I agree it's disappointing that people won't offer a seat, but people shouldn't be shy about asking for a seat. I remember my wife telling me about getting on a bus with her young son, and a fairly elderly lady offered her a seat, and she said, "no thank you," then then turned to the young man across the aisle from her and said, "but I'll take your's, please."
Needless to say the young man obliged.
Another time I was standing on a pretty packed commuter train in London. There was an elderly who seemed to be hanging onto the handrail, but none of the seated passengers seemed to notice (in fairness, the area we were in was a wheelchair/bicycle area with mainly flip-up seats. I said, "would someone please offer this woman a seat."
I have to say, sometimes it can be pretty hard to tell if a person really needs a seat or not, and we seem to have built up a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" culture, where it's offensive both to give up your seat, and not to.
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