A teenager has sparked a heated debate about public transport etiquette after she kept her shopping bags on a bus seat while fellow passengers were left standing
She sparked a debate online (stock image)(Image: Getty Images)
A teenager has caused a stir after taking up two bus seats to avoid placing her shopping bags on the dirty floor. The 19-year-old explained how she boarded the bus when it was relatively quiet and put her bags on the seat beside her because they were “super heavy and hurt to carry”.
She claims she attempted to place them in front of her legs – but they “hardly fit”. Taking to Reddit, the American teen said: “I sat in one seat and placed my bags on the seat next to me, essentially taking up two seats on my own.
“Since it wasn’t crowded when I got on I didn’t see an issue. The bus ride was kind of long and as it went on more and more people got on the bus. It eventually got pretty crowded to the point where some people had to stand up.”
Yet rather than shifting her bags to free up a seat, she persuaded herself that “most people don’t want to sit next to strangers anyway”.
“A lot of the time people will end up standing instead of sitting in an empty seat next to someone they don’t know – also no one said anything to me,” she added.
However, as she reached her stop, a fellow passenger confronted her, branding her “inconsiderate and rude”.
She said: “Someone passive-aggressively told me, ‘You could have moved your bag and not been inconsiderate and rude. Everyone wants to sit, not just you.’ I didn’t really respond because I didn’t know what to say.
“The person who said that never asked me to move my stuff, and if they did I probably would have.”
Wanting to know what she did wrong, she told Reddit users: “I don’t understand how I was being rude?
“They could have asked during the ride instead of insulting me after it was already done.
“Busses are also generally first come first serve so I think my behaviour was normal.”
In response, one user said: “You don’t wait for someone to ask you to do the right thing.”
Another user added: “Once the bus started getting more crowded to the point where people were standing, you should have moved your bags. You shouldn’t need to be asked to do so; it’s just common courtesy.”
A third user said: “Once it gets crowded, you move the bags of your own volition. It’s a courtesy and used to be normal bus riding etiquette.”