Are you a considerate passenger?

Look out for some cartoon characters on posters on the London Underground and buses from 1st February, aimed at encouraging us to be more considerate passengers.

TfL's site says: 'The Londoners' are distinct animated characters each sporting t-shirts with a specific pledge aimed to encourage considerate behaviour when travelling in London.

Their pledges include:

* "I will offer my seat"
* "I won't play my music out loud"
* "I'll try to remember what it's like to be 14 again"

When I first read the last pledge I was more than a bit puzzled. Surely if you remember what it's like to be 14 again when you're travelling on public transport, you'll be shouting, trying to have a sly fag and fare dodging. Unless it means we're supposed to have some sympathy for teens.


Sheriff Ken Livingstone says: "We can all do things in all innocence when travelling which come across as thoughtless. We're asking all Londoners to think before playing loud music or just bounding down the aisles.

"We'll all feel better about sharing the morning commute, the journey to school, the local shopping trip and coming home after a night out. It's about Londoners talking to Londoners. If we all take responsibility for our own actions, it can make a difference to all of our lives"

There's a short film directed by Oscar nominated Mike Figgis which will be showing in cinemas across London to drum the points home. I love Mike Figgis and thought that Leaving Las Vegas was amazing, but I really wasn't convinced by this film. I wonder how much artistic / creative licence Figgis was given for this, and whether the TfL powers that be turned it into a film made by committee.

I'm all for people being more considerate of others on public transport, but for me, the film and these particular cute cartoon characters don't work.

Maybe it's because I'm not a teenager. Maybe it's because I've seen these campaigns year after year after year and thought others were much better (I loved the "love is" characters from an old campaign - see image on the right).

It seems a waste of Figgis' talent specially as I bet he wasn't that cheap to hire. I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts.