Shanghai Public Transportation

In the last couple of days I came across two interesting articles concerning public transportation benefits for seniors, one from Shanghai and one from Suzhou.

First, Suzhou. This article is about complaints from white-collar workers that senior citizens are abusing their free rides anytime on Suzhou buses, particularly during morning and evening rush hours. Specifically, Suzhou residents complain that senior citizens are using buses to travel to farther and better vegetable markets to buy meal supplies, that they use air conditioned buses as places to escape the heat, and that they take seats from tired office workers on their way home and cause mental stress when young people have to give up their seats to ungrateful seniors. The article ends by mentioning that Shanghai and Nanjing restrict free rides for seniors to non-rush hours and weekends.

Second, Shanghai. An article in the Xinmin Evening News pulls a double play, first praising the unintended consequences of the transportation benefits for seniors policy and then going on to remind policy makers to carefully consider the consequences of their policies and the wishes of the citizens they serve. While the policy of giving free rides to senior citizens was originally intended to lessen their financial burden, it has turned out to greatly benefit the mental health of Shanghai's seniors who now have a much greater incentive to leave their home and interact with other cityfolk. The author of the piece observed senior citizens boarding the bus and greeting other riders by name, and came to this conclusion.