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   HebrideanHecate (hebrideanhecate@spinster.xyz)'s status on Monday, 14-Apr-2025 20:22:39 JST HebrideanHecate

   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1menlmx80go

   Londoners living with disabilities and chronic health conditions say they have struggled to use a Transport for London (TfL) scheme while travelling, with one even threatened by another passenger. The "Please Offer Me A Seat" badge and card scheme, which marks its eighth anniversary this month, is designed to help those with disabilities and health conditions by signalling, external to other passengers they should give up their seat if needed.

   But Eliza Rain, 28, who has a chronic pain condition, said when using the badge they were often challenged and one passenger "threatened to push me off the train because I'd asked for their seat".

   A TfL spokesperson encouraged passengers to give up their seat to someone who asks where possible, even if the person asking isn't wearing a badge.

   It comes after TfL commissioned research last year into the effectiveness of its sister priority seating, external scheme - where certain seats on trains, Tube carriages and buses are marked as being for people with visible or non-apparent disabilities and conditions, parents with infants, and older people. TfL advises people with disabilities and conditions making it hard for them to stand to apply for a Please Offer Me A Seat or "Baby On Board" badge to make it easier for them to secure a seat.

   • KeepTakingTheSoma likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     KeepTakingTheSoma (keeptakingthesoma@spinster.xyz)'s status on Monday, 14-Apr-2025 20:24:13 JST KeepTakingTheSoma

     in reply to
     @HebrideanHecate Only in London would you need to advertise the need for good manners (I once saw a sign on the tube advising people not to spit). Where I live, people routinely offer seats on busses to others. School-aged kids are the best at it. Their manners are impeccable.
   • Embed this notice
     RighteousIndignation (righteousindignation@spinster.xyz)'s status on Monday, 14-Apr-2025 20:41:30 JST RighteousIndignation

     in reply to

     • KeepTakingTheSoma
     @KeepTakingTheSoma @HebrideanHecate The reasons why we are not allowed to speak about, I feel a stranger in my own home city now. everyone assumes everyones foreign. the badges ain't worth shit.
     KeepTakingTheSoma likes this.
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     KeepTakingTheSoma (keeptakingthesoma@spinster.xyz)'s status on Monday, 14-Apr-2025 20:41:56 JST KeepTakingTheSoma

     in reply to

     • RighteousIndignation
     @RighteousIndignation @HebrideanHecate I did not enjoy my last visit to London. It felt like downtown Baghdad.
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     RighteousIndignation (righteousindignation@spinster.xyz)'s status on Monday, 14-Apr-2025 21:23:07 JST RighteousIndignation

     in reply to

     • KeepTakingTheSoma
     @KeepTakingTheSoma @HebrideanHecate as far as public transport goes we are twinned with Mumbai, you need sharp elbows to get on the bus now days they won't bat an eyelid at shoving old women out the way to get a seat and then pretend they don't understand when you shout at them, so you have to square up and slam them all out the way as much as they do, they are smaller then me in general but they've nearly pushed me over a few times in the scrum to get on and I've been on buses where arguments have broken out over giving people seats especially those on crutches or pregnant. no one ever gave me a seat when I was pregnant not once, I always thought the badges were hilarious dreamed up by morons who'd never set foot on public transport, I got thrown out of hospital weak and feeble after having a C-Section still with my hospital tag on and no one gave me a seat then either, fell over a few times onto other passengers trying to hang on to the polls still no seat offered only dirty looks and tuts, my mother begged people to give me a seat but nope.
   • Embed this notice
     HebrideanHecate (hebrideanhecate@spinster.xyz)'s status on Monday, 14-Apr-2025 21:23:07 JST HebrideanHecate

     in reply to

     • KeepTakingTheSoma
     • RighteousIndignation

     @RighteousIndignation @KeepTakingTheSoma That's bloody shocking!!

     KeepTakingTheSoma likes this.