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You'll soon be hearing a new announcement in stations and on TfL services.
"Please look up to see if anyone needs your seat more than you do" is pretty self-explanatory, encouraging passengers to ensure that anyone who needs a seat can get one.
It's part of the Look Up campaign, which was started by customer Corry Shaw, who is disabled and lives with chronic pain. She has a TfL Please Offer Me A Seat badge, but finds that many commuters avoid eye contact or pretend not to see the badge. So she began the campaign to ask people to look up, making it easier for her to ask for a seat when she needs one.
She said:
I am so delighted that the Look Up campaign is being supported by TfL. When I emailed TfL a month ago I never dreamed that it would lead to a real change in the public transport system, but the message seems to resonate with people and I've had support from all over the country.
31,000 of the Please Offer Me A Seat badges have been issued since April 2017.
Along with the announcements, expect to see the Look Up campaign on posters and on TfL's social media channels.
But will it make a difference? We're sceptical. While it may those genuinely engrossed in books and newspapers to look up, it's unlikely to have any influence on those intentionally avoiding giving up their seats — and that's not accounting for the many, many Londoners who travel with headphones, oblivious to announcements.
