"No Seats" on the F Train Commuting with Children ?

Reading the blogs and news articles today I saw the posts about the MTA's planned pilot program to put into service subway cars with folding seats but to lock those seats in the up position during rush hours to create more space for additional riders.

My very first thoughts were for the safety of my children, ages 4 and 6, as they commute to public school in Manhattan from Roosevelt Island. If it was not for the generousity of strangers giving my 4 year old a seat I swear she may have been crushed in some of the subway cars we have had to enter so she would not be late to school. It this pilot program is put into actual practice we will be leaving even earlier and /or letting more trains go by as it would not be worth subjecting a child to such craziness day after day.

Generally even if she stands the passengers are cognizant of a child's presence and give them space but sometimes this is not the case.

I can understand what the MTA is trying to determine by such a program but for the sake of small children, pregnant women, the elderly and the infirmed this is simply not a good idea.