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Scouts promoting courtesy campaign at MRT stations

"Yielding seats should be a good habit and an attitude in daily life. We hope this campaign will remind people to be more caring and respectful of each other."

Liu Cheng-ming, high school principal

Holding placards reading "I yield seats because I am young," some 20 boy scouts and girl scouts yesterday urged Taipei's youth to respect the disadvantaged and yield seats to people who need them on the city's MRT system and buses.

"Please support our courtesy campaign and yield seats to those in need on the MRT," fifth-grader Hsieh Jie-lin (謝解翎) said yesterday while handing out bookmarks bearing the campaign's slogan at the National Taiwan University Hospital MRT station.

The courtesy campaign was held by Taipei City Community Scouts to highlight the Taipei City Department of Education's new "Traffic Courtesy Week."

The department hopes to promote increased courtesy on the capital's public transportation.

The initiative came after the Taipei City Disabled Group Protection Committee voiced frustration at a meeting last week, saying that many youths declined to give up reserved spots on MRT trains to disabled, elderly and pregnant women.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) demanded that municipal schools incorporate the issue in their curriculums, adding that the city government might consider this type of education in its school performance evaluations.

Throwing his support behind the campaign, Taipei Municipal Zhongzheng High School Principal Liu Cheng-ming (劉正鳴), who is also a boy scout leader, said that more than 200 boy and girl scout troops in the city would choose MRT stations or bus stops to campaign at this year.

"Yielding seats should be a good habit and an attitude in daily life. We hope this campaign will remind people to be more caring and respectful of each other," he said.

As a regular MRT commuter, Chien Li-hua (簡俐華), a middle-aged housewife and a scout leader, said she always saw young people or students occupying priority seats.

"I think it's necessary to educate young people about courtesy because many do not have enough respect for the elderly and the disabled," she said.
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