You know the general social rule that if there is a passenger in the car, one of them has to sit in the front passenger seat? If the front passenger got off, another passenger was to get in front. I never quite knew that until I started working, since my family never enforced such a ridiculous rule. In fact, the front passenger seat was almost always empty!

But first, why is it necessary? To provide accompaniment for the driver. To avoid making the driver feel like he/she is driving a limosine. To not have to ask the passenger behind to move his head so he can reverse.

One day my mom dropped me off at the bus stop where my colleagues were waiting. As my mom used the front passenger seat to store her stuff, my siblings and I would always sit behind in the van. When I got off, my bitchy colleague was incensed because of my apparently rude seating position.

My parents were practical people, and so we never practiced the ritual of having a front passenger get off, and a rear passenger get out and get on the front passenger seat.

I’d still comply to the social ritual when not with family. However, I thought this such ritual (or at least, the re-occupation of the front seat) on a two-door, four-seater car was stupid.

Supposing there were two passengers each getting off at different locations, and the one to get off first was behind. How do you get both out of the car?

1. Driver stops at first location; front passenger opens the door and gets out
2. Front passenger folds seat to the front so that rear passenger may exit
3. Rear passenger exits
4. Front passenger folds seat back
5. Front passenger sits down and closes door
6. Driver stops at second location; front passenger opens the door and gets out
7. Front passenger closes door

Supposing you got smart and swapped passenger positions:

1. Driver stops at first location; front passenger opens the door and gets out
2. Front passenger folds seat to the front so that rear passenger may exit
3. Rear passenger exits
4. Rear passenger folds seat back
5. Rear passenger gets in front seat and closes door
6. Driver stops at second location; (formerly) rear passenger opens the door and gets out
7. (Formerly a) passenger closes door

Both take the same number of steps, but the second case can be optimized:

1. Driver stops at first location; front passenger opens the door and gets out
2. (Formerly) front passenger closes door
3. On the drive to the second location, the rear passenger folds the seat to the front so that he/she may exit, so this isn’t really a time-consuming step
4. Driver stops at second location; rear passenger opens the door and gets out
5. (Formerly a passenger) folds seat back and closes door

This can be useful when the driver is in a rush, or when you’re on the wrong lane to drop off passengers. Are you going to endanger their lives by making them do a switcheroo while avoiding traffic? Think about it.