Seathogs

by YankeeJim | July 19, 2010 at 01:17 pm

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I was going to let this go when I read it this morning, but I have to comment.

I have traveled the Metro for years in various cities. I can compare, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington DC. From personal observation, the behavior of people on trains is similar to the way that they drive. If there was a courtousymometer, I think it would rate and report the following:

Chicago – most professional commuters all around

Cleveland – most enjoyable commuters all around because riding the train is a high point of the day

San Francisco – most variations, up and down and under the bay; stop I want to get off

Washington DC – Absolutely the most discourteous bunch ever – young “professionals” trampling seniors and disabled right and left. Oh yes, these are the clowns running government.

Put them behind the wheel and if you are a pedestrian in a crosswalk, look out, they will mow you down.

“As Metro congestion grows, so does anger at 'seat hogs' By Ann Scott Tyson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 19, 2010

Brooke Timmons grasped a bar in the middle of a crowded Red Line rail car and held on, looking exasperated as she tried to keep her balance while the train jerked and accelerated down the track.

On both sides of Timmons sat riders referred to on commuter Web sites as "seat hogs." A man and woman occupied aisle seats with empty spots beside them but made no move to slide over and offer Timmons a seat.

"There is a self-centeredness about it. 'My space is more important than you,' " said Timmons, 37, a lawyer from the District. "It's epidemic" and reflects a lack of etiquette in Washington, said Timmons, who grew up in Vinita, Okla., population 6,000, where she said gentility prevailed.

As Washington's public transit network grows more congested, with Metro projecting "unmanageable" levels of saturation on its rail system by 2020, the phenomenon of people taking up more than their share of space is becoming increasingly touchy.

"It makes me mad," Soulman Bushera, 26, an IT recruiter in the District, said as he rode a packed Red Line train downtown one recent morning. "I ask them to move," he said. "You find a whole aisle of them sometimes, and the one you pick gets disgruntled."”