By: Jennifer McDonald
I use Toronto’s transit system at least four times daily. I use it in the Spring, I use it in the Summer, I use it in the Winter, and I use it in the Fall. I ride the rocket during rush hour and I ride it during slow periods. I pay the appropriate fare each time I enter the station and I always wait my turn to get onto the bus, regardless of whether someone cuts in line. Sometimes I even love taking public transit. The people-watching, the humour after midnight on a Saturday night – it’s almost as if life is taken right out of the beginning of a romantic comedy.
But when I am standing up, hanging on for dear life on a crowded bus or subway and I see an elderly man or woman come on and not be offered a seat – oh boy, I go off the deep end quickly.
It isn’t just the elderly who should be offered seats: pregnant women, those with disabilities, and women with small children, should be first in line to take a load off. It’s just plain respectful and considerate. One could argue that this is being old-fashioned and potentially even sexist. I disagree, but perhaps I’m part of the minority at York University who think this way. It certainly seems to be the case judging by the number of times I’ve seen students and able-bodied adults avoid eye contact and play ignorant.
Shooting dirty looks at the passengers in the elderly person’s range does nothing. Clearing my throat to get their attention does nothing (partially because they’re plugged in and pretending to be unaware that a swinging body is in front of them). The only thing that does work is confronting the passengers by asking, “Is anyone going to offer this person a seat?” This will usually garner feelings of embarrassment and someone will move – or the passengers will continue to ignore everything around them. It’s times like those that I wish I was sitting down just so I could offer my seat.
Courtesy and thoughtfulness are starting to become obsolete in Toronto (and perhaps in Quebec where it has never existed), and while it would be easier to classify everyone on the TTC who doesn’t give up his or her seat as rude, I don’t think it is as simple as a one-word description. Or maybe the rest of Canada is right when they say Torontonians are rude.
Does the problem stem from today’s youth or is this a societal hindrance on the whole? Perhaps it’s just easier to blame young adults. Nevertheless, it’s every man or woman for themselves and no person who needs assistance is going to get it without desperately asking for it. Imagine having to stand up for a whole twenty-five minutes on the bus or subway like a peasant. How ridiculous. Even worse, having a pregnant woman accidentally bump against your shoulder. The nerve! She should learn to watch where she’s swaying.
There are the select few who will go out of their way to help or to offer a seat. It brings a smile to my face every time this happens; there’s still hope. For the most part, though, the zombies who go to York and who travel through the depths of the TTC’s Middle Earth, would prefer to sit. To them it’s a first-come-first-serve society.
If a person is able-bodied and capable, there is no reason he or she should not give up their seat to someone in need. Backpack is heavy and you don’t want to carry it? Stand up and put it on the floor in front of you (like you’re supposed to do to begin with). Just ran a marathon? You shouldn’t be letting your muscles cool down or else they will cramp. Up you go! Tired because you have had a long day of thinking, surfing the internet during lectures and talking on your iPhone? You poor thing! In this case, please take a seat and relax. You’re exempted from any nice deed.
