Civility on public transit, or, keeping me from killing you.

[cadhla]

With the rising price of gas forcing more and more people to seek alternative modes of transportation, it seems like record numbers of people are seeking alternative modes of transportation. Which means, in practical terms, that record numbers of people are abruptly shoving their way onto the buses and BART trains that have been my salvation for

Comments

[penprickle]

Aaaaaa-MEN. Aside from the line issue--in my city, it's first-edges-in, first-gets-on--this could all apply to the buses/trains I ride. THANK you

[djonn]

In the Portland metro area, it's actually illegal to smoke in a bus shelter. Which does not stop some people from doing so anyway.

True story: I was waiting for a bus recently, at a shelter which just happens to be next to the headquarters of a suburban police department. This means that a lot of police cars go by that shelter. It so happened that there was a middle-aged woman sitting in the shelter, smoking a cigarette.

Now, it was a pleasant day and the stop wasn't crowded; I didn't mind that she was sitting on the bench there. But I thought (because the nonsmoking ordinance is fairly recent and hasn't been all that widely publicized) that she might not realize just how many police officers go by that shelter, and so I tried to politely tell her that "I'd hate to see you get a ticket, because smoking is prohibited in shelters nowadays and there's all these police officers that go by".

She gave me a dirty look, said something to the effect, of "Do I look like I care?" . . . and moved out of the shelter.

Ah, well....

[bercilakslady]

Do not use your fellow passenger as a backrest, even if you do choose to sit next to me with your feet in the aisle.

[mokatiki]

Ah, I think they should print this out and hand it to commuters in the morning instead of the free paper. It would make life some much easier!

Expanding on the headphones rule, if your music is loud enough for me to hear it accross the train, it is too loud. Try and be considerete when listening to music, other people may not to listen to Aretha at 6.30am.

[dornbeast]

As a footnote to the headphones rule: People who spend a little of the money they aren't spending on gas to buy noise-canceling headphones will be appreciated. Most of the people with it cranked are trying to drown out background noise.

[awfief]

True. However, you don't have the same privilege of lack of noise as when you're in your car. I actually had to buy noise-cancelling headphones, because I felt upset when other people's noises distracted me. If it bothers you that much, find a way to deal with it.....

In a way that does NOT *cause* other people the very same problem you're fixing.

[dornbeast]

Sorry - I wasn't clear.

Most of the people who have their music cranked are the ones who didn't have the sense to purchase a set of noise-cancelling headphones in the first place.

To expand on "headphones and noise"

[copperwise]

Oh, indeed. Love you lots

Re: To expand on "headphones and noise"

[wendyzski]

30 people simultaneously whining and bitching about being late does nothing to get anyone there any faster

This is why you have a cell phone - so you can call your boss and say "OK, I'm on the bus at 39th and whatever and it looks like we're running late".

Re: To expand on "headphones and noise"

[copperwise]

Exactly! Exactly!

In fact when in this situation if someone else does not have a cell, it is very kind to allow them to borrow yours and call their own boss for the same reason. Not mandatory, and of course you have to make a snap decision as to whether they are going to leap up and abscond with it, but generally I've always found it worked out just fine.

Re: To expand on "headphones and noise"

[dornbeast]

Conversations, part two:

This is public transportation. People who can't keep their language to the level of a PG movie should shut up. Failing that, they should not ask other people, "What do you think of me?" unless the answer "I think you're a trash-talking loudmouth with no idea of how to behave in polite company" is acceptable.

[herefox]

One, at least:

People often want to get OFF what ever form of transportation they're using. Thus crowding the doors so that they don't have to do a little mambo/limbo dance through crowds of people rushing to get in tends to make everyone's day a little better.

This also applies to people pushing past a person nice enough to pause to actually let people get off. They were being polite, ramming into them is even ruder than it would normally be. You will NOT get there faster by doing so and you'll probably have to sit next to someone one way or another.

[grey_lady]

Yes! On the London Tube they make the announcement to people waiting to please let passengers *off* before boarding the train. Not everyone listens. But if the exiting passengers are allowed to, well, exit, it means there's that much more room for everyone else to get on. You'd really think people could work that one out ....

And yes, I confess I've disembarked with my elbows out on occasion.

[igneous_smurf]

Right there with you! There is just NO ROOM on those bloody carriages for more people to squeeze on without one or more people getting off.

Disembarking with elbows and back packs held like shields is fun and earns some really cool looks from people that you have to push out of the way. Not least because you've usually just pushed them to the very back of the mob. ;)

[notalwaysweak]

I've had to disembark with my elbows out too, or I physically wouldn't be able to get off the train.

Fortunately there's a tendency for buses here (Melbourne, Australia) to be enter at the the front door, exit at the back, so that decreases the issue, although people do still try and get out by the front door and then look surprised that there are seven people in their way.