(01 Sep 2015, 11:48 pm)Adam wrote Sorry Malarkey, only seen your post until now.
I'm not sure what the policy is on dogs (possibly varies from company to company) but I personally would class dogs as passengers. Most definitions constrain passengers to just the human form, "people", but I believe it should be "all living things". You mention guide dogs and class them as a passenger as they are helping someone, but no matter how hard anyone tries to convince others, a guide dog still isn't a human.
With my belief however, all animals and other living things are passengers. From dogs (not just guide dogs) and budgies to sunflowers and micro-organisms, they are all passengers.
People may argue that animals or plants are just the "luggage" of a passenger, but if you were to argue that point, then would babies be brought under the same umbrella as they haven't got a choice about whether to travel or not?
Before you know it, you're then tangled in a web of philosophical ethics. Fascinating stuff I think.
As for your latter point on guide dogs, it fascinates me too how they, or even the blind/visually impaired person, knew in the past when their stop is, but thanks to the technology nowadays of Next Stop Announcements, it has made bus travel a viable option for people with this disability.
I agree, all animals or organisms travelling upon transport should be regarded as passenger irrespective of whether they're human or not. In general, I do make an effort not to adopt an anthropocentric view despite my obvious bias. Everything has the same right to exist and should be allowed the freedom to exist without impingement or discrimination.
But I would like to (briefly) unpack the term 'passenger' and broaden the scope a little. What is a passenger? You've used the term in relation to transport but what is transport? A conduit which allows to travel from one point to another? If we are travelling from one point to another then time must also be regarded as 'transport' and therefore everything which travels in time must also be a 'passenger'. In short, we all are passengers whether we like it or not.