Oh hell yes to #1. Don’t know where you’re going? The correct answer is “eight feet diagonally to your right,” where you can get the hell out of everybody else’s way and THEN stop to figure out such critical tourist questions such as whether the Metro stop called “Smithsonian” contains the Smithsonian museums. Drives me nuts! #2, I honestly don’t notice so often here: assuming you’re near the doors when the train stops and aren’t taking your sweet time moseying out of your window seat in the center of the car while the doors are already open, 95% of the time people here will let you out before getting on.
My other pet Metro peeves:
As mentioned earlier, stand on the RIGHT, walk on the LEFT of the escalator. It’s often tourists. We know you are in awe to be standing on an escalator in a real live subway system, but some of us do not want to ogle the station we’ve been through 400 times and would prefer to get where we’re going. Particularly on the weekends, where being held up by an escalump and missing a train can cost you 10-15 minutes of additional waiting.
People who don’t read signs and then stand there forever in front of a farecard machine that says “No Bills” wondering why it won’t take their cash, or who go through the SmarTrip only lane with a paper farecard.
People who think they are oh-so-special and race to cram into a train car as the door is closing, getting their arm/leg/bag stuck and often screwing up the doors so they won’t close. When this happens, the entire train has to be offloaded and creates a huge messy ripple effect.
People who scream into their cell phones or play music so loudly the whole car can hear it even though they have headphones on.
People who take the free Metro Express papers at the entrance to the stations and then apparently deconstruct them methodically on the ride so every single page of the paper is individually strewn over a different area of the seat and floor. Then they leave it there.
It’s the Pit! Plenty of people have complained about all sorts of crap. Plenty of people have complained about your crap. I know, because I read. Sometimes.
But I need to wonder why folks assume that public transit facilities are solely for the benefit of those without children. You know the sort of thing: “I’m going to work! You people with children must get out of my way! I’m doing important stuff, while all you’re doing is taking care of kids.”
I’m non-discriminatory there. I also complain about work people carrying fuckloads of stuff with them (especially those with wheeled bags that love to swerve back and forth - or stop suddenly - and trip people with their trailing bag), or people taking the L to the airport who have enough luggage to supply a large caravan of travelers, and pile their bags all over the aisle so people have to attempt a mountain-climbing expedition to get past.
Those SUV strollers have no place on the subway. Smaller strollers are annoying but hey, I can handle being annoyed. I’m sort of impressed with the ability of the person with the stroller to remain composed while everyone is shooting him/her daggers though.
Only on the green line, which runs both below and above ground. In the below ground stations people pay at the turnstiles just like on the other lines, but at the above ground stops (especially on the B and E lines, which are literally in the meridians of busy streets, and the final stops on the E, which literally let you out on the street and into traffic) it’s not possible to add turnstiles.
Let’s not forget here that people HAVE to work for a living, lest they wind up homeless and on the streets, whereas, despite the GOP’s best attempts, nobody is forcing people to have kids.
Oh, and another thing that grinds my gears: when I get off a 12-hour shift and my feet ache so badly that I’m limping because I’ve been on them all day, and all I want is a seat on the T, but somebody’s five-year-old (who rides for free and is coming home from a fun-filled day at the aquarium or beach or something) takes the last seat. Parents need to have some consideration for their fellow PAYING customers and put the damn kid on their lap if there aren’t enough seats for everybody to sit down.
That does make things tricky. And now that you all mention it, I think I’ve taken that line when visiting friends in Boston. I drove to some outer station where I could park. IIRC, you could put money into the turnstyle. The solution there is to not accept money at turnstyles either. Fill your card up ahead of time or walk.
That does require having enough accessible card and fare vending machines.
I – British citizen and resident – suspect that in the US, I’d be in the same position.
Some years ago, I spent an (ill-advised) few months in a Christian community of a particular kind (in the UK). The “head man” there was from California. He made a terrifically big deal about the impropriety of farting around other people, or in public; yet he happily and frequently spat, all over the place – on the pavement, on the ground… He was in many ways a very strange fellow. Re the above, though, it would seem that he was on the same page as very many of his compatriots, as regards farting (but, I trust, not as regards spitting).
If there were seats to sit down in it’s obviously not crowded is it.
Having seen little kids bowled over, run over, whacked with backpacks or otherwise hammered from all sides by the ‘paying adults’ :rolleyes: too busy staring at their blackberry or iPhone or iPad to notice kids around them, if there’s a seat available in front of me, my kids are going in it unless someone very near by is very obviously pregnant or very obviously disabled. My feet hurt too dickwad, suck it up.
Ah, so only the childless should use public transportation. I see.
Seriously, there isn’t an icon in existence that would properly show how far I’m rolling my eyes into the back of my head. Go take a flying fuck you obnoxious, spoiled, self-absorbed prick.
I admit that I have been that asshole with the gigantic suitcase during DC rush hour. I travel a lot, and sometimes I’m gone long enough that I can’t get by with just carryon luggage. The clients don’t want me stinky.
That said, I give priority to the people who are maximizing the economic multiplier that is public transportation; that is, those people traveling light to and from work. I can wait for the next train that isn’t sardined. I can wait for the escalator to clear so that I’m not blocking one lane (most people walk left AND walk right on the shorter ones.) And I do. And it seems like most other people do too. Good thing, too, since I don’t think there’s any way for WMATA to increase capacity. The stations are only so long, and I don’t think they can space trains closer.
On an entirely different topic, it’s interesting how people queue for doors. Assuming some heavy-but-not-packed crowd waiting to get on the train, we all (mostly) know to let people clear the train before trying to board.
The door is already a choke point, but exiting passengers can get moving once they’re through, assuming folks on the platform get out of the way and line up along the side of the train. E.g.:
(= train, || door, * people)
**** ****
====||====
The opposite extreme is a long, slow, tunnel, that takes longer for people to pass through. It doesn’t usually happen, but some people are special:
* *
* *
* *
====||====
Of course, if you try to line up along side the train, other people will want to get closer to the door rather than in line behind you. So what usually happens is something like this:
* *
** **
*** ***
====||====
Similarly, the entryways to escalators end up forming giant fans of people trying to get on.
I wonder if this is a universal phenomenon.
My above examples are still preferable to tourist-style ;):
That’s because in America everybody has fart radar, so if you happen to make the tiniest and cutest of poots in a deserted aisle in a store somebody IMMEDIATELY has to run up and stand right next to you. It’s a national curse.
OK, now you’re just a fucking nutjob. Who do you think is going to keep the planet running when you’re retired? Who is going to clean your shit-filled diaper in the home when your sphincter finally gives out after holding in all those farts for decades? The bearing and raising of children is of extreme importance to a functioning society. It could be argued it’s the entire reason civilization exists. Don’t treat it as some frivolous unnecessary luxury that only exists to annoy you.
Huh? There are degrees of crowded and some involve seats being open. Megabus-size strollers, huge suitcases, etc., add to the congestion by clogging the aisles with terrible efficiency.
I’m not TashaKitty, but your arguments are specious. They sound like the kind of “breeder bingoes/bingos” directed at those of us who don’t want children.