Every day when I go to the MRT (mass rapid transit – basically the train/subway system here) station, it’s a constant battle between whether I should step forward to try to get on board earlier or whether I should sit back and wait for the train to arrive and the traffic flow to begin.  It seems that no matter what I do, there are always people who butt in in front of me and don’t allow passengers to get off before they barge ahead.  So really it’s a lose-lose battle that I just try to lose less in.  I’m still trying to figure out if this is because of the Singaporean culture, a crowded city culture, the overall Asian culture, or even a public transportation culture.

Even after the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) kicked in and signs are showing up everywhere encouraging people to let people alight (get off) before boarding, I haven’t seen a change in behavior.  There’s no respect for lining up and even less for waiting your turn, so it’s an evil cycle of people being more and more rude just to get in or out of the train.  Now, to some extent I can see this just being a sort of “survival of the fittest” – those who can make their way forward first will get better chances at seats and also not worry about the doors closing on you.  However, the same exact thing happens when there are no crowds around and such behavior does nothing more than annoy people trying to get off.

So, why is this?  I don’t think it’s because Singaporeans are unkind – after all, I’ve seen a fair share of people get up to allow others to sit.  Yet, when it comes to the simplest bit of patience in waiting for people to get off before you get on and allowing those who arrived to wait before you to get on before you start pushing forward, there seems to be a huge lack of disregard.  The lines on the floor indicating where people should stand to wait and allow others to get off are completely ignored and fools like me may have thought we were first in line only to find that half a dozen people managed to squeeze ahead by directly facing off those who are stepping off.

It’s really amazing and I wonder if all cities work like this.  I can’t really remember a time in Europe or other large cities that I’ve been to where I noticed this, but I also can’t say that I was really paying attention.  Whether or not it’s widespread, it’s pervasive here and it’s one of those unfortunate things that you can’t really regulate.  Also, unless everyone changes their approach, those who honor it only end up getting screwed.  Sad, isn’t it?  So where’s the incentive to follow directives like that when there’s no way to keep others from abusing the situation?  I guess in the end it comes down to a cultural mentality change, but the problem is – which culture?  As I mentioned before, i don’t know if it’s limited to Singaporeans, city dwellers, Asians, or public transportation users in general.  So how do you go about making a change?  SKM is making an effort, but unfortunately, I think this is something that will take a lot of time (and perhaps some regulation) to change.