IN A sign that Singapore is becoming more gracious, more commuters are happy with fellow passengers’ behaviour.

Of 1,000 residents polled in a Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) survey this year, 46 per cent said they were happy with commuters’ readiness to let passengers alight first before boarding buses or trains, up from 34 per cent last year.

Significantly more people were happy with adults taking care of children so they did not annoy others in public, and with cleaner public toilets.

The improvements have pushed Singapore’s score on the Graciousness Index to 61, from 58 last year.

Yesterday, SKM’s chairman, Mr Koh Poh Tiong, attributed these improvements to SKM’s outreach activities, such as its World Kindness Day event last year, at which daisies were handed out for people to give to those who are kind.

The survey, in its second year, asked people to rate how happy they were with others’ behaviour at home, at work, in school and in public places.

Despite the better overall score, the poll found that there was still room for improvement, especially in people’s behaviour in public places and on public transport. For example, fewer people were happy about how others behaved towards the elderly, the disabled and pregnant women.

SKM has been in talks this month to install closed-circuit cameras on trains to track the number of people who give up their seats to others, and sensors to count the number of trays returned in food courts.

Next year, it also plans to poll foreign workers, expatriates and tourists on the behaviour of Singaporeans.

Student Bryan Ng, 20, noted that with campaigns reminding people to give way to alighting passengers, it is now “becoming a very natural thing to do” for him.