Overweight People & Public Transport

siobhank

Okay, so we all know Ryanair have threatened a so-called 'fat tax' on overweight passengers on the seemingly credible premise that more person=more fuel needed to transport them.
Also, some U.S. airlines charge overweight passengers for two seats for their own safety and that of other passengers.
Now, personally, this seems fair to me - unless, say, a medical cert. can be produced to say that the person's size is because of some endocrinological deficiency or whatever. Which I understand is very rare and most overweight persons are just, em, overweight.
So this morning I sat on the Dart and got a fright because there was one leg on half of my seat. Couldn't really jump up and move and would have seemed rude but I spent the journey hanging off my seat and constantly having to shove my leg under the seat opposite to balance myself. The big lady beside me said or did nothing (nothing she could have done, really) to make more room. Could she not have stood? I wouldn't leave a bag draped across the seat beside me. If I was going to take two seats, I would stand.
Felt irritated and I think that personally I do have little patience with fat people but this really annoyed me.

Töpher

Should have sat on/in her lap.

enniscorthy

good1mate i hear what ur sayin oh hey listen anyone remember that song

"HEY BABY"

heheheheheheheheheheheh

enniscorthy

brill

Zab

Obviously she shouldn't have stood. Just move next time and don't bother posting about it.

jumpguy

I think charging people for 2 seats is fair enough.

However, a fat tax for fuel needs is abit strange to me. Is carrying the extra 30KG per fat person really a massive tug on the fuel of a jet airliner? Physics buffs or aviation heavyweights please enlighten me...

As for fat people on public transport in general, I think you should've just got up and walk down the tram abit, and sit somewhere else. As for the fattie standing, well, believe it or not, big fatties actually find standing strenuous work.

siobhank

Zab wrote: »

Obviously she shouldn't have stood. Just move next time and don't bother posting about it.

Um, I didn't mean when I sat down. I meant in the first place, knowing she would take up (almost) two seats.
I am posting about it because it really p^%&ed me off and didn't bother her in the slightest.
If I was beside her on a 12 hour flight now I would have exploded

siobhank

siobhank wrote: »

Um, I didn't mean when I sat down. I meant in the first place, knowing she would take up (almost) two seats.
I am posting about it because it really p^%&ed me off and didn't bother her in the slightest.
If I was beside her on a 12 hour flight now I would have exploded

so did you sit beside her after she was already sitting down? you lose.

Maybe if you were skinnier you would have fitted neatly beside Mrs Fatty Mc Fatterson

YT

siobhank wrote: »

Um, I didn't mean when I sat down. I meant in the first place, knowing she would take up (almost) two seats.
I am posting about it because it really p^%&ed me off and didn't bother her in the slightest.
If I was beside her on a 12 hour flight now I would have exploded

I totally agree with you. She should have sat in the fat person carriage wearing her "Unclean" sign and ringing her bell.
:rolleyes:

siobhank

yeah it was really funny, I was half asleep, saw that sweet free seat in my peripheral vision and sat down/half leapt aside when I realised what covered half my seat. Okay, I lose, but does she not feel a teensy bit bad sitting down at rush hour knowing the sliver of seat left over is useless?
No?
No conscience?!

Gillo

siobhank wrote: »

but does she not feel a teensy bit bad sitting down at rush hour knowing the sliver of seat left over is useless?

No doubt she felt awful, so to feel better she bought some cream cakes to make her feel better, now because of you she's better and gonna take more seat next time:D:D:D:D:D:D

siobhank

siobhank wrote: »

yeah it was really funny, I was half asleep, saw that sweet free seat in my peripheral vision and sat down/half leapt aside when I realised what covered half my seat. Okay, I lose, but does she not feel a teensy bit bad sitting down at rush hour knowing the sliver of seat left over is useless?
No?
No conscience?!

did you ask to see her doctors note? maybe she does have one of those 1 in a million diseases which means she can't lose weight. And maybe she does feel really bad that she can't take up less of the seat. And maybe she has an underlying illness which makes standing all the way from a to be too painful. And maybe she is reading boards now crying because all she wants is to be skinny and loved and now she is eating more chocolate to make her feel momentarily better and make her forget all the skinny bullies that she had to put up with over the years.

