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Message |
    
Richard Steele
Citizen
Username: Brookwood
Post Number: 48
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 6:55 pm: |     |
Public Transportation seems to have no meaning to some of you huh?When you are riding a train early in the morning,it's easy to find damn near anything annoying.But you have to understand that everyone is different,but the one thing that I'm sure everyone has in common is to be treated respectfully and courteously.I don't have a problem with anyone sitting next to me because I actually expect somone to sit next to me.(Public)I even turn down my ipod when someone does because that's what I would hope they would do.If they don't I deal.Not a problem.The thing is they have a lovely overhead rail for all sorts of things.They don't have private booths for a silent ride or 1st class with more foot room.Trust me even if they made more room on the trains the fare would still increase.Either way fares will go up.people say I don't have problem paying more for the trains...Until it happens |
Smarty Jones
Citizen
Username: Birdstone
Post Number: 105
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 7:07 pm: | |
I used to use the overhead racks, but after leaving 2 pairs of gloves, 3 suit jackets, one briefcase (stuffed with everything I own) and one winter jacket, I stopped doing that. I'm absent minded, and the NJ transit lost-and-found is inept. I recovered only one pair of gloves from the aforementioned list. Oh well, additional cost of ridership.
I suppose all you skinny goody-too-shoes supported Southwests attempt to charge fat people for two fares? While I still fit in an airline seat quite comfortably, but I thought that that was the height of ridiculousness. Maybe we should all pay a per/pound rate on NJ transit? Each month, we'd get in line and step on a scale...$0.50 a pound is about right, and skinny twerps would get a bargain!
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TomR
Citizen
Username: Tomr
Post Number: 881
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 9:39 pm: | |
Smarty,
You lost a supprorter with that last one.
Its a "lost and found" not a "I lost it and you'd better find it" department. If you lost something, its not NJT which is inept.
As for charging fat people two fares, sounds fair to me if the person requires more than one seat. That may or may not apply to you, but I've had the experience of having an overly large passenger try to get into the plane seat next to mine. The "gentleman" was quite indignant that I declined to raise the armrest to accommodate his girth.
I initially thought your position was not unreasonable, and that other posters were casting aspersions which were unwarranted.
It appears I was wrong.
Be happy, do good and fare well.
TomR |
Smarty Jones
Citizen
Username: Birdstone
Post Number: 109
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 8:02 am: | |
Tom- I'm in no position to be losing support here, as I'm up against the ropes (triple-bound ropes to support my weight) as it is....
I would never ask the passenger next to me to change their comfort in order for my own by requesting the arm-rest be lifted up. My point is, that the onus is on Southwest to create accomadating seats (which suck for both skinny and fat) not on the passengers. If 10% of the passengers require two seats due to their size, then South West should eat the extra seat fare.
I realize we shouldn't be encouraging/catering toward obesity because of the detriments...but it doesn't mean that we have any right to charge people more due to their physcical stature. First it's fat people...than it's the next group that we dislike or whose 'lifestyles' we disagree with.
As for the NJ Transit Lost and Found, allow me to shed some light on how this works. In every case I spoke to the conductor who conifrmed finding my item and handing it in to lost and found dept. Now lets get to the lost and found dept: This is simply a room that NOBODY is allowed to enter. Everything is piled in there and logged into a notebook that is probably several years old, with several thousand hand written entries. When you approach the lost and found lady, she exhales with impatience before you even begin the conversation, and starts flipping back to the date/time you feel you lost your item. She than makes an effort to read the illegibile hand writing in the log book (which has a hundred entries for that day alone) and immediately declares that it is not in there. You are not permitted to look through the entries yourself, and you are not permitted in the room to try and identify your own item. You then leave your phone number hopelessly saying "call me if you find anything".....never to be heard from again.
I've been through that several times. I re-confirmed with the conductors that they found my item, and unfortunatley there is nothing they can do either. The fault in this system is that you may have left it on a 7 AM train...but the conductor may have handed it in at the end of his shift which is 4 hours later, and therefore 3 pages past where the Lost-and-Found lady is looking.
PS. YOu also have to check one of three locations, any of which it could end up in- Newark, Hoboken, Mid-Town. Suprisingly, Mid-town is the easiest, but the guy running the room is never there when the little clock says he will be. |
Mr. Big Poppa
Citizen
Username: Big_poppa
Post Number: 482
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 9:45 am: | |
Don't people also have to "confront" a person sitting on the aisle seat of an otherwise empty 3 or 2 seat bench on the train? They have to actually say "excuse me, I need to get in". How traumatizing!!!
