It’s not easy to keep your bal­ance on a trol­ley bus if you are wear­ing ver­ti­gin­ous high heels or are weighed down with shop­ping. It can feel like surf­ing rather than just rid­ing the bus.

But spare a thought for those whose seat­less­ness is more than just an incon­veni­ence. In recent months, this Wel­ling­tonista has noticed her pro­trud­ing baby bump does­n’t get her a coveted seat on a packed peak hour bus. I can be stand­ing with my bump right in some civil ser­vant’s face and he won’t budge. And just this morn­ing, I watched embar­rassed at myself and my fel­low Wel­ling­to­ni­ans, as a woman with Par­kin­son’s struggled to hang onto a pole as our bus swept down Brook­lyn Hill packed to the gun­nels with people look­ing the oth­er way.

Have Wel­ling­to­ni­ans lost their bene­vol­ence for their fel­low man – all for the price of a seat on the bus? Surely the people of my beloved city are bet­ter than that? Surely?