Any maybe she's just a fat cow who should stop eating chipper for breakfast and walk to work for a f*cking change

Super-Rush

siobhank wrote: »

Okay, so we all know Ryanair have threatened a so-called 'fat tax' on overweight passengers on the seemingly credible premise that more person=more fuel needed to transport them.
Also, some U.S. airlines charge overweight passengers for two seats for their own safety and that of other passengers.
Now, personally, this seems fair to me - unless, say, a medical cert. can be produced to say that the person's size is because of some endocrinological deficiency or whatever. Which I understand is very rare and most overweight persons are just, em, overweight.
So this morning I sat on the Dart and got a fright because there was one leg on half of my seat. Couldn't really jump up and move and would have seemed rude but I spent the journey hanging off my seat and constantly having to shove my leg under the seat opposite to balance myself. The big lady beside me said or did nothing (nothing she could have done, really) to make more room. Could she not have stood? I wouldn't leave a bag draped across the seat beside me. If I was going to take two seats, I would stand.
Felt irritated and I think that personally I do have little patience with fat people but this really annoyed me.

Why??

rubadub

siobhank wrote: »

Now, personally, this seems fair to me - unless, say, a medical cert. can be produced to say that the person's size is because of some endocrinological deficiency or whatever.

On the same note do you think people with superfast metabolisms should be allowed more food for the same price in restaurants? if they have a medical note of course. Larger people already have much higher metabolisms, so as a service of "feeding them" they need more, just like "moving them" would cost more too.

jumpguy wrote: »

I think charging people for 2 seats is fair enough.

However, a fat tax for fuel needs is abit strange to me. Is carrying the extra 30KG per fat person really a massive tug on the fuel of a jet airliner? Physics buffs or aviation heavyweights please enlighten me...

It was more of a marketing gimmick. But they do charge airmail post by weight and size, the most important is probably the size. If you are not spilling into the other persons seat but weigh a lot for some reason then you are fairly fine. It is like shipping companies charging by unit volume and if you go above the normal weight for that volume you pay more.

They should simply offer bigger seats at a premium, at the moment most offer this only on larger planes and only as a full premium service, i.e. business or first class with all the extras. Many just want a bigger seat. If ryanair have 3 seats in a row, and charge 100 per ticket, then it would make sense to have a few rows with 2 seats and charge 150. I am sure plenty would like to pay the bit more (large or small).

There was a case where a woman was seriously injured from a woman spilling onto her. She had complained to air hostesses and they said there were no other seats and nothing they could do. I think she suffered internal injuries and sued.

Mossy Monk

siobhank wrote: »

yeah it was really funny, I was half asleep, saw that sweet free seat in my peripheral vision and sat down/half leapt aside when I realised what covered half my seat. Okay, I lose, but does she not feel a teensy bit bad sitting down at rush hour knowing the sliver of seat left over is useless?
No?
No conscience?!

Lose some weight fatty and you would have fit just fine

Steyr

jumpguy wrote: »

However, a fat tax for fuel needs is abit strange to me. Is carrying the extra 30KG per fat person really a massive tug on the fuel of a jet airliner? Physics buffs or aviation heavyweights please enlighten me..

Yes yes it does, thats why all your luggage is weighed before take off etc as this has to be calculated before the flight. There are weight restrictions for every aircraft be it a prop or a jet or helicopter, all that weight adds up. There have been several fatal accidents to general aviation aircraft in which overloading, or out-of-limits centre of gravity (cg), were contributory factors.

jumpguy

Steyr wrote: »

Yes yes it does, thats why all your luggage is weighed before take off etc as this has to be calculated before the flight. There are weight restrictions for every aircraft be it a prop or a jet or helicopter, all that weight adds up. There have been several fatal accidents to general aviation aircraft in which overloading, or out-of-limits centre of gravity (cg), were contributory factors.

Thanks for that, could understand it alright on the prop plane but I would've thought jet airliners, especially long-range ones to have abit more tolerance.

