I am not sure how the seats for the elderly and disabled are placed in buses in other countries, but I found their display in the Lisbon buses quite puzzling.

Whenever I commute to work I notice an interesting senior citizens behavior. When there are plenty of free seats, they never choose the ones reserved for them. Now, when the bus is full, they always ask you to vacate their seats.

Then I figured out why they never occupy their reserved seats when there are plenty of others empty. The reason is that these seats are not quite safe: because they are front to front, the space in between is large and there’s nothing to grab to secure themselves. If the bus made a sudden stop, they might as well fall. What about seat-belts then?

“Better safe than sorry” works only when the rest of the bus seats are available, and “Better sorry than safe” works whenthere’s not much choice.

In fact, if I was a senior citizen, I’d act the same. Meanwhile, I occupy their seats because I have plenty of leg room.

Fact: I used the word “seats” 8 times.