People who are too scared to ask others to move themselves or their crap don't deserve a seat! |
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1317
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 10:08 am: | |
Last night I witnessed a perfect example of entitlement/selfishness/cluelessness regarding train seats. I was on the 5:20 out of Penn and it was filling up fast...I think they have been running short trains all week because they assume there aren't as many commuters during the holidays, but this one was getting full. Some of the three-seaters were full, and all of the two-seaters -- except across the aisle from me, in a two-seater (I was on the aisle of a three-seater, with my bag on my lap expecting someone to come along and squeeze into the middle), was a woman by the window with three large shopping bags piled into the aisle seat. Person after person after person filed by, their eyes lighting up from rows back on what they thought was a vacant seat, only to see her dumb bags, and they'd keep going rather than ask her to move them. I saw looks of annoyance on many people's faces, but it was also interesting to see how many people just kept going rather than bother to ask. Meanwhile the whole time she had a look of utter superiority on her face, as if she was thinking she OWNED that seat. By the time the three-seaters were starting to fill up, she was still alone with her bags. I was amazed. I think she thought she was going to get away with it, but just as the train was about to pull out, our regular conductor, Bobby, walked over to her and said, "Ma'am, I am going to have to ask you to put your bags somewhere so this passenger can sit there." Good for you, Bobby! There was a regular 5:20 person (Bobby knows us) behind him....he was doing it for his regulars. So then the woman says, "Well, where should I put them?" as if the concept of not having a seat for her bags had never occurred to her. He says, "I don't care - above, on your lap, whatever. Just move them." She did, exhaling and acting all huffy and put out. The passenger sat down, and that was that. I was so psyched that this utter idiot got her comeuppance, although I kind of wish she'd put up more of a fight so Bobby could have really embarrassed her.
Perfect example. |
ril
Citizen
Username: Ril
Post Number: 440
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 10:36 am: | |
I love 5:20 Bobby--he makes the commute so much more pleasant!
As for the lost & found: I've had three experiences with losing things on the train, and got my stuff back each time. The first time, the conductor actually held onto the item until he saw me the next day (I always try to make eye contact, and am extra-nice to the conductors--they have a tough job). The other 2 times, the guy at lost & found in Hoboken was able to locate my possessions (I had called ahead and described the lost items). Again, I think a pleasant attitude helps.
No one enjoys commuting; everyone would prefer not to share seats. I'm not pollyanna by any means, but I don't see the point in making it any harder for other people to do what they need to do.
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Smarty Jones
Citizen
Username: Birdstone
Post Number: 119
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 10:43 am: | |
Yes Ril, you are right....your pleasant attitude got you your stuff back....as for me, NJ Transit has me marked as a Grumpy Bald Fat Middle Age white guy, and is committed to causing me trouble. I think my photo is posted behind the counter.
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susan1014
Supporter
Username: Susan1014
Post Number: 1227
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 6:16 pm: | |
Maybe they just don't make as much effort for self-justifying seat hogs....
There may be some fairness in the universe. |
SO Ref
Citizen
Username: So_refugee
Post Number: 1365
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 6:41 pm: | |
A yin for every yang. |
Smarty Jones
Citizen
Username: Birdstone
Post Number: 127
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, January 1, 2006 - 2:51 pm: | |
Susan, you are now calling me names directly? I think that is very mean-spirited and completely unneccessary. I haven't called somebody a name (ie "Hog") since I was in 3rd grade. It doesn't make me feel good about myself to call people names.
I'd wager you have never called the word "Hog" to a train-riders face, especially a slightly overweight person, nor would I suspect you ever will. But that's the beauty of Message Boards now isn't it? It allows otherwise polite, respectful adults to behave like children and feel good about it.
Happy New Year. |
susan1014
Supporter
Username: Susan1014
Post Number: 1239
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, January 1, 2006 - 3:07 pm: | |
Smarty, I didn't call you that directly, but I agree that I came closer than I should have.
My apologies for the implied name calling. I especially want to be clear that the name was in no way weight-linked. I don't do that.
Note, however, that I still think that your attitude toward your fellow train riders, as displayed here, isn't a credit to you, and is no better than name calling.
Happy New Year |
maplescorp
Citizen
Username: Maplescorp
Post Number: 69
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, January 1, 2006 - 8:36 pm: | |
I have a funny true story.
First, this is a rule of decency I follow and expect others to follow: You may turn a three-facing-three "suite" of seats into a one-row by flipping the back if AND ONLY IF it doesn't turn another occupied one-row into a three-facing three. If it's unoccupied or affects no one, go ahead. I can remember a handful of times when I saw someone in their own row, and someone else flips the chairs back turning the other fellow's row into a two-facer. This is wrong. I don't care which way the train is going. The person who gets to a seat first deserves not to have it changed by somoene who comes later. If the new person can't change his seat without affecting someone else's, then he has to live with it as is.