Now thinking about it, that extra money you must pay for over 15kg of luggage, a fat tax seems to make sense. However, it could never be implemented, it'd cause huge uproar ("BUT I'M BIG BONED"...I can hear it on Joe Duffy now...).

MagicMarker

OP, why the fúck should she have to stand up? She was there first so tough shít. If you don't like it then buy a fúcking car and you'll be in comfort every day. If you rely on public transport then you'll just have to accept the fact that sometimes you won't get your way.

Personally, I hate peasants winging about their public transport escapades. It's getting tiresome.

Milky Moo

siobhank wrote: »

Um, I didn't mean when I sat down. I meant in the first place, knowing she would take up (almost) two seats.
I am posting about it because it really p^%&ed me off and didn't bother her in the slightest.
If I was beside her on a 12 hour flight now I would have exploded

What was she supposed to do profusely apologise for her existence?

Fair enough on flights as a comfort issue if you are taking up two seats you should be charged,as space is a precious commodity in that situation.

However I am sure this woman is well aware of her girth and was just going about her business on a normal day.So you were squashed for alittle whilethe embarrassment the lady may feel on a day to day level,and if she knew she was subject to internet fodder,far outweighs that.

It doesn't seem like it affected you that greatly,just a mere annoyance.

mayordenis

siobhank wrote: »

yeah it was really funny, I was half asleep, saw that sweet free seat in my peripheral vision and sat down/half leapt aside when I realised what covered half my seat. Okay, I lose, but does she not feel a teensy bit bad sitting down at rush hour knowing the sliver of seat left over is useless?
No?
No conscience?!

see if she's really fat she can't stand as it'll buckle her shins, you lose a few pounds yerself and you won't even notice your standing.

Terry

siobhank wrote: »

Okay, so we all know Ryanair have threatened a so-called 'fat tax' on overweight passengers on the seemingly credible premise that more person=more fuel needed to transport them.
Also, some U.S. airlines charge overweight passengers for two seats for their own safety and that of other passengers.
Now, personally, this seems fair to me - unless, say, a medical cert. can be produced to say that the person's size is because of some endocrinological deficiency or whatever. Which I understand is very rare and most overweight persons are just, em, overweight.
So this morning I sat on the Dart and got a fright because there was one leg on half of my seat. Couldn't really jump up and move and would have seemed rude but I spent the journey hanging off my seat and constantly having to shove my leg under the seat opposite to balance myself. The big lady beside me said or did nothing (nothing she could have done, really) to make more room. Could she not have stood? I wouldn't leave a bag draped across the seat beside me. If I was going to take two seats, I would stand.
Felt irritated and I think that personally I do have little patience with fat people but this really annoyed me.

I'm fat.
What's your problem, OP?

Being skinny, you are only taking up 1/3 of a seat. Why can't I take up the other 2/3?

Super-Rush

I want to know why the OP has 'little patience' with fat people

Venom

What bugs me on public transport is when fat people plonk down beside ya on the outside seat yet glare daggers at you the whole journey coz they cant fit all on the 2nd seat.

As for the OP dont think she should of having to stand as she did get the seat first but do agree if you take up more than one seat you pay more than one fare.

Zonda999

jumpguy wrote: »

it'd cause huge uproar ("BUT I'M BIG BONED"...I can hear it on Joe Duffy now...).

LoL!:D

c4cat

siobhank wrote: »

yeah it was really funny, I was half asleep, saw that sweet free seat in my peripheral vision and sat down/half leapt aside when I realised what covered half my seat. Okay, I lose, but does she not feel a teensy bit bad sitting down at rush hour knowing the sliver of seat left over is useless?
No?
No conscience?!

Well the average size of a human is larger then say 20, 40, and 60 years ago and the human size is just going to get bigger because of our lifestyle its a Darwinian fact....so its about time seats were made 30% bigger cos they do not seem to have altered standard sizes since the 1940's for public seats

Whiskey Devil

If she was being rude (as you seem to think), why didn't you just be rude in return and move?


