When I can’t ride my bike, Lucy, to work, I take the subway. Often I will see people put bags on seats, say to other passengers that they are “saving” the seat, or sitting on the outside seat with an empty seat next to them. I guess this is because people are either selfish or have spacial issues (Ew! Sit next to someone on the subway?). I would like to remind those people of a couple of things:
- You are already on the subway (or bus, I don’t mean to exclude anyone. I suppose more places have buses than subways, regardless). Get over yourself or buy a town car and chauffeur.
- You are only inviting ruder people to sit next to you. Who is more likely to ask you to move over or take your bags off the seat next to you, the well-mannered person or the crazy person? When push comes to shove, you will eventually be forced to let that crazy person sit down. There is one woman on the train I take to work who has an anxiety problem and as soon as she gets on the train, will not stop woefully moaning until she gets a seat. Do you want to sit next to the wailing woman? Improve your odds of having a sane person sit next to you and keep the open seats easily accessible.
- Quit being a jerk.
I don’t like it when guys stand around blockading seats because they think they’re being chivalrous. They’re actually clogging up the isles and making it impossible to get to the open seats. Stop being a hero and sit down!
You also don’t want to sit next to a person who put’s their stuff on the seat next to them, because they are selfish and or don’t understand social cues. Just ask the girl who sat next to me after she asked a guy to move his bag for her. He kept asking her about her i-phone. He relentlessly asked her what kind of music she liked, though it was obvious by her “you know, everything.” response that she wished she never sat next to him. The best part was when in his final attempt at connecting with her he asked if Usher was on her play list. “I don’t know, you know rap stuff. I don’t know who’s popular now.” Boy, did she open up a can of worms.