So, here's the story: A thin 20-ish nerdish white guy gets into a train car 3/4 full, sees how turning a "suite" into a one-row wil serve his needs to site completely by himself, so he begins to, but someone points out how this will negatively affect his neighbors. He looks and does some quick calculations, then asks about SEVEN rows of settled people to flip their seats, which would allow him his own private row, and everyone else would more or less stay the same. No one responds.
He starts to look annnoyed, but then you hear this booming voice:
"Come here, son, Come sit next to me. I don't bite."
It's an ENORMOUS Afrcian-American man. The guy is sitting in a row of two with one empty seat next to him. The nerdy guy sheepishly sits next to him. It was awesome. I only mention races because it helps to visualize the story.
Someone should collect great NJT stories. I remember once around 10 pm a 20-ish woman gets on in a skin-tight cotton lacey dress with no underwear on top and a thong on the bottom. It's lacey as in you can see right through it. It was distracting to say the least.
Then there are those late night rides where someone meets a stragner and they hit it off and you hear the whole courtship exercise like listening to some bad romantic comedy. You always wonder, will they get off together, will a phone number be exchanged?
One more story: afternoon train, pretty full. I'm in the aisle standing next to a businessman. I'm closer to the door. Lots of people are getting on, clearly the aisle is going to fill up, and we're asked to move down. I look at him and he's not budging. I say something like "can you move down for these other people getting on?" He says "go around me." The guy REFUSES to move down, I'm not even sure why. Maybe he wants to remain close to the exit. Odd and annoying.
One tactic I employ: When getting on a mostly full train (with all of the two-seaters filled and most of the three-seaters filled by two people at opposite ends) I look for a three seater wherein the two people are TALKING TO EACH OTHER. Why? You know why. If they want to continue their conversation, they're not going to talk around you. The person in the aisle will almost always scoot into the middle giving you the aisle.
Bad manners? |
Smarty Jones
Citizen
Username: Birdstone
Post Number: 129
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Monday, January 2, 2006 - 9:41 pm: | |
There is a dude on the Morning Mid-town Direct from Maplewood (carries a backpack)....seems to tick people off every day as gets up to get off the train 5 minutes before arrival, and urges people to press forward (right up against the person in front of him) or else he asks to squeeze past you. As far as I know he's posting here or he's one of you, but wanted to see if anybody else noticed this dude. Seems to leave lots of people rolling their eyes in his wake. |
Sau
Citizen
Username: Sau
Post Number: 35
Registered: 8-2005
| | Posted on Monday, January 2, 2006 - 10:37 pm: | |
A couple of weeks ago, some i-bank looking guy was returning all of his phone calls from the train. He was pretty loud and pretty rude, and kept leaving messages for people to call him back on his cell phone. I'd had about enough of listening to him (as had many other people) and was about to call his cell phone and tell him to shut up, but he got off. But now I have a great tactic for next time, and I'll use it right after Broad St, instead of waiting. |
Ligeti
Citizen
Username: Ligeti
Post Number: 532
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 11:39 am: | |
Happened again today. I board the train, very few seats available, so I go straight for the lawyer who's plopped his big fat suitcase of documents on the window seat. While I stand in front of him, he fakes absorption with his Blackberry and dual cellphones. Finally, I announce (not ask) "Excuse me" and he glares at me. His thinking? "If I pause, stare and allow my irritation to resonate with this guy, he'll move on or stand. I don't care."
Naturally, Ligeti prevailed. He squirmed with outrage the rest of the way in to New York. I even made snorty chortling sounds as I read my Bill Bryson book.
The problem is not putting your stuff on seats when there is plenty of room. It's the galoots who really believe a separate seat is best utilized for their junk and not a human. These people would truly prefer someone stand so that their laptops and briefcases may sit.
Reject self-absorbed oafs in 2006. |
Copperfield
Citizen
Username: Copperfield
Post Number: 241
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 2:44 pm: | |
Very funny thread.
Zoesky, you're not the only one who's identified the overweight as ideal companions for 3-seaters. And, in their absence, people in a conversation or someone talking on a cell phone.
While Blackberryistas and cell phone talkers can be annoying, I have the most problems with the errant elbows and flopping newspapers of people reading traditional media or doing work on the train sans laptop.
The worst trains for seat hogs are the ones that are not usually crowded (the 6:43 and 7:15 from NYPenn, for example). People are so used to having the extra room that they "forget" to move bags, etc. when the trains are short a few cars and thus crowded- guess they assume there are free seats elsewhere?
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Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1331
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 3:21 pm: | |
Here, slow day at work. i wrote this in a moment of inspiration:
"Ode to the Train Rider"
I think that I shall never see
A sight as beautiful as a train empty.
Rows of seats awaiting my touch
Free of cell phones, Blackberries and such.
But alas, it is too sporadic and rare a thing
To ride the train carefree as bird on wing.