:rolleyes:

Piste

YT wrote: »

I totally agree with you. She should have sat in the fat person carriage wearing her "Unclean" sign and ringing her bell.
:rolleyes:

Actually you might be on to something. They should have one carriage for fat people with larger seats so normal people dont have to be bothered by them and fat people can be more comfortable. It's win-win!

Rej

Slightly off topic, but anyway...

I drive a micra (old model), i took driving lessons in my car, and one particular instructor practically sat on the gear stick.

Was awful, bad enough doing a hill start when you are learning how to drive without having to search for the gear stick under someones leg!! and dont get me started about the hand break!!

She didnt appear to notice at all..

Venom

Rej wrote: »

Slightly off topic, but anyway...

I drive a micra (old model), i took driving lessons in my car, and one particular instructor practically sat on the gear stick.

Was awful, bad enough doing a hill start when you are learning how to drive without having to search for the gear stick under someones leg!! and dont get me started about the hand break!!

She didnt appear to notice at all..

Some people just have no spatial awareness :eek:

Leftyflip

P_1

Didn't Iarnrod Eireann order a load of DART carriages with seats that were designed for much smaller Japaneese people a few years back?

schumacher

OP i feel for you. I think there should be a law brought in that if you take up anymore than your own seat( other than for a second by accident) you should have to pay 2 fares. This should apply to all public transport. Its so rude to take up a peice of someone else's seat just because you cant control what you eat. To me its the same as eating a strangers food in a restaurant just because they are tinner than you.

challengemaster

If she took up that much room sitting down, how much of a fcuking obstruction would she be if she stayed standing up?

schumacher

If you get to sit down on public transport you dont expect to be inconvenienced by an overweight person sitting in your seat. But if your unlucky enough to have to stand then its more common.

Mossy Monk

schumacher wrote: »

I think there should be a law brought in that if you take up anymore than your own seat( other than for a second by accident) you should have to pay 2 fares.

I'd much rather hte law makers to concentrate on more serious matters.

TorresDaLegend

enniscorthy wrote: »

good1mate i hear what ur sayin oh hey listen anyone remember that song

"HEY BABY"

heheheheheheheheheheheh

Wtf? Are you retarded?

Doc

siobhank wrote: »

So this morning I sat on the Dart and got a fright because there was one leg on half of my seat. Couldn't really jump up and move and would have seemed rude but I spent the journey hanging off my seat and constantly having to shove my leg under the seat opposite to balance myself. The big lady beside me said or did nothing (nothing she could have done, really) to make more room. Could she not have stood? I wouldn't leave a bag draped across the seat beside me. If I was going to take two seats, I would stand.
Felt irritated and I think that personally I do have little patience with fat people but this really annoyed me.

That was my sister she is pregnant you are a horrible person and should apologies to everyone.

You wanted to make a pregnant lady stand all the way home.

Shame on you.

MagicMarker

schumacher wrote: »

If you get to sit down on public transport you dont expect to be inconvenienced by an overweight person sitting in your seat. But if your unlucky enough to have to stand then its more common.

Newsflash, there is no such thing as ''your seat'' on public transport.

Dragan

super-rush wrote: »

I want to know why the OP has 'little patience' with fat people

Because hating on fat people is the new hating on smokers.

Up next, guys with hair and chicks on the rag.

jester77

Op, you should have moved to the other side of the carriage to help with the imbalance instead of adding to it. Very thoughtless on your part!

Duckjob

Ryanair are now checking luggage size at the boarding gate with those racks where you put your bag in and if it fits down it's ok.

If they get their way on fat tax, expect to see another rack beside that people have to fit their arses into before they get to board on a single ticket.

rubadub

jumpguy wrote: »

Now thinking about it, that extra money you must pay for over 15kg of luggage, a fat tax seems to make sense. However, it could never be implemented, it'd cause huge uproar ("BUT I'M BIG BONED"...I can hear it on Joe Duffy now...).

They already DO weigh people on some flights in Ireland.

