SINGAPORE: A Singaporean woman who’s currently “8 months pregnant with an obvious bump” took to social media to call out MRT commuters for ignoring priority seating etiquette.
“I realized that people in MRT don’t care (about priority seating) because I’m still pushed and squeezed around. I’m not that entitled to demand a seat during peak hours, though my journey usually takes 15 stops, and I just stand throughout. But I have encountered a few instances that felt unfair,” she wrote on r/askSingapore, a Reddit forum, on Friday (March 28).
She then recalled one off-peak incident that left her vexed. She was sitting in a regular seat while a young man occupied the priority seat, fully engrossed in his phone. When an elderly woman with a hunched back boarded the train, the young man didn’t move. Instead, the elderly woman turned to her and asked if she could give up her seat.
“So I did. She was embarrassed when she saw me stand up with a bump, but I told her to just sit la,” the woman wrote. She also shared that when she does sit in a priority seat, other pregnant women or elderly passengers sometimes ask her to give it up.
“When I stood up with the bump, they were paiseh and asked me to sit back down, while the opposite row had a mid-30s guy just sitting there watching a movie on his phone,” she continued.
In an edit to her post, she clarified that her concern is not about not getting a seat herself but rather about people in priority seats refusing to give them up when someone clearly needs them.
“The point is people at the priority seats don’t give up seats to people who need and ASKED for it (like elderlies and other pregnant ladies) or just act like they didn’t see them, resulting in them asking from someone who is seating at a normal seat?
Are you/they so oblivious not to see, especially if you are sitting at the priority seat? Do people care about MRT priority seats?” she asked.
“No shame in asking for it…”
In the discussion thread, many Singaporean Redditors advised the pregnant woman to speak up and ask for a seat next time instead of expecting others to automatically offer one.
One Redditor admitted that he sometimes doesn’t give up his seat because he can’t always tell if a woman is pregnant or just plump. “I don’t need someone to scream at me if I get it wrong,” he said.
Another wrote, “To be blunt with you… people are tired and in their own world and just want to relax so they don’t care. I really can’t fault them for it.”
A third added, “I mean, you can ask for it? There is no shame in asking for it. No one is going to look at you and think, “She has 15 stops to go.” Also, why is it more tiring to sit at a reserved seat nowadays when you constantly have to keep a lookout for elderly and pregnant women?”
On the other hand, some commenters completely understood why the woman was frustrated.
One shared, “I get this all the time. Sprained ankle, fractured toe, injured knee. Huge bandage, walking stick, struggling to stand. Nobody bothers; they stare at you or even get mad at you when you hold a pole, and they bump into you.”
Another commented, “I’m sorry (and shocked) that people here are missing the point and choosing to attack you instead. In my opinion, healthy people who consciously decide to sit on priority seats should have the social grace and awareness to be the first to give up their seats whenever someone more in need of the seat enters the carriage. To me, that’s the point of having priority seats.”
In related news, an online user took to a forum asking if elderly passengers are automatically entitled to public transportation seats.
“So today, I was on the train when I saw this uncle (probably in his early 60s) boarding the train at Queenstown station,” the online user shared in a public forum on Wednesday (March 13). “The moment he entered the train, he went towards a young lady and started to shout at her to get out of her seat and let him have it.”
Read more: Priority seating: Are elderly passengers automatically entitled to public transportation seats?
Featured image by Depositphotos (for illustration purposes only)