Singaporeans as considerate, much less gracious.
In a bid to advocate mindfulness towards the elderly, the pregnant as well as the handicapped, SMRT recently assigned certain seats as priority seats. These priority seats are introduced with the well-being of the needy commuters in mind; to rise the level of awareness of their needs in society and at the same time to urge the other commuters to be more altruistic. These seats are also commonly seen on the London Underground and Japanese trains. A visiting Taiwanese friend once shared that these priority seats in
To study if such a measure is efficacious, a survey on the opinions of commuters would be appropriate. The survey would find out if commuters themselves actually fulfil the purpose of these priority seats and their general ground observations of other commuters on our MRTs, amongst other things. The survey, if conducted in an unbiased manner, would aid greatly in deducing if the newly-introduced priority seats have served their objective. Such a study would be valuable feedback to the relevant transport authorities and the Singapore Kindness Movement Council, and would surface feasible improvements to the concept of "priority seats".
5 comments:
Hi xue li,
Reading upon what you have written, I personally feel that the “Priority seats” words should change to “Pretending seats” instead. Sneaking their ways out, ignoring what is happening around them seems like a norm in this modern days.
Finding out the reasons why do people tend to take up “Priority seats” and the way people react to such situation, such as “Are they willing to give up their seats after snatching them?” Giving feedback to the relevant transport authorities and the Singapore Kindness Movement Council is important as it would surface feasible improvements to the concept of "priority seats". In return, supporting what our Prime Minister had said in his National Day Rally; encouraging Singaporeans to be more courteous and to move towards a more gracious society.
Overall I find that this research project is feasible to be carried out as the targeted audience is anyone taking the MRT services and to also bring across the concern of giving up seats to people who needs it more than you do.
-Wendy-
Hi xue li,
After reading your post, it was really disappointing to see commuters turning a blind eye to those who need the seats more than themselves.I was just wondering does this mean that other commuters seated elsewhere do not have to give up their seats. Now that we have the priority seats in trains, does it means that those commuters seated on the non-priority seats do not have to give up their seats to those who need them more.
I think the real message that the government and the relevant authority, SMRT want to send out to the public is that we should be kind and considerate to the elderly, pregnant women, etc, regardless of the colour of their seats and not turn kindness into an obligation.
As to support what our Prime Minister had said in his National Day Rally; encouraging Singaporeans to be more courteous and to move towards a more gracious society, I think this research project is feasible to be studied and surveyed provided that the survey is conducted in an unbiased manner in order to get the truthful answers from the commuters.
Cheers*~
Hey Xue Li,
Your research study on this issue is well written and comprehensive. I agree that there are ugly Singaporeans out there. It is sad to know that we have to resort to such measures to educate the Singapore population.
I think social grace should be practiced at all times and inculcated into our way of life. We should not just give up the priority seats to those in need. Instead, at any point in time, we should give up our seats to the needy be it on the train or other modes of public transport.
As your research study is about social grace, perhaps you may consider extending the survey to cover other modes of public transport, such as buses or queuing for taxis. Such findings will add depth to your research.
I can relate so much to your topic, Xue Li!
Before I elaborate, I want to say that in my opinion, these “priority seats” are not useful, at least not in the Singaporean context. I have noticed that kind people give up their seats to the people who need it more, whether or not they are seated in the “priority seats”. I think most commuters just do not differentiate the two types of seats, and if they are not going to give up their seats, being seated in a “priority seat” will not make them do so anyway.
Okay, in my context, when I was pregnant, I have not, I repeat, I have NOT encountered a single travel experience in which nobody gave up their seat for me. Even when I was just travelling from Jurong East to Bukit Batok, a man offered me his seat but I rejected since, well, it was just one stop. He did not go back to his seat after that and I assumed he either thought it should be left available to me, or that it wouldn’t be nice to sit back down when a pregnant girl was standing. I have people of all ages, race, language and religion (I got reminded of the Singapore pledge. Haha.) offering me their seats, hence, if you ask me, I’ll say that generally there are gracious Singaporeans around, and of course, the non-gracious ones, and the idea of “priority seats” is probably not going to change that.
My opinion, of course, is not everybody’s opinion, so go ahead and survey the general public about the usefulness of “priority seats”, and probably knock awake a few ungracious people around. The end result might surprise me!
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