EileenG wrote: »

Aer Arran already weight people on the smaller planes. Too many heavy people on one side of the plane and it won't take off.

mikemac wrote: »

If you fly from Conemara Airport to Aran Islands they do this. (weight people)
It to see who sits where for balance.

Well, they did last time I was there and the plane was very small

Duckjob wrote: »

Ryanair are now checking luggage size at the boarding gate with those racks where you put your bag in and if it fits down it's ok.

If they get their way on fat tax, expect to see another rack beside that people have to fit their arses into before they get to board on a single ticket.

I would love that. I hate PC'ness and "sensitivity". If you were transporting a large animal it would cost more than a smaller one big deal, why should it not.

The ryanair proposal did nothing to remedy the situation, AFAIK all they wanted to do was charge people more, the person stuck beside them got no discount and the big person did not get a bigger seat. As I said already some airline should offer various sized seats at various prices. Larger size clothes can cost more, and so it should, it uses more material. If the seat cost more to produce and takes up potential passenger space of course you should be charged.

It should be like a fairground ride, if you are too big or small you are simply not let on. If all seats are made big enough to fit 99.9% of the population then everysingle person below the largest side is being penalised and is subsidising them. It would be like restaurants being forced to give 20,000kcal meals to all people on the off chance somebody with a need for a high food intake comes along, while all the people on 2,000-3,000kcal are forced to pay the same yet the food goes to waste.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/article815167.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

Crushed by ‘obese’ passenger
Barbara Hewson’s life was ruined on a Virgin flight. Mark Hodson reports

A holidaymaker has won a £13,000 settlement from Virgin Atlantic after she was crushed and injured by an obese passenger seated beside her on a flight to Los Angeles.

Barbara Hewson, from Swansea, suffered a haematoma in her chest, torn leg muscles and a crippling form of sciatica. Almost two years after the incident, she is still in constant pain and walks with a stick.

Hewson says the passenger was so large that she could only get into her economy-class seat by raising the armrest and spilling into the adjacent seat. She was unable to squeeze into the toilet and, throughout much of the 11hr flight, her elbow rested on Hewson’s chest.

As soon as Hewson boarded the aircraft at Heathrow and saw the woman, she complained to the cabin crew, but was told the flight was full.

“Their attitude was awful. They said I could get off the flight and wait for the next one, or I could ask if another passenger would exchange seats with me — which was clearly ludicrous.” Hewson, who is 4ft 11in tall, saw no alternative but to take her seat.

“It was horrific,” she says. “This woman was so enormous that she was literally sitting on top of me. Her left leg was pressing down on my right leg and her arm was across my chest, pinning me down. She was so far across me that, although she was sitting to my right, the haematoma developed in my left breast. To add insult to injury, about halfway into the flight, we discovered that her husband was sitting directly behind her. He clearly knew better than to sit next to his own wife.”

As well as developing a haematoma, which led to a burst blood vessel in her left hand, Hewson suffered damage to the muscles and sciatic nerves of her right leg, and torn muscles in her buttock, caused by the pressure of the seat-belt buckle. In Los Angeles, she was admitted to hospital in a wheelchair and injected with painkillers. On her return home, she was bedridden for a month.

Then came the painful process of trying to force Virgin Atlantic to admit liability. When Hewson first wrote to complain, the airline sent her “a small basket of tinned goods worth about £15”. Her subsequent letters were ignored until she lost patience and told the airline she was seeking legal advice. It responded by offering her two free flights anywhere in the world and £500 of Virgin hotel vouchers as a “goodwill gesture”.

Hewson — who was in no fit state to fly — rejected the offer and threatened to sue for injury and negligence. Virgin Atlantic then insisted Hewson go through a series of medical examinations and eventually increased its offer to £4,750, then to £5,500 and finally to £13,000.

Hewson, a freelance writer, insists the airline was guilty of negligence, because it was aware of the size of the offending passenger. On the woman’s outbound flight from Los Angeles to London she said she had been allocated two seats, even though she had only paid for one. “She clearly thought she’d get two seats on the way home too, but the flight was full,” says Hewson, “so they put her in a seat in the middle of a row of four where one of the armrests could be raised.” Hewson was so cramped that she was unable to fasten her seatbelt during turbulence.

