Riding the transportation routes in London makes me ponder manners and space. Any carriage, especially trains, are filled to the brim with people. This is particularly the case at peak times. Last week I got on the train from London Bridge; a pregnant woman got on later. When I got on there were no seats available and those standing blocked access to the seats anyway. The group boarding with the pregnant woman only added to the density of passengers.

I can’t remember who first told me “It’s like being pregnant, you either are or you aren’t” in response to someone being somewhat something. It’s an analogy I’ve heard a lot, and this woman made me rethink it. She was very pregnant. There are degrees of pregnancy. I am not going to pretend to understand what happens to a woman when she’s pregnant, but there are certain external indicators of the degree of pregnancy. This woman who boarded was clearly showing and was walking the pregnancy waddle (I asked a couple friends how to say this more appropriately: there doesn’t seem to be a way :/ ).

Manners would require other passengers to give up a seat, make a path, and allow the woman to sit on the train. It is polite to allow someone who is pregnant to sit. It’s more comfortable, and the marginal utility for someone carrying a baby is almost always greater than the marginal cost of giving up a seat.

Space, though, would dictate that passengers make the most functional decisions on the train. Trains generally follow this rule as it is fairly natural to do. On boarding, passengers find some amount of space for themselves. As the number of passengers behind them increases, a passenger will go farther into the train. This system works on functionality.

This past weekend, on an off peak tube ride, I was riding alone and managed to nab a seat when I got on. The train started filling up as I got closer to Central London. A group of women got on the train. In an awkward turtle moment they realized that they were one seat short of the number in their group. I noticed it too. So, I stood up and offered my seat to the group. The ride to the next station was filled with buzz about how nice that was of me. Most of it came from the group of women; some was from other riders.

It felt good to have my small action appreciated, but I later thought (way too hard) about it. Would that action be as well received? I would guess the person receiving the seat might still be thankful and appreciative, but the other riders would likely see it as more of a hassle. If you’ve been on a peak time train in a busy and public-transport-dependent city, you would understand.

Should the rule of thumb for public transport in peak times be space and off peak be manners? Is there room for crossover?

Living in London, I will have quite a lot of opportunities to observe. :)