No, After YouStand at a transit stop on any given day and you might realize that the basic act of boarding a train has become a metaphor of our contemporary lifestyle. Regardless of the nagging feeling that time is having its way with us, the code of conduct when embarking a bus or train is quite simple: stand to the side of the doors to allow passengers clear berth to exit the train. And by ‘side’ we don’t mean positioning yourself on the platform where the door typically opens. Remember, if people can’t exit, there’s less room for you to board. So if you’re running late for a meeting, need to post bail for a friend, get your child to daycare, or your favorite bakery is about to close, basic laws of inertia indicate you are not making your commute (or ours) any shorter by plowing through an opposing melee of passengers. If you start to feel boarding anxiety, take a deep breath and appreciate those last few seconds of control before completely relinquishing the next thirty minutes of your precious time to public transportation. Besides, have you ever seen salmon swimming upstream? It’s a tiresome journey.
Muni Manner: Always let exiting passengers leave the train before you board. It's the safe and courteous thing to do.
9 comments:
Here's a topic idea: The etiquette of queing up properly. Oh, the times I've been knocked out of the way by someone who did not line up properly. Really glad to see you doing this etiquette blog!
In the past few weeks, I've seen three people trying to barge to the front of the line at the last minute get "checked" by their fellow passengers -- which is to say they get shoved back. Don't mess with those little Asian ladies on the 9X, folks, they will bounce you back to the curb.
How about moving to the back of the bus instead of claiming a space in the front and clinging stubbornly while new passengers have to squeeze their way through to the gigantic opening in the back? This should have been rule #1
What the coach said!
This is tied in with the other rule about giving up your seat to others - usually in my experience people are shoving their way through the crowd to get a seat before they're all taken! Sometimes, on BART, it's a matter of trying to get a completely vacant seat rather than having to sit next to someone. The thing to do when a person plows you over in order to get a whole bench to themselves is to sit down right next to them.
This only applies to vehicles that don't have an entry/exit door. On buses with a front door for entry and a back door for exit, this does not apply. I remember once, I was entering through the FRONT door, and then this total jerk who tried to step out of the FRONT door told me to get out first. The bus wasn't even crowded. Why didn't he use the back door. That was a few years ago, and I still hate that guy.
If only common sense truly were! The same etiquette rule about standing aside to let passengers exit a coach applies to elevators, only more so.
A transit gripe I have is about folks who insist on standing in the rear door well as other passengers try to exit. It is especially difficult for older folks to squeeze past without losing their balance.
Next in my gripe list is folks who firmly plant themselves at the top of the stair well when there are other places to stand or sit. Often times these folks are totally oblivious to anyone around them. I've almost missed my stop on more than one occasion trying to get the person's attention to let me through.
Malaysia is a horrible, horrible place where the concept of boarding the train politely is only that, a concept. Pushing and shoving, one time my sister even had her phone stolen while everybody was heaving forwards. Malaysia clean your act up please!
This is sorely needed in Chinatown. Whenever I try to get on the 30, 45 or 9X, I stand politely away and to the side of the door to allow people to exit. The little Asian ladies see this tiny opening and squirm their way in front of me. So I tried an experiment and narrowed the amount of space I left. No difference - they still managed to squeeze through. Sigh.
Very good blog! Having been a public transit patron of Muni, CalTrain, BART and SamTrans many times in the past, lack of manners certainly runs rampant there, especially in the cases of obnoxious cell phone use. To the guilty parties: Tell the caller you'll return his or her call after you exit the bus or train; it's a shame that you don't have the common sense to figure that out for yourself.
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