On her flight home, Hewson was still unwell and in severe pain, and was told at check-in that she would be upgraded on boarding. But despite carrying a discharge letter from the hospital in Los Angeles saying she should be upgraded, the cabin crew refused. At first, they claimed the premium cabins were full; later in the flight, they admitted they were not.

Hewson then entered a protracted period of dispute with Virgin Atlantic, during which she estimates she wrote 40-50 letters and e-mails of complaint. After more than 18 months of wrangling, the airline finally offered £13,000 plus medical expenses and Hewson’s legal fees of £4,000. “It’s still a paltry amount, but my solicitor advised me to accept it,” she says. “No amount of money would have compensated for the agony I’ve been through. I used to be a feisty, enthusiastic person and loved travelling, but this has taken the stuffing out of me. My whole quality of life has gone and I now view travelling with horror.”

Virgin Atlantic says: “This was an unprecedented set of extremely unfortunate circumstances. We have apologised to Mrs Hewson and offered her compensation, which she has accepted, and we are pleased that this has now reached a conclusion.”

There is more info in the link

The way around the PC bullsh!t I suggested before was to have a very high fare to begin with, and a combined limit of luggage and person of say 200kg. If you think you are entitled to a cheaper fare then you offer yourself and luggage up to be weighed together. This would still need sizing like luggage for seats though. But again everybody should be charged for a very large seat in the first place, if you wanted a cheaper small one you would have to freely offer yourself up to be sized, just like luggage. A plane could have easily removable seats, but it should all be done well in advance at booking time. If you turn up to claim your small seat and cannot fit in it then you simply miss your flight, YOUR fault.

siobhank

MagicMarker wrote: »

Newsflash, there is no such thing as ''your seat'' on public transport.

Well, is it not the case that if you buy a ticket and there are seats, you are entitled to one?
If I get on a train and decide sit down to plonk my suitcase on the seat next to me and refuse to budge do you not think someone would say something to me?

Terry

A suitcase is not a person.

Also, the ceiling on busses is too low for me. I demand that the ceiling be raised so that I don't have to stoop on the the bus.

siobhank

Terry wrote: »

A suitcase is not a person.

Yes I am aware of this, what I'm saying is if you are aware you will take up two seats, would you not bloody well stand.

Will start to take the bus from now on, hopefully it won't injure me too

P_1

Sorry there OP, if you sit on the outside of a fatty you don't really have any cause to complain, just stand.

Now if you were sitting on the inside minding your own business and fatty plonks their fat arse beside you then you have a reason to complain.

Has hapened to me a few times and the elbows were deployed, fattys have complained but they now know not to crush me against the wall.

ShooterSF

Terry wrote: »

A suitcase is not a person.

Also, the ceiling on busses is too low for me. I demand that the ceiling be raised so that I don't have to stoop on the the bus.

Sit down! If you have to stand take a double decker and we'll cut a hole between the floors to put your head through.

siobhank

pithater1 wrote: »

the elbows were deployed

LOL

*All systems go, fatty in the house*

MagicMarker

siobhank wrote: »

Well, is it not the case that if you buy a ticket and there are seats, you are entitled to one?
If I get on a train and decide sit down to plonk my suitcase on the seat next to me and refuse to budge do you not think someone would say something to me?

I don't like idiots, I demand a seperate carriage for idiots.

ciagr297

pithater1 wrote: »

Now if you were sitting on the inside minding your own business and fatty plonks their fat arse beside you then you have a reason to complain.

this is constantly happening to me. i'm quite a petite person and the fattys just seem to target the seat next to me....in planes, trains and automobiles

pithater1 wrote: »

Has hapened to me a few times and the elbows were deployed, fattys have complained but they now know not to crush me against the wall.

and my strategy is the same, fortunately i have rather sharp elbows so it works double quick to prevent me being squished:D:D

Terry

ShooterSF wrote: »

Sit down! If you have to stand take a double decker and we'll cut a hole between the floors to put your head through.

No. I demand allowances be made for me and me alone.