Transit Rage

Posted by Cynical Sarah on June 1, 2006

After years and years of driving in small towns, large ones, medium size ones, highways, dirt roads and more, I’ve never been prone to road rage. Road boredom and sometimes road nervousness, but never road rage.

I think it’s because I feel isolated inside a car. I’m in my own private steel and glass bubble shutting the rest of the world out so I don’t need to get angry when other people drive like crap and make stupid choices.

However, the same isn’t true for riding on public transit. When you cram into a skytrain car in the morning along with hundreds of other people, there’s no buffer, no bubble to isolate you from other people.

I love public transit. One of my favorite things about moving to a bigger city is not having to have a car and worry about gas and insurance and not getting stuck in traffic downtown. I can just grab a train or bus and be on my way to pretty much anywhere I want to go.

Since I’ve started working again though, I’ve had to use public transit during the peak commuting hours. There’s no such thing as a free seat or even breathing room when you cram into the last little bit of standing space left on the skytrain at 8 in the morning on your way to work. At 5 when everyone’s on their way home, you’re lucky if you even get on the first train that comes your way since it’s so full.

Without that buffer of steel and glass that a car provides to isolate me from all the other idiot commuters, I’ve developed transit rage. Normally I’m not a confrontational person, but lately I’ve had many irrational moments on the train where I want to start yelling and lecturing certain transit users who apparently aren’t aware of the protocol and etiquette they’re supposed to have using transit.

One of my biggest pet peeves lately is people who have backpacks and don’t take them off when they get on the train. It’s not a rule, but a “suggestion” that people take their backpacks off and put them at their feet on the skytrain so they aren’t in the way and more people can get on.

In the past couple weeks, I don’t know how many times I’ve been shoved by backpacks on the train because of people who just won’t do the polite and sensible thing and take them off. There’s obviously more room between sets of legs of people on the train rather than upper bodies, so it makes sense to take them off and leave that much more room for another person or two to get on the train, or maybe leave a little wiggle room for the rest of us so we’re not crammed together having to endure everyone else’s particular perfumes or body odors.

But no, it’s all about personal convenience rather than consideration and because of it, someone may be left at the station to catch the next train all because someone had a backpack on.

And if we want to continue talking about rude inconsiderate behavior, there’s also the people who just refuse to move past the inside of the door of the train. There could be 10 people behind them wanting to get on too, but they just step inside and stand at the middle of the car and don’t budge. People have to squeeze around them to get to other open spaces or just give up and wait for the next train even if there is more space that they could have used.

Move in people. If you can move farther into the car and let more people in, do it! I know it can seem like a pain to station yourself farther from the door and have to actually ask people to move so you can get out at your station. But I’m sure it’s better than the angry glares and being shoved around as people try to get past you to get on the train too.

The other day I did have a little moment of retaliation. Nothing vocal, nothing directly confrontational – I just got tired of having a backpack pushing me so I gave it a little shove back. At least the guy didn’t let it hit me anymore after that, but I can’t let my transit rage get the best of me.

So every morning I have to do a little mental yoga and calm myself down so I don’t end up yelling at all these morons who can’t be just a little bit more considerate and make the commute better for us all. It would just make me the “crazy lady” who yells at people on the train and wouldn’t make the situation any better.

- Sarah L. Polson

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