Author Topic: Transit Culture  (Read 1251 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

guest4

  • Guest
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #60 on: June 29, 2017, 10:41:44 pm »
Well, it was a kind of dance.  I'd love to see more public dialogue on the subway.  I would do it, but it's embarrassing to people.  When I get a chance, though, I talk.

(shudder).  I'm sorry, but I do not want to talk on the bus/skytrain, especially in the morning when I"m still gearing myself up for the social interaction required at my job, minimal though it may be.  I can be charming, friendly, helpful and funny - but as an introvert, this takes some effort so I like to avoid it as long as possible.   My sister and my daughter, both chatty in the morning, drive me crazy.  I get up an hour before them when they visit, praying that they'll sleep long enough for two cups of coffee, alone with my thoughts and my invisible, quiet and avoidable internet acquaintances.   

Offline kimmy

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5033
  • Location: Kim City BC
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #61 on: June 30, 2017, 01:22:02 am »
(shudder).  I'm sorry, but I do not want to talk on the bus/skytrain, especially in the morning when I"m still gearing myself up for the social interaction required at my job, minimal though it may be.  I can be charming, friendly, helpful and funny - but as an introvert, this takes some effort so I like to avoid it as long as possible.   My sister and my daughter, both chatty in the morning, drive me crazy.  I get up an hour before them when they visit, praying that they'll sleep long enough for two cups of coffee, alone with my thoughts and my invisible, quiet and avoidable internet acquaintances.

As an introvert trapped in an extrovert's body, I totally relate to this!  I hate having guests who need to chat constantly when I'm still in "not talking" mode. It usually ends with a "well you're awfully quiet this morning."  (...as if that was a bad thing.)

I don't transit, but I do sometimes encounter overly-chatty hobos if I walk to work.  "chatty" doesn't quite describe it. The dialog usually goes something like:

them:   "HEY  ---  you, HEEEEEYYY YOU --- how's it going eh!!! -- eh?!?!"

me:  "Good morning!"

them:  "I BEEN look down der I seen things why they do things down der they tell me do things I done I din do nothing I lookin der..."

me:  "Have a nice day!"

I find these encounters somewhat bewildering.


 -k
Paris - London - New York - Kim City

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #62 on: July 04, 2017, 08:08:28 am »
Transit report:

We're in summer mode now.  Quiet mornings, lots of seats.  No banter though.

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #63 on: July 05, 2017, 08:14:58 am »
Transit report:
despite an 835 AM boarding, there were lots of seats and the train was as cool as a meat locker.  Also, dodged a bullet when, at St. Patrick, the announcement came on that the southbound train was being held at Museum, which was 2 stations behind me.  Clearly if I had missed my train i would have been largely delayed.

Margaret Atwood talked about Canadians saying "Nice weather.  We'll pay for it later."  That's how I feel about my commutes lately.  Something bad is coming. :(

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #64 on: July 05, 2017, 04:52:10 pm »
Transit report:

I was wondering when we would get to this: smells.

So, I got in the car, and sometime in that day a very bad smelling person had sat in the vicinity.  The thing you have to do is try to triangulate the smells to make sure you're at least not sitting in the seat where the person sat.

It was bad but not unbearable.  I'm guessing it had been at least 15 minutes since they got off my car, or they could have been seated far away.

guest18

  • Guest
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #65 on: July 05, 2017, 07:25:36 pm »
Back in university I had a summer job as a building cleaning supervisor. I would drive around hotboxing in the building cleaning van making sure everyone showed up and had supplies. There was an excessively obese guy who you could find by sniffing the air. It was particularly bad after he used the elevator. Just a sickening salty stench that lingered wherever he went. The building owners were getting pissed off because he was stealing food from the cafeteria. One day my water bottle went missing so I figured I'd make sure to watch him leave. He hung out and hung out after his shift but I wouldn't let him leave without watching him. Finally I told him to go home, closed the door, and opened it 30 seconds later to find him trying to pull a bag from the trash. I to!d him to go again, grabbed the bag after he'd gone and found a camera and my water bottle inside. The next day he threatened to kill me when he showed up for work and I told him he was fired.
He would have got away with the camera but I wasn't letting him take my water bottle.

