A backside spread over six seats

Must get on first

Being a commuter, one is sometimes amused by the attitudes
one encounters when it comes to public transport.

The first thing that hits you especially if you are English is the fact that the Dutch do not queue, probably, some sort of divine
crowd control ensures that everyone gets on without a fuss.

The level of individuality to the exclusion of others is
amazing in the fact that people hardly ever take notice of others when they
walk up and bunch up at the entry points to vehicles and carriages.

Any space between a commuter and the entrance can so easily
be taken up by someone who almost aggressive saunters by and inserts themselves
in that gap.

This then creates another little problem; when a train
arrives, it would seemingly be sensible to allow passengers to disembark before
trying to get on.

However, because of the bunching up at the entry points,
passengers literally have to fight their way off the train and the waiting
crowd is struggling to gain the advantage of getting on first.

Walking with a cane then provides an easy way of getting off
through the inadvertent but sudden collision of people with the cane; space
does materialize for one to disembark with ones dignity intact. Bliss!

Chivalry in Dutch is indifference

Having gotten on any means of transport, it is interesting
to see how 2-seater arrangements are fully occupied by one person without
consideration of others. This happens on the trains, in the buses, on the trams
and the metro transport services.

At one time the traffic police used to pull people off the
metro who seemed to occupy more than their fair share of the seats; the
legality of which one is a bit suspect of.

The most nuisances are either bags or feet on unoccupied
spaces which only get offered after an aggressive challenge rather than a friendly
entreaty. Somehow, the occupants have a way of being complete oblivious the
fact that the vehicle is filling up or some elderly or incapacitated person, if
not heavily pregnant woman might need the seat.

So much flesh exposed in an unseemly need to be attractive
but without the commensurate work to display the attractive. In some cases,
there is some much blubber exposed; the Michelin
man of the Michelin [1] tyre adverts would look like a skinny stick insect.

Occupy for myself only

However, the best example of space abuse is found on the
trains. The first class sections of the certain trains have compartments of
6-seats with a door. The rush to get on at that section is to be the first to
occupy the compartment.

The first to occupy the compartment immediately closes the
door and places as many of their effects on the seats such that it appears full
of, well, one person.

In one instance, it was a like an obstacle course in a
military camp to get one seat in the compartment because, the bag, computer
carrying case, over-coat, jacket and files had taken up every space.

One would just be immediately discouraged from trying to
gain entry, but when other places are filled up in the limited 1^st Class
common area, then those compartments come into contention regardless of the
occupant.

At least, a greeting gets exchanged at entry and nothing
more, which is a lot different from International train travel where usually
other foreigners are more engaging and chatty.

Speaking up for slience

Some 1^st Class common areas have a finger to the
lips sign indicating a Silent area [2] and a red stroke through a mobile phone
sign [3], signifying what it means. No mobile phones, no matter how quietly you
want to talk.

Any decent mobile phone has a silent facility with the
option to vibrate when called. Rarely, does that get activated. We can live
with that.

However, one evening, they all got on and before the train
doors closed, 4 people were on their mobile phones.

“Excuse me please, we cannot have all of you on the phone,
this is a no mobile zone”, I remonstrated.

Peace!

References

[1] Michelin man

http://www.brandchannel.com/images/FeaturesProfile/212_profile_img1_michelin.gif

[2] Silence sign

http://www.designofsignage.com/application/symbol/hospital/image/600x600/keep-silence.jpg

[3] No Mobile Phone Signs - Seton Australia:

http://www.seton.net.au/templates/signs_mobile.cfm

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