Public Transport: Aisle Seat Etiquette

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

The rules then were you gave up your seat for the oldies and pregnant women.

In the words of Jimmy Carr Better a pregnant women standing that a fat woman sat crying.

[Chie]

When I get on a bus I just scan it for the fittest bloke and go and sit on his knee.

[Sput]

At your age I imagine that also happens when you see a man dressed as santa.

[Gavin Scott]

As an aside to the etiquette issue - there's a handsome lad at the bus stop in the morning on the way to work, and another at the bus stop on the way back. Been in this job for a few months now, and have been making eye contact with both. Its a lovely way to top and tail the day - and I'm building up to asking one or the other for a drink.

Not both - of course.

[Sput]

I have forgotten most of the content of this thread and am lazy, but has anyone suggested sitting in the aisle until all other seats have at least one person on them and THEN moving to the window?

[cdd]

You mean waiting until all the seats are half-taken, then leaping from my perfectly good (and enviable) double seat to sit down in the aisle next to someone else?

It is a great, practical idea, and one I had considered; but I wonder if that might give the wrong impression just a leetle bit.

[Sput]

No no, i mean just shifting over to the window seat you were blocking.

[Gavin Scott]

You mean waiting until all the seats are half-taken, then leaping from my perfectly good (and enviable) double seat to sit down in the aisle next to someone else?

It is a great, practical idea, and one I had considered; but I wonder if that might give the wrong impression just a leetle bit.

You can't be overly concerned about giving the "wrong impression".

If you were to sit in an aisle seat, blocking easy access to an empty window seat, anyone (myself included) getting on board would assume you were selfishly keeping both seats for yourself. Intentional or not, that's the impression it would give. You must realise this, or you wouldn't have put it to the metropanel to validate your actions.

I had a lady on the bus recently harrumphing because I made for a seat she'd laid her handbag on. She had to snatch it away as a sat down without so much as a "by your leave". Selfish cow.

[jjames]

You mean you people don't drive or have a driver? The only public transport i take has a captain at the helm. Ahoy there, me ole shipmate!
I haven't been a bus or train since i was 19. The rules then were you gave up your seat for the oldies and pregnant women. And discarded your gum under the seat.

Quite right. I don't use public transport any more unless I really have to. The seats are far too small (I am 6'2" and my legs often do not physically fit without causing significant discomfort), you get people such as those mentioned on here and generally I despise waiting around for trains, the smell, having to talk to people about the cost of taxis in Wigan etc etc.

Give me a car any day of the week. (I must point out that living in the rural North East, car ownership is pretty much mandatory in any case, so why not just go the whole way by car rather than driving 10 miles in the *wrong direction* to catch a train that might be late, when I can drive an extra 10 miles and be at the door of my destination?).

[Pete]

i could probably get away without a car in dundee however its just so much easier to own one. Despite tesco in theory only being about 500yrds away you have to cross the railway bridge and walk along a dark and unpleasant road to get to it. Taxis are expensive and despite the city's over the top "smartbus" system it hasn't done anything aobut he fact ehy're expensive and Travel Dundee have an annoying exact change rule (how they are still more expensive than Strathtay (stagecoach) when they have the added expense of a conductor is beyond me. This might be why the Strathtay ones tend to be on time more, even though the buses aren't as nice.

It's also useful for getting around to Edinburgh and other such places. The trains are a nightmare as Dundee is oddly on a branch line and megabuses are just ghastly, and saying that, if there are three of you, its cheaper to drive.

[ashley b]

Quite right. I don't use public transport any more unless I really have to. The seats are far too small (I am 6'2" and my legs often do not physically fit without causing significant discomfort).

Imagine how I feel at 6'6". I generally find newer busses do have a bit more leg room than the older gereneration, (though I note in London they don't seem to have any busses older than about 10 years), but even then there's not enough room.

In Manchester I gereally travel by Tram, which convieniently have single seats on the rotatey bits in the middle, which have oodles of legroom, so gereally head for these as it solves many of the problems. You don't have to sit next to anyone, it's an aisle seat, loads of legroom etc.