I hate BART amateurs
Ball games, major SF events, and bridge closings all bring out the BART amateurs, and they drive me nuts. (The amateurs, that is. The other stuff I mostly take in stride.)
Tourists are BART amateurs by definition, but they don't actually get in my way much, and they tend to travel in smaller groups in any case. No, what really gets gets my goat is the people who live Right Here In The Bay Area, but they never use BART except for the large events, and they don't know how to use it.
What do they do? Well....
- They don't know how the fare machines work [in spite of a website full of information, as well as brochures all over the fucken place] and stand in front of the fare machine in groups, trying to figure it out committee-style.
- And they block the other machines next to their machine, and it never occurs to them to *watch* someone at the next machine.
- They don't know how to put their ticket in the faregate. There's an arrow on it, people!
- They don't let people *off* the train before they try to get on.
- They amble onto the train, looking around for the perfect seat, oblivious to anyone behind them.
- They crowd into the door area of the car, where the sideways seats are, until the crowd reaches a density that suggests they're trying to turn into diamonds.
- They never walk down the aisle. That right there is the worst of it, the thing that actually inspired this post. Once I fight my way thru that damned crowd (using my elbows like the best of the old Chinese women riding the 15 Third to Chinatown) there's enough room to do a fucken *cartwheel* in the aisle.
[This post brought to you by the joy of visiting Millbrae friends during the weekend bridge closure.]