Instead we deal with seat hogs and sweaters,
Frantically typing laptop go-getters.
Three-seat squeezers with too much stuff,
Ladies with hair teased into odiferous fluff.
Newspaper flappers snorting and sneering
Drunken businessmen burping and leering.
The ignominious cell phone blabber
And the corpulent seat-stealing man of flabber.
Thankfully, we can fix them all with a stare
As stony as any from Way Down There
A hellish gaze we direct at those
Who would otherwise make our trip morose.
So here’s to the NJ Transit riders of steel,
Who can coast the rails on an even keel.
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Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 11771
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 3:23 pm: | |
 |
Copperfield
Citizen
Username: Copperfield
Post Number: 242
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 3:42 pm: | |
That's great Zoesky!
Are you a writer of some sort in real life?
Very, very funny. Thanks. |
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1332
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 7:25 pm: | |
Copperfield, thanks! I am a professional writer in real life, actually, but not of poems. I was a journalist for 17 years and now work for an editorial consulting firm.
Glad you liked it! |
eliz
Supporter
Username: Eliz
Post Number: 1272
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 7:37 pm: | |
To bad NJ Transit doesn't have a sense of humor - that would be a great piece to have printed on posters and put in all the train cars a la the MTA's subway poetry.
Very clever Zoesky! |
aquaman
Supporter
Username: Aquaman
Post Number: 644
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 12:22 am: | |
This thread is funny.
Can you imagine the uproar if a thread were titled:
"Ask the dumpy middle-aged, flabby, I-give-up Jewish Yente"
Anyway.
Here are my counter beefs.
1) Ladies: We know you love jibber-jabberin'. Yappin' all the way to Penn Station at 6:16 am. at volume 8 is a commuter-no-no.
2) Ladies: You ever see a person approach a door? In the rain or snow or even in the dry summer heat, would it kill you to glance over your shoulder to see if someone is like 2 feet behind you and hold the door open instead of letting it slam shut behind your flabby •••?
3) Ladies: Please get your coffee, sugar, cream, whatever, and move aside because there are 23 other people trying to get their coffee before the train comes in. You shouldn't chit-chat in front of the coffee urns or stir your morning elixirs to perfection in front of the urns. STEP ASIDE and adjust your brews to taste!
4) If you're a hot babe, no one will pretend to be working on a laptop. Men will always slide over for an attractive woman. Lesson learned: Pretty your little selves up tad and seat will always be available. Get it?
5) There's more. But I'll stop. |
themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 2421
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 6:06 pm: | |
So, ask him. |
Meandtheboys
Citizen
Username: Meandtheboys
Post Number: 2580
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 6:17 pm: | |
Ligeti, "snorty chortling sounds"! I love it!
Zoesky, fabulously clever. I'm very impressed. |
Sau
Citizen
Username: Sau
Post Number: 37
Registered: 8-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 10:21 am: | |
To the red haired woman in the lime green shirt on Friday's 5:29 out of Hoboken. You sat in the middle seat (good for you). But then you put one bag on the seat on your left, and one bag on the seat on your right, and when the train got crowded, you ignored everyone. How rude. You live in Maplewood, and earlier in the week, you were complaining there's nothing for you to do at work because you are a reporter and January is slow. Pick up a book by Miss Manners or someone. |
ril
Citizen
Username: Ril
Post Number: 459
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 20, 2006 - 2:15 pm: | |
On the 8:05 from South Orange to Hoboken today, there was a guy actually watching a sitcom on some sort of portable device (not a cellphone). The whole car could hear the canned laughter and tinny music. It was loud, and he was clearly enjoying the show, despite the evil glances from nearby passengers. Finally a woman got up, leaned over and said to him, "Don't you have headphones for that?" I felt like applauding. |
Ligeti
Citizen
Username: Ligeti
Post Number: 559
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 20, 2006 - 2:26 pm: | |
You must understand that to the generation of people who are compulsively wired up to electronic gadgets and "communication" devices, there is simply no distinction between public and private space.
These are the same people you yap incessantly in movie theaters. They don't even see the people around them, much less be considerate of them.
Reject electronic gadgets in 2006. Read a book or think quietly to yourself instead. |
Copperfield
Citizen
Username: Copperfield
Post Number: 246
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2006 - 9:48 pm: | |
I thought of you the other day, Ligeti.
There was a man on one of the later trains home who was sitting in the middle of a 3-seater, trying to take up the seats on either side of him.
So remembering your 'teach them some manners' crusade, I politely parked myself in the aisle seat, and when the train took off and he was in the center seat, I politely "suggested" that we'd both be more comfortable if he moved over a bit. He mumbled that he didn't think so, but moved anyway.
And even with the empty seat between us, I could smell the alcohol on his breath, but that's another issue... |
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