to think that nobody died from travelling backwards on a train?

[EvelynWardrobe]

Why do people make a fuss about this? The trains I travel on aren’t full, so I get to watch this pantomime of ninnies quite frequently.

Today I’m facing in the direction of travel at a table seat, empty seat beside me and two empty seats on the opposite side of the table. A couple get on, she sits opposite me and he insists I move my bag (the train is less than 50% occupied) so he can sit beside me.

I’m considering doing some man-spreading, even though I’m not one.

[Billben]

Or people that get car sick if the travel in the back. Pull the other will ya.

How about educating yourself a bit before making dumb comments like this. Google is your friend.

[disahsterdahling]

I was on a busy tram in Germany a few weeks ago and I had to sit backwards. I felt really ill but got to my destination without being sick.

A few years ago I had to sit backwards on an early morning bus and ended up tumbling off the bus a few stops before my destination and throwing up.

It really is a thing,

[pastabest]

I never get travel sick on trains but I do if I sit in the back of the car and can't se out the front properly or if I'm sat in the passenger seat and have to turn round for any reason e.g. to deal with children.

I get horrifically seasick. Which is a shame as I love being on boats and in the sea.

It's all to do with the brain getting confused if it can't focus on a horizon point or something isn't it?

I would love not to have it it makes me feel ill for hours afterwards, the only way to fix it quickly for me is to go to sleep for a bit.

Can't believe there are actually people out there who think that just because they don't get motion sickness everyone else is making it up.

[foodtime]

God what a lot of drama queens. Some people might have mild motion sickness moving backwards, but it’s mostly attention seeking.

I am a GP and honestly suggest to the people here if you are vomiting after 20seconds of being on a train backwords go see your GP immediately.

But I bet you won’t, because it’s bullshit. When people
Exaggerate for attention it makes it so much harder for people who are really suffering with illnesses.

[ParadiseCity]

I get travel sick once I get off the train if I've travelled backwards or on an empty stomach, it's horrible.

[Bekabeech]

I also never feel motion sick on trains (even when I was little and couldn't travel 3 miles by bus without being sick). I personally think that my motion sickness is/was at least partly triggered by smells - used to be able to make myself sick just sniffing my school swimming bag which stank of the buses they transported us on.
I'm fine which ever way I sit on a train, my DH prefers travelling backwards. But maybe the couple just wanted to sit opposite each other so they could talk?

[Originalfoogirl]

The other issue can be, sitting across from someone on a table seat causes "footsie" issues. Mr P had long legs, I don't. He will sit across from me on a train so he doesn't have to sit scrunched up with his knees around his ears.

But the bottom line is, he wanted that seat, why shouldn't he be allowed to choose, just because you got there first?

The only time I get annoyed with people choosing seats when others are available are, people who sit in the wheelchair spaces when there are plenty of others. Even if "it's ok, I'll move if I have to" is the excuse, it does my nut in because I'm fed up of having to ask people to move and wondering if this is going to be another day where I meet a wanker who won't.

[PandorasXbox]

Right so all the people in the world who can’t travel in the back of a car without feeling/being sick are just selfish dogs who’ve thought this little trick up to get in the front! Genius

The amount of times as a child ( especially on winding roads ) that we had to pull over for me to be sick because I was in the back was unreal. If you don’t have motion sickness you can not grasp how debilitating it is. But the OP has —apparently— so she should know why someone wouldn’t want to travel backwards!

[disahsterdahling]

I am a GP and honestly suggest to the people here if you are vomiting after 20seconds of being on a train backwords go see your GP immediately.

Are you really a GP? Why would I waste a GP appointment when I can generally always get a seat facing forwards?

And it's not within 20 seconds, it might take 30 minutes to feel rubbish. My commute, when I do it, takes about 50 minutes. I don't want to sit backwards for that length of time.

[SoupDragon]

I would obviously never take up an extra seat if there were a shortage of them.

But there is, apparently, a shortage of front facing seats.

