Even monsters know that some seats on buses and trains are reserved for seniors and the disabled

by ,
ARVE Error: need id and provider

Fun video from San Francisco Muni and their Multimodal Accessibility Advisory Committee on the need for people to surrender their seats on buses and trains for senior and disabled riders.

Categories: Best Practices

Tagged as: , , ,

2 replies ›

  1. Although many passengers on MTA buses will give up their seats to the disabled and elderly I have observed one group who just act as if they don’t know what your talking about when you point out the problem. I know of one former RTD/MTA bus operator that would demand the seats be vacated before the bus would continue. Peer pressure always works.

  2. Clever. And I note that around time index 2:30 to 2:40, it shows a Clipper Card reader, the Bay Area’s equivalent to our TAP.

    Some years ago, I was temporarily disabled (I twisted my ankle, on what was only my second morning in SF that trip, and was walking with a brace and a cane) People readily gave up their seats for me, without being asked (and in one case, on a very crowded bus, when they didn’t give me a seat, a MUNI employee who was riding along read them the riot act, and got me a seat).

    And back home, last weekend, I was on the Red Line, and noticed that a couple of young women in their teens or twenties, seated in the “reserved for elderly and disabled” area had failed to even notice a very tired-looking elderly couple, carrying baggage, who didn’t have seats. After about a minute, I got up and butted in, with something to the effect of “I don’t want to be rude, but don’t you think that maybe they need those seats more than you do?”

    It took a moment, but they eventually realized what I was getting at (and one pointed out the sign to the other), and they got up. While this was happening, my own seat went to somebody else who clearly needed it more than I did (and looked to be a bit older than my own 51 years), and so the three of us stood for the rest of the trip. (I made no effort whatsoever to reclaim my own seat [or any other]; as I said, the person who took it clearly needed it more than I did, and I can hardly ask somebody else to do something I wouldn’t do myself.)