A letter to the editor: Priority Seats
Dear Editor,
The existence of priority seats on public transport is being queried by some due to the conflicts it has caused. This debate of whether the priority seats should be removed entirely has become a hot topic lately. I personally think that priority seats should be removed. The fact is that priority seats have been deflected away from the original aim of helping those in need. Rather than helping, priority seats are not only depriving those who are in need but also harming the harmony of the society.
First of all, priority seats do not contribute to helping those who are in need at all. The original idea of priority seats is simple. They give pregnant women, the elderly, and other people with disabilities or those with children the privilege of being seated. I believe that everyone agrees and can relate to this concept. However, the problem is while these people make up the majority of those in need of a seat, other minorities who need a seat as much as they do are often left standing. This is because these “minorities” are not one of the four categories of “official priority seats users”.
Another reason that the priority seats should be abolished is that this practice makes our society more hostile. The idea of helping those in need is nice, but as aforementioned, our society is convinced that only the “official priority seat users” have the right to use the priority seats. People will accuse anyone other than those four categories as being uncaring. Some think such unlisted “minorities” who occupy the “priority seats” are a disgrace to our society. Yet, the truth is many others are in need although they don’t fall into the four “official” categories. They could be youngsters who are feeling unwell, or tired employees who are crawling their way home. Nobody ever considers them to be in need. This simply is a matter of perception. This has generated a lot of conflicts, leading to controversies and ultimately bringing harms to the harmonious environment of our society.
Some might consider having priority seats is a good thing. This practice however has not always been necessary. This is because once the public notice that a certain person is in obvious need for a seat, they would offer it to him or her. Most of the time, people would offer their seats to the needy even before they could reach the priority seats. This further proves that the priority seats are unnecessary and should be abolished.
In short, to restore the harmony of society and the initiative to yield seats to those in need, we should remove the artificial practice about “priority seats” as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully
Chris Wong