A lorry driver told me to look at the surface of a glass of water on a ferry once, apparently that helps with motion sickness.

I want to go on a ferry just to try this out now!

[PandorasXbox]

Haha don’t know where selfish dogs came from! Should have been sods

[Billben]

Theres no reason why you'd puke in the back but not a foot further forward in the front.

There is a reason, you just happen to not know it.

[EdmundCleverClogs]

Theres no reason why you'd puke in the back but not a foot further forward in the front.

Actually, if you have long limbs then having to compress them up against your body (rather than spreading out in the front), it is more likely to cause more sickness. The front also (sometimes) has better head support, air condition is circulated better, just the general feeling of not being so 'confined'. That's not to say motion sickness doesn't happen when sat at the front, but it generally is easier to manage.

[EvelynWardrobe]

They’ve now moved and are FACING THE OPPOSITE WAY! So he is reverse and she is going forwards. Will await the vomit.

[PandorasXbox]

SO glad you’re not my GP foodtime
Christ alive.

[SoupDragon]

but it’s mostly attention seeking.

Talk about a lack of empathy!

[TorNayDoh]

"No, its just that it doesn't make sense. Someone gets travel sick in the back of the car but is just fine in the front, where they conincidentally get more space, more leg room, don't have to sit next to anyone....aye, pull the other leg, its got bells on. Theres no reason why you'd puke in the back but not a foot further forward in the front"

There are reasons, it's called science. As someone already said, Google is your friend, but here you go anyway:

"When you sit in the back seat of the car, you see more of the apparently stationary car around you, and in many models of car, your inner ear feels the movement more. This causes a greater mismatch between the signals your brain is getting, and you feel more ill. Similarly, watching the horizon that is moving in relation to you helps you feel better, while reading a book where the page stays about a foot from you at all times makes you feel worse. Anything that increases the discrepancy between the signals to your brain, like reading, will make you feel worse. Anything that lessens that difference makes you feel better. " from WebMD. See also Scientific American.


Plus it's easier to catch puke in a bag in the front, more room to lean forwards.

[BitOutOfPractice]

OP I think what you meant to say was "Ah sorry, I didn't realise this was a thing. Now I do know I'll stop name calling and be a bit less judgey and more considerate."

At least I hope that's what you meant to type

[hotbutteredcrumpetsandtea]

There is a reason, you just happen to not know it

Psychosomatic puking is the reason. There is no function of sitting in the back as opposed to the front that causes motion sickness.

[corythatwas]

foodtime, how exactly does being a GP make you an expert on how motion sickness affects people on various kinds of transport? Have you done any research? Studied any research done? Surely people who suffer in this way wouldn't be talking to you about it: they'd go and see their pharmacist.

If there's one thing that gets my goat, it's people who use their professional standing to talk through their hat.

And I don't even suffer from travel sickness: I've just watched other people throwing up over the years (the unscientific frauds!)

[Xeneth88]

@hotbutteredcrumpetsandtea

Do you not own a brain and google? It's very easily explained, has been on this thread, and quite understandable if you use your brain/device.

Lucky you for not getting travel sick, shockingly that doesn't mean other people don't. Are you always this devoid of understanding?

[PandorasXbox]

^Why do I get more car sick in the back?
Sit in the front seat of a car. Doctors believe that motion sickness is caused by a conflict between what your eyes are seeing and how your body is interpreting the motion of a vehicle, which uses signals originating in your inner ear to sense balance.^

Just from a 10 second google.

[YouthsAStuffWillNotEndure]

Nobody dies OP. But some people do get very very sick.

[IcaMorgan]

Hotbutteredcrumpets it’s to do with seeing the horizon. When you’re in the back seat you don’t have the full view due to the seat in front of you. I suffer from severe motion sickness in the back seat of cars unless I lie down and sleep the whole journey. I also cannot travel backwards which is a real pain when being a wheelchair user I’m supposed to travel backwards on the bus.

[ArcheryAnnie]

It's safer travelling backwards. But it also makes me nauseous, so I don't do it if I can possibly help it.