Just experienced an incident on the bus to work just now and it made me feel like inking it down somewhere.

Situation: A soft spoken small sized girl was trying to move to the exit to get off at the next stop. Unfortunately she couldn't steady herself enough to move when the bus is moving. When the bus stopped, she tried her best to get people to let her pass to get off the bus.

First moving to the front of the bus did not work as the door was already closed by the time she arrived there. Then getting to the back exit became a problem as well due to the mass of humans in the way.

By the time she had even managed to get to the exit, the exit had not only closed on her, the bus had already been moving for some time. She could only wait and get off at the next stop.

Afterwards: When I got off the bus, i was listening to the group next to me commenting on the incident we had all seen. They were commenting on how the people were always so packed around the exit and that prevented people who needed to get off the bus from doing so.

Comments: We have seen it on commercials, we have been walked through campaigns telling us. Unfortunately the campaigns only show the people crowding around the exit at fault. Yes, they were should have moved to the back. And yes, they were at fault in that they noticed the girl winding her way to the exit and yet she had to move them to get through.

But they were just doing what everyone on the bus seemed to be doing. Unfortunately to say, me included. Everyone was intent on ignoring her until she crossed paths with them.

The driver knowing that she was trying to get off, kept the front door closed with all the mass of human bodies blocking her way to the back exit. And without even making sure she had gotten off, closed the door and started moving off.

All the people in the bus who are aware of the girl not even bothering to ask the driver to wait and just contented themselves with observing the struggle she had to go through to get to the exit.

All the more notable is that because she is soft-spoken and seemingly unwilling to do what other singaporeans would do and push her way to the exit. People seemed content to ignore her.

Is this the typical singaporean behaviour? Unfortunately yes. And I am upset to say that I did not bring up the courage to speak up and just shout at the driver to keep the door open for her.