Crowding in Public Transport - Essay Example

If a large number of people used commuter vehicles then the number of cars on the roads would be reduced and this would greatly reduce overall fuel consumption.

The article “Crowding and personal space invasion on the Train: Please don’t make me sit in the Middle” is important in addressing the issue at hand because it seeks to explain why commuters are turned off from using public trains for transport. In this research, the authors examine the effect of train density and proximity of seats on increased stress in commuters. The main aim of the study is to investigate which attributes of the commuting experience affect the privacy of commuters. This is based on the notion that commuters value personal space as indicated in previous studies. This explains why many commuters refrain from using the middle seats on a train. Different indices are used to measure the stress in commuters. The research uses a sample of 139 commuters who use trains during rush hour. The results of this study show that increased proximity increases the amount of stress in commuters. It was discovered that the number of passengers about the number of seats did not correlate to an increase in stress (Gary & Wener 2007). However, the number of middle seats was associated with increased stress in the passengers using these seats. This implies that personal space contributes to stress in passengers compared to the density of the trains.

The research design applied in this research is realistic as it is conducted in a real-life environment. Moreover, the results from the study are in line with previous lab studies and other studies conducted in a naturalist’s environment (Cohn 2008). This is because the information in this study was collected using people who regularly use the rush hour train as a means of transport.

Nevertheless, this study had several limitations. The correlation between the car train density and the seat was lower than the expected value. This is because it was observed that many passengers opted to stand on their own instead of occupying the available seats and sitting next to strangers. The study did not have an accommodation for the number of passengers that traveled on the bus while standing despite the presence of seats. The study also failed by not incorporating the contributors of stress which are to related the invasion of personal privacy (Gary & Wener 2007). This is because it was observed that the correlation between car density and stress was minimal. This implies that the study could have been more meaningful if it sought to study the effect of frequency in the seats and not the overall car frequency and how the frequency at which personal space is intruded increases stress. This information can however be used as a basis for future studies.

The information collected in this study can be used in designing the interior of public commuter vehicles. The design would take into account the need for personal space for commuters and eradicate the middle seat. The new design should therefore have two seats which are well spaced so that when people sit together they do not invade each other privacy. This would reduce the number of people who stand or those who fail to board commuter trains to avoid occupying the middle seat.