So, I’m on the bus on the way home from work. I’m using a walking stick at the moment due to sciatica flare up, so I sit in one of the banks of priority seating. I also have my pull along laptop bag with me. I’m almost halfway into my journey home and the bus stops and picks up a few passengers.
One of which is a middle aged lady with a wheeled Zimmer frame. She comes up to me and asks if she can sit there as a push chair/stroller is coming on behind her.
I get up to go to the other bank of priority seats and this teen or young adult plonks herself down on the window seat and a small singular shopping bag on the aisle seat. I ask if I can sit in the seat with the bag she said no and said I should not ask her with a sneer as she said it’s priority seating.
The lady I let sit where I was started complaining saying how rude I was to ask the girl to sit there and called me a racial slur. Rather kick up a fuss I sat in whichever seat I could with my large laptop bag being forced to sit my lap. I’m a big built guy so it was literally wedged between me and the back of the seat in front of me.
But am I the AH for asking them to sit where the small, and I mean it was tiny, shopping bag was?
NTA. If you need to use a walking stick, you belong in priority seating.
NTA. You literally have a walking stick and gave up your seat for someone who needed it more, meanwhile this girl is taking up two priority seats for herself and a tiny bag while you’re standing there with a visible mobility aid. The audacity of her saying you shouldn’t ask when she’s the one hoarding priority seating is wild.
People’s asses belong in seats, not passengers’ belongings.
NTA Teen girl and lady are AHs. What would they think if you treated them like they treated you?
You’re never the asshole for asking someone to move a bag off a seat.
NTA.
NTA. If you’ve got a walking stick then you’re absolutely chill to sit in priority
Two people insulted a visibly impaired person asking for a seat? This can’t be true.
I would’ve moved her bag for her, the selfish girl. Bags don’t go on seats, whether or not priority seating. (If I were being really catty, I’d probably also assume that her level of entitlement means she didn’t have a disability either, and just sat in the nearest available seat, but that’s unprovable.)
I wonder if this varies by cities, because I live in NYC and sure people will put their stuff on the seat sometimes, but the moment you move towards it like you need it, people take their stuff out of the way. And if anyone asks for a seat because they can’t stand, everyone gets out of the way to let them sit. Every time I get on the bus or subway I see people offering their seats to those who seem to need it, even unasked.
Did the bag pay for a bus ticket? No? Then yank
NTA. Seats are for people, not bags. Even if no one on the bus needs priority seating, a person still gets the seat before a bag does.
NTA. A seat is for people not bags. The lady you gave up your seat for was extra rude
I would have sat on the bag