Priority Seats

張貼日期：Dec 08, 2018 5:33:24 AM

Priority Seats

Amy Tseng

     Priority seats are designed for those in need in public transportations to allow them to ride the public transport comfortably. They can be found on various public transportations, such as the train, buses and the M.R.T. They are marked another color from that of normal seats. Priority seats areoriginally aimed to set up for helping people in need to have a seat on transportation; however, they also cause some issues.

     There are several advantages of priority seats. First, priority seats offer seats to people in need. In Asia, it is hard to ask others who have seats to yield theirs to another. Second, priority seats are usually set up near the doors. Therefore, priority seats can help people in need to get a seat immediately, and they don't have to spend much time looking for a seat.

     However, the sign of priority seats causes several issues. There are elderly people, pregnant women, the infirm and baby-holding passengers on it. It makes people have a stereotype that these seats are just for those people. It seems that other people are not allowed to sit on them. It is not true. For example, a woman about two or three months pregnant does not look much different from other women. She may need the seat, but no one knows. Another issue is that although the transportation is so crowded that there is very little elbow room, people tend to stand instead of taking the priority seat. Therefore, some people propose that priority seats should be abolished.

Now, people began to notice this problem and they found that abolishing priority seats can't solve these problems and they figure out some ways to deal with the bias and problems of priority seats. The first thing we should do is to ease off the sick thought. If people still hold this thought and reserve the seats for vulnerable groups, it will cause more serious problem in the future. Thus, the government starts to promote that priority seats are for people in need instead of for certain people. For example, the government post posters on transportation. The poster shows a man sitting on the priority seat and holding his belly and the caption is “Maybe he has the need, but you just can't see it.”

     When I was in senior high school, a teacher asked us what the priority seat meant. We all said that it has a different color from that of other chairs and the teacher said no. He said that every chair is a priority seat. No one can ask you to yield your seat, even though he is the president of the R.O.C. If you yield your seat, it means that you have virtue and empathy. Additionally, priority seats are not designated for certain people. There is no regulation about who can sit on them. We should never judge anyone who sits on it. I hope that people in the world can have these correct concepts about priority seats.