To stand or not to stand, that is the question
It's not easy to keep your balance on a trolley bus if you are wearing vertiginous high heels or are weighed down with shopping. It can feel like surfing rather than just riding the bus. But spare a thought for those whose seatlessness is more than just an inconvenience. In recent months, this Wellingtonista has noticed her protruding baby bump doesn't get her a coveted seat on a packed peak hour bus. I can be standing with my bump right in some civil servant's face and he won't budge. And just this morning, I watched embarrassed at myself and my fellow Wellingtonians, as a woman with Parkinson's struggled to hang onto a pole as our bus swept down Brooklyn Hill packed to the gunnels with people looking the other way. Have Wellingtonians lost their benevolence for their fellow man - all for the price of a seat on the bus? Surely the people of my beloved city are better than that? Surely?
I would hope that I'd give up my seat to all of those people. However I tend to get on mostly empty buses (#5 from Hatatai, or from the railway station) so I sit in the very back seat usually, so my legs don't get completely squished, and people who need seats very rarely get near me.
Funny, I had a similar experience on a Brooklyn bus this morning. I was in the last seat before the rear door, so about halfway back. A blind or partially-blind man with a cane got on the bus, and no-one before me budged. I thought it quite odd. When I stood for him, a few others were in the process of standing too, so I'm not pretending I'm a saint, but still...
Total bullshit! I hate it when people don't give pregnant woman seats. I have been known to stare VERY pointedly at people I think should be getting up for someone else. In Japan people try to pretend to be asleep but they can still feel your gaze if you if you combine it with a bit throat clearing.
AHEM!
I too am prone to jumping up and surrendering my seat for people, but I hate how often I have to stand in the aisle these days as they pack us in like sardines and yell 'MOVE DOWN'... I'm all 'BUT I PAID $2.50 TO BE HERE'! On the bright side though, Wellington schoolkids are pretty fantastic at giving their seats up to anyone 'grown up' without prompting, makes a nice change from Auckland teen travellers.
[PS: Kimberley I think that book of mine you liked the look of was Black Hole by Charles Burns...]
>Wellington schoolkids are pretty fantastic at giving their seats up to anyone 'grown up' without prompting, makes a nice change from Auckland teen travellers.
There are a trillion signs on buses that tell them to do so. It makes me laugh a little bit on the trolley buses in the morning when the skinny young Wellington East Girls have to stand up, but the fatty bum adults won't sit down cos they don't want to crowd the seats.
Um - I clicked the 'Vote Now" button and ended up on some polling site - was that what was expected, coz it wasn't for me.
I'd stand for all if they asked, I'd volunteer my seat for 2,3,4 and 7
yes, we're experiencing technical difficulties.
normal service will resume shortly...
apply paddington bear stare HARD at people who should be giving up their seat! its total bullshit not to give up yr seat
We still lived in Brisvegas when my wife was pregnant, and it wasn't much better over there. There were a few times where the drivers refused to leave the bus stop until someone stood up for her.
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