Have you seen that one? interesting I think about what it means to be a citizen…interesting as well to see that European cities are rather losing such kind of civilized manners…and I’ve been spotting more and more signs and boards reminding people how they should behave. For example, a new subway just opened in Lausanne, and it is not working, most of the time, because of people’s behavior, so they are trying to educate them…

A Comedy of Manners: The Public Behavior Civilization Index
(http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2008/10/28/A-Comedy-of-Manners-The-Public-Behavior-Civilization-Index)

Submitted on Oct 28, 2008 11:00am by Mandy Li, Paul Pennay
According to the latest figures from the Humanistic Olympic Studies Center (人文奥运研究中心) at the People’s University of China (Renmin Daxue), Beijing’s citizens are becoming more polite. The center maintains a public behavior civilization index (北京市民公共行为文明指数) that attempts to put a figure on how civilized residents of the capital (including laowai) really are. The index is based on an annual survey of 12,000 randomly chosen Beijing residents along with 1,200 long-term expats (must have lived in the city for more than 2 years). The center also takes into account 3,000 hours of observation of 400,000 pedestrians and 390,000 vehicles at 360 public places across the city when calculating the figure.

The latest results of the Humanistic Olympic Studies Center’s research were released yesterday, it revealed that Beijing residents are now paying more attention to their behavior and manners in public places than ever before. The figure for this year’s results is 82.68 (100 would mean that there was absolutely no bu wenming behavior talking place) and is a vast increase on the score of 65.21 achieved in 2005. Like the numbers of “blue sky” days, the PBCI has increased at a constant rate in the lead up to the Olympics. In 2006 Beijingers had achieved a mark of only 69.06 in terms of their manners and in 2007 this had improved to 73.38.

According to the report, there has been a marked decrease in the number of people jumping queues while waiting for a bus, jaywalking, littering and spitting. There has also been an increase in the willingness of residents to give directions and give up their seats to others on public transport.
2008 -> 2007 -> 2005
Jumping the queue while waiting for the bus 2.2% -> 5% -> 38%
Jaywalking 0.49% -> 2.5% -> 24%
Littering 1.1% -> 2.86% -> 9.1%
Giving up your seat 98% -> 95% -> 76%
Giving directions and help 97% -> 95% -> 71%

Links and Sources
Humanistic Olympic Studies Center
Sdinfo.net: 调查显示：北京市民公共行为文明指数显著提升
Qianlong: 北京市近日调查显示市民公共文明指数显著上升