Is bus blocking the new horribly rude trend in pedestrian Singapore?

Within two days, Singaporeans were treated to the latest horrible public behaviour exhibited by two Mandarin-speaking women who blocked buses with their own body when they were inconvenienced or didn’t get their way.

In a report by The New Paper, a woman placed herself in front of bus 43 when she allegedly missed her stop. She reportedly blamed the driver and had gone up front outside the bus to scold him, then physically block the vehicle. The incident happened specifically near Upper Paya Lebar Road in the Tai Seng Area.

In pictures and a video circulating through social media, you can see the woman being filmed on the street as she speaks Chinese to the bus driver.

What happened with the first woman who blocked a bus?

According to a report by The New Paper, there were 30 people on the January 28 bus around 11:30 in the evening. A local man had filmed the incident after he noticed that there was a commotion in front of the bus. He said that there was a woman shouting at the driver and passengers in Mandarin, saying that she had missed her stop.

The driver was having trouble communicating with the woman.

The report said that the woman had wanted to get off at Paya Lebar but had missed the stop. The other passengers then told her that she could cross the street and take another bus back to her stop, but to no avail.

She had blocked the bus through her tirade for 20 minutes, and was only persuaded to move out of the way when a couple had convinced her to do so.

 

Chinese speakers and Chinese netizens have come together on Twitter to condemn her behaviour, saying that she is a disgrace.

The person who posted the video, on the other hand, said that he felt sorry for the woman, as she seemed like a foreigner and may have had trouble navigating Singapore.

The woman in the video was wearing earphones during the exchange.

What about the second woman?

Just two days after the first incident, a report from Zaobao showed another woman blocking a bus. In this incident, the report said that the woman ran to the bus and blocked it because she had missed it.

More frequent in China

While it hasn’t been confirmed that Chinese nationals were responsible for these incidents of blocking buses, Chinese Twitter users were quick to condemn the actions, especially after the Chinese government has instated harsher punishments and stricter implementation of rules against bad public behaviour.

In a report by The China Morning Post, “seat robbers” or people who refuse to move when they are called out on their bad behaviour have received punishments such as fines and prohibitions from using public transport for a certain amount of time.

The report shows a woman arguing vehemently against vacating her seat on a train which isn’t hers, and being asked to move to her actual seat.

Another Chinese woman also refused to move from her seat because she had gotten on it first, even if that seat wasn’t the one she bought.

This woman was let off at the next train stop and apprehended.