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #66 on: July 05, 2017, 07:40:57 pm »
Crazy story.  So he was stealing things and hiding them in the trash outside ?

guest18

  • Guest
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #67 on: July 05, 2017, 08:15:12 pm »
Yes. And that was when water bottles were cheap and full of BPAs. It really made no sense to steal it. I wasn't sad to see him go though. He always wanted to get close to me to make fun of the Filipinos because we were the two white guys, which was bad enough, but I especially didn't want to do that given how badly he smelled.

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #68 on: July 06, 2017, 06:05:51 am »
You have some interesting stories in the capacity of management.  I don't mind 'positive drift' at all, but I started a whole thread on management culture that I'd be interested in hearing your ideas on. :)

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #69 on: July 07, 2017, 10:12:18 am »
Transit report:

For the 2nd time this week, I detected a smell in my seat, so I shifted across the aisle where it was fine.  Next stop a glum lady sat in the smelly seat, facing me.  She made a sour face, and started smelling her bra, her armpits to see if it was her.  SHE DIDN'T CHANGE SEATS EVEN AFTER THAT.  I took her picture, with an intention of pixelating it and posting but second thoughted that.

Today we had an Asian lady and her daughter step into the car and move about 3 steps in before stopping, oblivious to the dozens trying to get in behind them.  I stepped around and the daughter even had her damn backpack on, so she got the passive-aggressive backpack nudge as I walked by.  This really shocks subway newbies because their centre of gravity is thrown off.

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #70 on: July 12, 2017, 07:35:50 am »
Transit report:

Left at 730 AM but train was still busy.  I have consistently been getting a seat all summer despite travelling at rush hour.

Nothing overly unpleasant has happened in a long time.  I have a seat, air conditioning, a podcast, and painted toenails of attractive age-appropriate office ladies keeping me company.

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #71 on: July 13, 2017, 08:12:19 am »
Transit report:

Got to St. George on time but the train didn't leave.  Minutes later the operator announces passenger sick on board, anyone with medical knowledge go to car 7432 please.  Minutes later the train leaves anyway (I doubt anything could have been done in that time) and the canned system-wide announcement "the delay we were experiencing at St. George is now clear".  No idea what happened.  :(

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #72 on: July 20, 2017, 07:56:06 am »
I did take one of the new streetcars to Kensington yesterday.  They are weird, as there is no contact with the driver and you have to buy a proof of purchase (not transfer) from a machine, painfully slow, on the platform or car.

Then at Spadina there's a group of ticket checkers who look at your POP.

Overall, I guess the new cars work.  They carry more people and as a veteran of the infamous Spadina Bus (please don't post a video of the Shuffle Demons song in response, thanks) I can say that we are in a much more civilized age.

But the experience is a lot more officious and cold.  Maybe that's where we are going with mass transit now.  Thoughts on the new cars ?

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #73 on: August 02, 2017, 08:08:12 am »
Go figure that after 2 weeks of unemployment I would take transit for the first time and have bad experiences:

- Subway down to meet old work-mates.  Stuck in tunnel.  Train has to reverse to Museum station.  Took a cab.  15 mins late.
- Subway back at 315 PM and no seats !  What is the mid-day frequency at non-rush hour ?  Geez
- Streetcar at night to attend a BurningMan meeting in the new inner city suburb by the rail lands.  Street cars are the bane of transit.  It's like all the worst/awkward parts about having sex with a stranger with no actual sex.

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12461
Re: Transit Culture
« Reply #74 on: November 09, 2017, 06:18:39 am »
Reboot.  New circumstances.

Firstly, it's now fall during which the transit 'system', as it is sometimes called, is busier.  I suspect that the reasons are obvious, ie. fewer bikers, walkers, but it makes for less seat time and slower transit.

Secondly, my regular home base is a brand new tower right beside the lake.  This means stunning views, however it also means going through Union Station which is a hive.  I commute against the grain, so there are huge crowds of people walking the other way.  The fun part of this is that those of us fighting the wave end up forming a single line of penetration to get through.  We're like sperms.

Thirdly, my client is in Brampton which means I have had to take the regional transit called 'GO'.  The insidious naming of it implies transit that moves, which is false, but really stands for Government of Ontario.  The suburbs are a wonderland of garbage.  Still, it's not as bad as I feared.  Things work on time, and even though nothing looks very pretty (taped up 'THIS WAY' signs, ugly design everywhere) things work on time, there's not much garbage and people are polite to each other.  This is a part of Canadian culture that we should be playing up, IMO.

I will be back on this thread to update any stories of note.

Yesterday, there was a polite-off wherein two folks kept offering an empty seat to each other.  One of them took it, and I had to stand.