OPINION> Commentary
Caring for the old
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-10 07:43

A society's worth is often judged by how well it cares for its old. Chinese culture has always valued the virtue. An example from everyday life is younger people offering their seats to the aged in buses or subway trains.

The Beijing public transport authorities have decided that senior citizens above the age of 65 will enjoy free rides on public transport in the capital city starting from Jan 1 next year.

It is a welcome reflection of the old value system. It also makes perfect civic sense.

All buses in the city now have 10 percent seats reserved for senior, disabled, pregnant and other physically disadvantaged passengers.

Still bus conductors always call on young people to give their seats to senior passengers when necessary.

Training has been organized in recent days for bus conductors to improve their service for aged passengers as the free ride will for sure increase their number.

It looks simple but it really is not. Just think of the rush hour traffic in crowded buses or trains in big cities.

Then you know why it is no small matter to let senior residents and other physically disadvantaged enjoy safe and comfortable rides on public transport.

With the number of old people above 65 up in the past decade from 6.96 percent in 2000 to 8.51 percent in 2008 on the average, the number of senior residents using public transport has increased considerably. For sure, it will continue to increase in the coming years.

However, public transport resources are limited in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

The privilege of free rides has helped old people but at the same time considerably increased the passenger volume. This has made public transport even more crowded, particularly during rush hours.

The more crowded the public transport is, the better the care old passengers need, especially for their safety.

So bus conductors will have to provide senior passengers with better service to make it safe for them to get on and off buses.

There has been debate both online and on other forums about whether old people should try to avoid using public transport at rush hours. Shanghai has a policy allowing old people to enjoy free rides too, but their rides are not free in rush hours.

This is supposed to be one way of discouraging old people from adding to the rush hour traffic.

If anything, whenever old people take public transport, they deserve special care. There can be no two opinions about free rides for senior citizens.

Yet, it may be in the interest of their own safety that old people try and avoid bus rides during rush hours.

(China Daily 12/10/2008 page8)