Subway and Public Transportation Etiquette - The People We Encounter - Page 17

7 to Jersey?

A friend of mine lived in West New York and always used to take those little jitney buses from near Times Sq. It seemed to me like a good way to wind up the subject of a Crimestoppers segment.

I got into my first subway confrontation this afternoon on the 1 train. I step into the train at 116 and apparently I had kicked an older black guy's tennis shoes while trying to squeeze inside. After boarding, my back was facing him and he kicks my shoes to make a point because I did not apologize immediately after it happened. I turn around to see what was happening (i thought someone's bag fell or something) and see this guy shouting at me. He felt threatened when i turned around so he got out of his seat and started calling me names, but I remained silent while giving him a death stare in a defensive stance because he kept reaching in his pocket. After a few stops, he walks to another part of the train and continues calling me names and everyone around him moves to my side. Finally after about 10-15 min, the guy gets of 79th. I won't be surprised if this is on youtube now. lol

I ride the subway to/from work every day and when I kick/step/etc on someone's foot/shoe/sneaker..I simply say.."pardon me." Never been an issue.....Try it...

I would have definitely said "sorry" immediately afterwards if I had known, but I had no idea until the guy kicked me, accused me of kicking his shoe, and started calling me names and threatening me.

edit: I admit that it was probably not the smartest move on my part, but I was confident that nothing was going to happen.

Ahem, this is the 19th century calling, why not use this new fangled idea introduced by that most esteemed fellow Mr George Bradshaw I believe he calls it a railway timetable.

eh...there is NO railway timetable for the NYC subways.......

Because you have not made it to the 19th century yet.

korny!

www.mta.info/schedules

There is, it's just not terribly helpful when it says something like "then every 6-8 minutes until". Even when it's specific you can't rely on it because of the jerkwads who hold the doors.

I don't live in NYC, but have visited enough to know the subway. And after having become accustomed to those in Asia such as HK MTR, Tokyo Metro and Taipei's MRT I don't know how y'all deal with it. In reality NY needs to replace the ENTIRE system... it's old, inefficient and waiting 6-10 mins for the train feels like an eternity. If I ever wait more than 3 mins i'm freaking out!

Why? I'm always interested how NY "natives" deal with these kinds of confrontations... personally I won't say shit to anyone. Perhaps unreasonably I have the feeling that the possibility of any random person being a potential psycho is much higher. I do the same in LA... if I'm driving around b/c it's an area I'm not too familiar with and accidentally cut someone off or something I wish I had a "pardon me" sign that could flash out the window... or possibly "please don't shoot me".

right... this is exactly the type of thing I'd like to avoid.. and keep my flesh. Funny reversal of the psycho thing occurred.... I was dining alfresco in the Santa Monica promenade with my ex-gf.... when this guy comes up to try panhandling for money. (For the record I am white, my gf Asian the guy is black.) Now we're in a fenced off area for the restaurant's outside dining and I'm none too pleased being interrupted, but I try to be polite with a "hey man, not at the moment please... the lady and I are trying to enjoy some lunch" kinda thing. The guy literally goes berserk and starts yelling at me "you n*ggr this" "you f'g n*ggr that" and I'm like "wtf asshole have you looked in the mirror recently?" (I know rude but he brought it on.) anyway my gf (who has a bit of a accent and is clearly not American) is just naive or crazy she starts on with "no wrong answer!! not a n*ggr... he is cracker and I am chink! White boy is cracker and Asia girl is chink!!" That's almost exactly what she said (scary I know...she was a real piece of work). This big ol' dude just gets all quizzical... like "what the fuck is wrong with THIS bitch!" It was actually hilarious b/c he suddenly hadn't a clue how to respond... he wasn't expecting my crazy-ass gf!! Not only that, but clearly there were other people (white, black, Asian and otherwise) in the restaurant and they weren't sure whether to applaud her efforts for standing up for herself, or be dismayed by her total lack of concern at shouting these racial epithets. Shortly thereafter, restaurant staff told the guy to leave. It was an interesting meal to say the least....