Due to a recent injury, I’ve been hobbling around with crutches and/or a cane. This injury has required me to sit down on the bus and people have been very accomodating and kind, offering their seats without a second glance. I was feeling all warm and fuzzy until last week, when no one on the bus got up to give an elderly woman with a cane their seat. Since I’m aware, I got up (cane and all) to let this woman sit down. All around me, young and able bodied passengers sat, completely oblivious. Seriously, Halifax? I hobbled to the back of the bus, holding on tight to the bars on the bus in order to stop from falling. Open your eyes people and have some common sense, decency and put others first.
—Canderella
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2009.
I am not surprised I see this happen all the time!!!
(as i stand on the bus)
The Hammer would have given a seat up for you. :)OP, you just need to be a little more vocal in situations like these and people will move. Ask an able-bodied passenger if they’d mind standing instead of you, and in most cases they’ll haul ass. I know you shouldn’t have to speak up, but some people just don’t follow without a little push first.
The only ones who should be expected to vacate their seat would be people in the first couple rows, in the sections meant for movement impaired riders. Don’t hate on the people who sit near the back of the bus all the time for not giving up their seat. Did she ask anyone for a seat? I’m sure if she mentioned it to the driver he/she would have helped move people as well. It’s not very often you will find a bus where no one will move, but it happens.
Wow, that sucks OP 🙁 Maybe the other riders didn’t want to make you feel like an old fogey since you’re young? In any case, it would have been nice if someone had moved for you, even if they don’t “have to”, common courtesy dictates such.
Martyr’s who don’t bother to open their mouths before making some “grand sacrifice for the sake of others” piss me off. Do the old lady and others like you everywhere some good by speaking up BEFORE you give up your chair. Looking pathetic in Halifax gets you nowhere in soliciting empathy, courtesy or even kindness. Just ask a squeegee kid… if you can find one.
If I were the OP (without a penchant for playing the oh-so-poor martyr) I would have asked the driver to remember that “other part” of his job description and accommodate the feeble woman (… and snap it up before I “accidentally” break my cane on your shin bone.)
Maybe legislating kindness would do the trick better than bitching. I dunno
The only thing that threw off my sympathy, momentarily, was the amusing notion that a seemingly tender elderly woman would post a bitch on thecoast.ca! *Giggle!* OP, I wholeheartedly feel for you…people are moodswingy and it’s tough to trust that everyone is going to look out for you. I think your number one priority is to look out for yourself while respecting others, but in regards to your condition, seize any possible outreach of kindness that’s made available to you.
OP, you should have opened your mouth and said something, the martyr syndrome only goes so far.
Kay, it is not in the bus drivers job description to accommodate passengers by providing seats. A passenger pays 2 dollars to board the bus to get from point A to point B, they do not pay for a seat. That being said, as a driver I always ask people to vacate the courtesy seats when a person with mobility issues requires one because I’m not an arse. If passengers choose not to move it is not my responsibility to force them out.