Remember singing to the catchy tune “Train is coming! Train is coming! You may start queueing~” by The Dimsum Dollies in 2010? This time, the Gracious on Public Transport campaign is back to remind us not to be unpleasant commuters to one another!
Since we are confined to such a small space in the duration of our travel, we are all ‘in the same boat’, so why irritate each other with talking loudly (it’s not the market), blasting your music (ever heard of earphones), or blocking others’ entry (so that you can have more space is it, grr)?? And the number 1 ultimate crime: not giving up your seat to those in need even though you’ve spied them from the corner of your eye the moment they stepped into the train.
The campaign this year aims to cultivate travelers’ graciousness through poetry, reflections and calligraphy submitted by fellow commuters of different ages, but they are all advocating the same thing; kindness on public transport.
I first saw the posters at Bishan’s circle line station (I take the train quite often), and this was the very first poster I saw that caught my eye.
I was attracted by the Chinese calligraphy and after reading the words, I realized that I was standing right in front of the door in order to read the poster! So I immediately stood to the side of the doors. I guess such reminders are indeed needed, especially when commuters are all tired and occupied with hundred and a million things on their minds, we tend to not take notice of such minute details. Whether we are blocking others’ exit/entry, or whether the next person boarding the train needs the seat more than we do.
I then checked out more posters at ‘We Keep Your World Moving’s FB page and here is my favourite!
I find this super relevant because every time I gave up my seat to someone else, I would feel embarrassed/shy as though I’d done something wrong!! This is because the person would thank me profusely, and the rest of the seated commuters would stare at the commotion (and suddenly I’m promoted to a small heroine. Okay that’s being overly dramatic). And perhaps growing up in an Asian society, taking credit for something isn’t really part of our nature, even for something as trivial as this. So this poster struck a cord with me. It also has a catchy rhyme! :D “DON’T BE SHY, GIVE IT A TRY!”
Check out the entire collection of posters here.
And also join the “Make It Right For A Better Ride” Twitter contest and stand to win a pair of movie tickets! More details on http://on.fb.me/betterride.
