Subway and Public Transportation Etiquette - The People We Encounter

[E TF]

I try to avoid the London Underground these days, but I commuted on it daily for years. Recently I've had to travel on it a fair bit. Two things have made me think of this thread.

1. A group of Chinese tourists got on my carriage, which wasn't especially busy, but they all crowded around me and did not spread out or seem to notice my existence. I guess Chinese society and culture is so different from ours that it has given them a very different notion of personal space. Let me just say this - Chinese society and culture is wrong.

2. Today, a very large woman opposite me consumed a whole bag of fruit that she had clearly just bought from a shop. An apple, some grapes and a medley of pineapple and melon cubes (possibly mango). Two things struck me about this: a) Personally, I like to give grapes and apples from the shop a good rinse under the tap before I eat them in the comfort of my own home. You would have to irradiate the entire tube network before you could persuade me to eat anything down there. It's one giant petri dish. b) She seemed to be sort of showing off what she was doing - "Look at me, I may be fat but I'm eating fruit here people" - well, stuffing your face with fruit may be better than stuffing it with cheeseburgers, but do you see anyone else on this train eating a whole bag of fruit at 11.45 on a Wednesday?

 

[aravenel]

Eating on the subway is ******* disgusting. The worst is when someone has some nasty fried thing they are eating with their hands. Fried chicken, fries, whatever. Not only does the smell permeate the whole car, but they are eating with their hands, on the subway. Ugh.

This morning some giggly high school girl was next to me on the subway. She combined two of my worst pet peeves--the backpack and foot stomping. Every time the train moved, first her backpack would slam into me, then she would stomp on my shoes with her boots. And the whole time, she was obliviously gossiping and giggling with her friend. Double bad, she was talking about how she did poorly on her SAT so *her mom* had to write some letter to complain about it.

So much wrong with this:

1. Stop stepping on my goddamn shoes.
2. Pay ******* attention. This is the city, if you are walking around oblivious all the time bad things will happen.
3. You bombed the SAT. Study harder and take it again. Don't try to come up with some bullshit excuse. Honestly, if you can't get it together for a test they let you retake as many times as you want, you are going to fail at life.
4. If you do have some bullshit excuse, take responsibility for it yourself, don't have your mommy write you a note like a little baby.

You know what, this is annoying me so much I am cross posting this into the "Things that are pissing you off" thread. Maybe even the "Reasons New York sucks" thread.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Young people are the worst.

 

[aravenel]



Young people are the worst.

Honest to God.

I become more and more crotchety by the day. In a few months, I'm probably going to be going Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino style and sitting on my stoop yelling at kids to stay off my lawn (sidewalk?).

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I've been that way for years, and I'm only 27.

 

[aravenel]



I've been that way for years, and I'm only 27.

 

[Fang66]



Young people are the worst.

Yep young people suck, the order of suckiness goes;
1. young people, they totally suck
2. everyone else, they also suck.

 

[imatlas]



I've been that way for years, and I'm only 27.

As a young person yourself, do you ***** at your reflection every morning?

 

[Harold falcon]



As a young person yourself, do you ***** at your reflection every morning?

Patrick's birthday is Feb 29. So while he's only celebrated 27 birthdays he's actually 108.

 

[hooker4186]

Old people are pretty bad too. Tonight coming home, some crusty old dude let an incredibly vile fart go, and then proceeded to waft it in my direction with a newspaper. Train was too crowded to move anywhere, I wanted to choke to death on my own vomit.

 

[DextersMorgan]

My magic is gone for many years now but in my prime only pretty asian girls sat next to me on the metro. I almost always got a date out of it.

Magic is gone because job change and I do not ride the metro anymore to D.C.

 

[MRMan]

I guess Chinese society and culture is so different from ours that it has given them a very different notion of personal space.

"Look at me, I may be fat but I'm eating fruit here people" - well, stuffing your face with fruit may be better than stuffing it with cheeseburgers, but do you see anyone else on this train eating a whole bag of fruit at 11.45 on a Wednesday?

This is awesome. The personal space thing is a really big annoyance for me, and you hit the nail on the head. Such a cultural thing that really does drive me crazy. It also translates into line cutting unless you are a few inches from a teller, from the door of the train, etc. No fault of their own as this is what they may be use to, but come on, when in Rome...

She combined two of my worst pet peeves--the backpack and foot stomping. Every time the train moved, first her backpack would slam into me, then she would stomp on my shoes with her boots. And the whole time, she was obliviously gossiping and giggling with her friend.

Oh man, I feel for ya. These are 4 top pet peeves of mine here. Tween, backback, boots, and foot stomping, all rolled into one annoying shoe destroying, giggly little combo.

 

[sugarbutch]

I guess Chinese society and culture is so different from ours that it has given them a very different notion of personal space. 


"Look at me, I may be fat but I'm eating fruit here people" - well, stuffing your face with fruit may be better than stuffing it with cheeseburgers, but do you see anyone else on this train eating a whole bag of fruit at 11.45 on a Wednesday?

This is awesome. The personal space thing is a really big annoyance for me, and you hit the nail on the head. Such a cultural thing that really does drive me crazy. It also translates into line cutting unless you are a few inches from a teller, from the door of the train, etc. No fault of their own as this is what they may be use to, but come on, when in Rome...

So, when you're in Shanghai, you get all up in others' personal space?

 

[patrickBOOTH]



As a young person yourself, do you ***** at your reflection every morning?

Yes.

Old people are pretty bad too. Tonight coming home, some crusty old dude let an incredibly vile fart go, and then proceeded to waft it in my direction with a newspaper. Train was too crowded to move anywhere, I wanted to choke to death on my own vomit.

Once there was this old Asian man sitting down on the train wearing a baseball cap. He took his hat off and started vigorously running his hand through his hair scratching his scalp. There were dandruff flakes the size of marbles flying all over himself and people next to him. You would have thought he opened fire on the train how people were jumping up. He just calmly finished, and put his hat back on as if nothing were the matter.

Today, this dickhead hits me on the side hard to move so he could get a seat. I felt like knocking him the **** out.

 

[gomestar]

I had to witness some dude cutting his nails once. He made an effort to make sure no fragments flew everywhere and collected the bits accordingly, so I guess that's one element of no gross out. But then he made it way gross again by putting the bits in his shirt pocket.