Public Transportation

When I first came up with the idea for this blog, I did not realize that my question was actually somewhat already answered. I was sitting on the Amtrak train going from Chicago to Milwaukee to visit my cousin at Marquette University. While sitting in my seat, I began to wonder why I had chosen that particular seat. I came to the conclusion that I had decided to sit there because of the following three reasons: #1 On this particular train, you can choose to sit facing backwards or forwards. I find it dizzying as well as unpleasant to be sitting facing backward, so I chose to sit facing forward. #2 I wanted to be able to look out at my surroundings, so I chose a seat next to the window. #3 I was traveling alone and wanted to get some work done for school, so I chose to sat in a quiet, emptier section of the particular train car that I was in.

After choosing my seat, I started to wonder if people ever were assigned to a particular seat on the train. I compared this in my mind of bus travel, where seats are not assigned, and to air travel, where seats are usually assigned. I began to imagine what it would be like if there were seats assigned when traveling by bus and if there were not seats assigned when traveling by air.

I then thought of Southwest Airlines. On Southwest Airlines, passengers are able to choose their seat, however, they must board the plane in a particular (assigned) order. I am not sure how people generally feel about Southwest Airlines, but I feel like they do not dominate market share with this concept. I am kind of confused as of now how it would go over if this was the way for all things, but I will be thinking about it.