People being assholes about train seats

[Meister]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

- White guys are screwed. They are obliged to give their seat up to anyone who wants it.
- White girls have a right to be left alone. They are allowed their own row of seats (2, on the same side).
- Black girls can sit wherever they want. They also have a right to their own row, should they choose. They can plop down next to anyone they want, though they don't usually violate the white girl rule (it happens, though). However, if you are a white guy, you need to be able to read whether she wants you there or not and act accordingly.
- Black guys can force lone white guys out of their seats, leaving the row empty. Black guys can sit next to any black guy. They also can sit next to a black girl, but only if they know each other.

Somehow I doubt that's what Rosa Parks intended.

[Fifthfiend]

I call bullshit on Blues's rules, if he is talking about the Metrolink trains I rode those things for like four months when I was living out there a few years ago and encountered no such rules of any kind, in fact the only rules I learned in Saint Louis were 1. Don't ever take anything a junkie tries to sell you 2. Nobody cares what you do in the city park and 3. Never accept a car ride from someone driving a 1980 Datsun with no front hood.

[42PETUNIAS]

He totally says it is the metrolink too.

I buy that there could be these rules, but only if you consider something a rule if the punishment is a mild glance of distaste or something.

[bluestarultor]

They're social norms I picked up on. As such, yes, the results are social. I did get hassled once after 8:00, but no, it's not like they were going to beat you in broad daylight or something for violating them.

[Torque]

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

2. Nobody cares what you do in the city park and

Pfft. Yeah, sure you say that now, but just wait till you're trying to bury 6 dead hookers behind a bush, and then suddenly everyone has to know what you're doing... :stressed:

[katiuska]

Originally Posted by CelesJessa

- If somebody who gets on is in lesser health than you (including, but not limited to the disabled or the elderly), give them the goddamn seats in the front. If there's no room in the front, give them the goddamn seats in the back. There's no reason why a 20-something college student should be sitting and a 80-something grandma stand the whole trip.

That's kind of what I was getting at with my fifth one. Seriously, it doesn't hurt to stand for a while.

Originally Posted by Khael!

-- Stop leaving your damned newspapers all over the floor. Same with all your other shit. Garbage cans are real!

Yes, the area in general has problems with this. The city of New York places garbage cans everywhere, but people still dump their trash on the ground, on the floor of the trains, and on the tracks. The trains themselves don't have trash bins, but I mean, you can find one as soon as you reach a station.

Originally Posted by Lady Cygnet

For the most part, CTA trains and buses in Chicago proper and some of the suburbs have been notorious for being good places to be assaulted and/or robbed. Steve's lived in the Chicago metro his entire life, and he wouldn't ride a CTA vehicle if his life depended on it. The PACE buses aren't so bad, though, but there are still parts of the Chicago metro you wouldn't want to visit even if you were riding in the Popemobile all by yourself.

He mentioned how ghetto it was; the event that first drove this home for him was when the dude next to him pulled a 40 of liquor from a brown paper bag and proceeded to down it... at 8am.

Originally Posted by Lady Cygnet

As for trains, I've always had positive experiences riding Amtrak. People are generally good about not hogging seats or being douches to the other riders. My only pet peeve there is when someone hogs the few available electric outlets just to mess around playing games when other people need to charge up cell phones with weak batteries or need to power up a laptop with a weak battery in order to get some real work done. *shrugs* Maybe I just got the train cars with the nice, considerate people on board.

I don't think I've ridden Amtrak. I've had fairly good experience with both Greyhound and the Chinatown buses, despite the latter's tendency to catch fire.

BART better be okay, because I've never been to San Francisco before, but any system with the acronym BART really should be the best rail system ever.

Originally Posted by Tendronai

I'll second (third?) the entire "Don't leave your trash on the bus" sentiment. I also hate when strangers who talk to me on the bus. The entire reason I'm staring out the window with my headphones on is so I can relax a bit.

Having lived in Iowa, I'm used to random conversations, and they're totally okay. That said, when I'm focused on something else, I'm not really in chat mode. Sometimes a person just needs to recharge.

Originally Posted by adamark

I LOVE being obnoxious on trains!! Everyone is so quiet and uptight and impersonal! I try to make every train car I'm on into a party, and I usually succeed. People need a lot of help relating to other human beings as human beings.

It's funny, you go about one or two hours from here into Connecticut, and suddenly everything's oddly demure.

This environment's more aggressive. It's rare to go a whole trip without someone making some kind of display, but some people also feel free to respond with open hostility. Occasionally, they may just throw up, if they've been binging recently. The subway's not great for anyone who's already not feeling so well; you don't want to get them too stimulated.

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by Torque

just wait till you're trying to bury 6 dead hookers behind a bush

2. Nobody cares what you do in the city park

[TopHatAssassin]

It's not so much a rule, but I notice often that, especially so with the college kids I ride with, that people would rather stand than have to sit beside (or between) strangers. Even if there's a free seat and there's room enough for them, they'd rather stand. It just strikes me as odd, I always go for the first seat I can grab.

[Seil]

You guys are all so uptight - time for some humor:

There was once two colleges using a train. One was a very upscale, wealthy college, while the other was a little, independent college without a lot of money.

The rich college was laughing at the poor college because all between them, the poor college had one ticket, while they all had individual tickets. Now, the conductor was going car to car for tickets, and the poor college, panicked, all piled into the washroom. The conductor entered their car, and checked the rich colleges tickets, then knocked on the door of the washroom. "Ticket, please." The poor college students sent their single ticket underneath the door, which the conductor stamped, and slid back.

Now, on the return trip, the colleges were again on the same bus. Not to be outdone, the rich students had only purchased a single ticket for the lot of them, and were laughing at the poor college students who had no tickets between them. Once again the conductor came from car to car, and both colleges piled into the washrooms. However, this time, just before the conductor entered their car, one of the poor college students exited the washroom, knocked on the opposite door where the other college was hiding, and said "Ticket, please."

[PraetorZorak]

The stop buzzer is not a toy, nor is it an opportunity to showcase your "mad beatz."

Thank you.