5 hours ago
8
The suggestion that young, fit people do not offer their seats on public transport to vulnerable people for fear of offending them is nonsense (Is anything more awkward – and potentially insulting – than giving up your seat on public transport?, 7 September). I was brought up to offer my seat to any woman (of whatever disposition) or elderly person as a matter of principle. In 60 years of doing so, I have never had other than a polite demurral – more usually acceptance.
Now that the boot is on the other foot (for which I need a walking stick to maintain my balance), I find that about 30% of young people will instinctively offer me succour, which I gratefully and gracefully accept. The rest don’t seem to care.
There is nothing nuanced about it: they are either thoughtless or plain selfish. But I take great comfort in those with compassion – in time, they will prevail.
Ian MacKellar
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
I think Polly Hudson may have missed the point about Celia Imrie’s dismay about not being offered a seat for the duration of her train journey.
Last month, I boarded a very crowded train in London Euston bound for Milton Keynes with my 73-year-old Spanish friend who had fallen the previous day – we were transporting her around in a wheelchair. Her daughter looked around the packed carriage in consternation. Don’t worry, I said, I will sort it.
I looked around the carriage and chose the nearest, seemingly fittest, young man and asked him to give up his seat for my friend. “Well, it’s not a seat for the less able,” was the reply.
After a lot of huffing and puffing, he did eventually get up and went off in a huge sulk to find another seat. I proceeded to sit on the carriage floor on a plastic bag (I’m 73 years old too).
Judith Heinemann
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
I have read and heard many rationalisations for lots of different things, but this one takes the biscuit. Embarrassed? For trying to be courteous? It feels far fetched. I am old, but to get to see the operas and concerts that I love, I have to take a tram to the centre of my nearest traffic-conscious city. Trams are frequently crowded and the journey is quite long, but I need never worry, for someone will inevitably offer their seat to me within seconds. If it were otherwise, many of us older generation would be excluded from society.
Joan Lewis
St Etienne de Gourgas, France
