to enjoy winding up people who think their bag needs a seat

[motheroftwoboys]

I usually wimp out of asking people to move so I can sit down but yesterday and today have, with a smile, asked to sit down. You would think I was asking the earth. Young woman yesterday, sitting on the aisle seat on a busy bus with very small handbag on seat. She sighed dramatically and made a big play of making me sit at the window instead of moving across herself. I got off before her and she actually tutted when I politedly said excuse me. I said thank you in over loud and friendly way and I was still chuckling when I got off the bus. This morning there was a bloke who thought his paper needed a seat when he was reading it. Same tactic. Same response. Wonder what my journey home will bring. [wing]

expat - it's not an aeroplane. they're not going to be there for hours...

I take the aisle seat, so I can have my heavy pull-along bag full of shitty work I have to do at home right next to me. I never slide over to the window seat, as that would leave my bag of shitty work to the tender mercies of other passengers (hah!). If I get tutting when I point this out, I just shrug. But really, first-comer chooses the seat they want for whatever reason, everyone has to deal with it. If I took the aisle seat and put my bag next to me, I'd then block one or two seats from being used at all. So aisle-and-no-movey is the lesser of two evils.

Expat - was this on a Central Line tube circa 1994???

Doh! If I took the window seat and put my bag next to me, I meant to say.

It can easily take me an hour and a half to get to work on the bus, and that's not the full length of that bus route. Ok that's not four hours plus, but even half an hour pinned in and unable to move can cause me problems. I have back trouble and longer than average legs, so not even metal plates.

asking someone to move so you can get to the window seat is not rude. asking them to vacate a seat - they have chosen for a reason - is. What you are essentially saying is 'i want the seat you are sitting on so move'. i always stand to let people in because my big feet (not selling myself here am i :) ) always get trodden on and, as a poster upthread so charmingly suggested, i do not want someone to fart on me for sitting in a seat they want.

i once had a row with someone who wanted me to move over in so he could talk to his friend standing in the aisle.

Where do you all live with such angry bus people around?! I get the bus a lot and rarely get this problem

South London. If we're talking inconsiderate behaviour on public transport, south London is probably in the UK top 5.

Or central or west London. In east london I got whacked on the head by a stupid woman going for the bell on the bus, who looked at me as if I had scratched her bag purposely with my head.

'Why is asking someone to slide over rude - but them expecting you to climb over them isn't ?'

Because the sitting person isn't expecting anything. If you want to sit in the vacant seat next to them, then that's up to you, nothing to do with their expectation. Plus, you are expecting them to give up their own seat. They probably couldn't really care less where you choose to sit.

Clouds - no, they probably couldn't care less - but refusing to budge four inches so that someone else can sit down would them that person a complete cunt wouldn't it?

Re the aisle sitter.
You get on a bus, you look up the aisle for a free seat. Passengers in the front row (the first seats to go in my commuting experience) obscure your view of the bus and possible free seats.
The aisle sitters on my route (with bag on window seat) bank on you thinking that there isn't a free seat on that side in that row and thus, you move on.
And god yeah, once you have a seat, the fight for elbow room/leg room/leg spreading.
Might dust down my bike.

It's like idiots in the cinema who sit with a seat in between each group. Sure space is nice but of the day a new pixar film comes out you're not going to get it. I made a whole row budge up so the 3 spare seats left in the whole place were together.

Just had a quick look at this before I leave work - and embark on Metro and bus. I live in Gateshead by the way and work in Newcastle. some of these replies have made me laugh! By the way I never said the aisle hoggers were angry/rude whatever - just thoughtless and irritating. Night all.

I have literally never had anyone be rude to me on public transport and I live in east London, used to live south.

In fact, I never meet rude people in general. I mean, people who are openly rude to me. Apart from the man in my local shop who chats on his phone as he serves me. He's a right knob.

i used to live in south london and once while on the train home a teenage girl sat on my shoulder (she was standing in the aisle next to me but decided to lean against me more and more until i was supporting her weight and arching my back terribly). i asked her politely if she could stop as she was hurting me. she went into one, shouting about her being too tired to stand properly because she'd been to college to better herself and get a good career unlike a loser like me.

a group of teens ran into me once and knocked me to the ground and trod on my leg while i had a leg brace and crutches. when my exh asked them to move so he could help me up one hit him and and they also hit a nice french man who came to my aid. apparently i was in their way, i was purposely making them feel bad, and anyway didn't we know who they were and they were going to have us killed...bruv.

It would make them a cunt if they wouldn't let someone else sit down at all. But there is more than one option here. They don't have to move out of the seat they are in to allow someone else to sit down. They could stand up to let someone else sit down, or they could squish a bit and move their legs out of the way to let someone sit down.

There is no reason at all why they should get out of their seat.

I don't give my bags a seat but I do sit in the aisle seat; I find the window seat terribly cramped and I get all claustrophobic stuck by the window. I don't block anyone sitting there, and make a real effort to move myself sideways to assist someone wanting that window seat but no, I'm not going to slide over....I do have a right to choose a seat that I'm comfortable with....

'Expat - was this on a Central Line tube circa 1994???'

No, Edinburgh Lothian bus in 2004. I had to go to the back upstairs in a double decker with all the creeps. And yes, in the past there were even those back there who lit cigarettes. On a bus.

Also one unpleasant time when a girl started to vom all over the seat. I was a few rows ahead and the smell was dire.

I keep the aisle seat if I'm about to get off, and say so. I usually stand up to let the other person in. Seems a bit daft to make someone stand up again to let you off when they've just sat down.

I did see a nice dog sitting regally on a seat on the bus today. Window seat. That made me smile!

South London Bus Bingo

• Someone playing music through their phone
• Someone smoking cannabis
• Someone throwing their chicken skin/unwanted gherkins/chips on the floor
• Someone preaching The Truth, which normally includes a bit about any non-Truth believers burning in Hell
• Someone spitting onto the floor

Bonus points if your bus driver turns the engine off and refuses to continue the journey until Person X comes back downstairs to pay their fare / apologise for swearing at him.

Motheroftwoboys, plenty of foot resters on the metro. I don't the buses up here too bad really. But you do get the odd idiot.

*think

I suffer from anxiety problems and i cant stand being hemmed in against the window, i start to feel sick very quickly if i cant get out. so i dont give a fuck if me not budging up makes me a selfish cunt, you expecting me to move makes you a selfish cunt. oh look, i judged you without knowing anything about why you want my chair. ill get up and let you in but i will not give up my aisle seat