Reddit Is Debating Whether Sitting On The Weird Little Chair On Sydney Trains Is Rude Or Not

I live in Perth and since I’ve started working at PEDESTRIAN.TV, there are many things I’ve learned about the eastern states against my will. For example, Migaloo the albino whale and the fact people in Sydney prefer schooners to pints. And now I can add the weird little chair that exists on Sydney trains to that list ‘cos people on Reddit are discussing whether it’s acceptable to sit on it or not. Before we start, I’d like to give my gorgeous Sydney-based colleague Kathleen Farmilo

r/sydney subreddit

“100 per cent people sometimes need a little push to be polite. Like a child that forgets to say thank you. ‘Hey mate, is it cool if I sit here?’ Very rarely will you get a no,” said another.

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Look, I didn’t understand what anyone was talking about until I this picture of the chair and realised just how minuscule it is. It’s literally a chair for ants, but one that can be flipped so it faces the other way. Mind-blowing, if I’m being honest.

Another one of my beautiful Sydney-based colleagues Soaliha Iqbal advocated for hogging the chair ‘cos it’s so bloody squishy — especially post-pandemic. “Hogging the seat facing you if you are sitting in the single corner seat is NOT rude IMO,” she said. “If anything, it’s rude to sit in that seat as a total stranger because it is so close and intimate to the other person. There is NO leg room, you would literally have your thighs pressed up against each other. “In a post-Covid world I think it is actually fucking rude to try and sit there, so closely to someone else. “If the seat is facing the other way, however, then I think it’s fine to ask to sit there. But only if you aren’t facing anyone else.” Other people in the subreddit also said Covid-19 had changed train etiquette.

“Seat bags are more common than ever. I’m guessing it’s about getting themselves a Covid-safe buffer bubble. I would be uncomfortable about being that close to a stranger who may or may not be an unvaxxed disease vector,” someone said.

“To be fair, many people are still conscious to keep the social distance post-Covid. If you can’t find a spot that’s a seat away from other people, I’d rather stand,” said another.

“The rules kind of changed with Covid too. Most won’t go for this seat or the middle of three anymore, so the bag thing became a bit more normal,” said a third.

It looks like there are many schools of thought when it comes to the Hobbit chair, but judging by the comments on a cringe Transport for NSW Facebook post joking about it, the little seat has a shit tonne of fans. Folks were going ham.

The post Reddit Is Debating Whether Sitting On The Weird Little Chair On Sydney Trains Is Rude Or Not appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .

a shoutout for educating me on the nuances of the aforementioned wee chair, and also finding examples of what it looks like. God’s work, if I’m honest. Now, this whole Reddit chair debate kicked off when someone who had recently moved to Sydney asked the about train etiquette, alongside a photo of someone sitting on a train with a bag on the seat facing them. “Recently moved to Sydney and find this a lot where people are standing in the metro and then there are people who keep bags on the empty seats and show no eagerness to move the bags so someone can sit! I find it so disrespectful and frustrating,” they said. “Is this normal?” A truly peculiar question, indeed. I particularly love that they ended their inquiry with “is this normal?”, as if to imply that Sydneysiders are freaks. Myriad people replied to the commuter telling them it was kosher to ask the person to move their bag. “Just ‘say excuse me can you move your bag so I can sit’,” one person said. “Just ask and they’ll move it so you can sit,” a third said. It all sounded reasonable, in my opinion. But then other people started chiming in to say the chair with the bag on it was redundant anyway ‘cos you’d have to sit knee-to-knee with the person facing you. “To be fair, that specific seat on the city rail trains is an honest no go. No one sits there if someone is sitting across,” someone said. “If you sit there your knees will be touching and it would be a very awkward thing to do,” said another. “Nah there is no way you expect to sit in seat. You want to play footsies with a stranger?” a third person said. God speed, pro-tiny chair supporters. May you always find empty miniature chairs to plant your cabooses on.