and so much more

Much like Chrissie Hynde, don't get me wrong: I'm in favor of people not being shitty on the L. I just don't like the tack they're taking. Leave passive aggression to Minnesota and the South; if you don't want people to eat on the train, just fucking say DON'T EAT ON THE TRAIN like the Washington Metro does. Remove all pretense. The L is not a place of pretense.

I found this tidbit interesting, though:

Could it be that manspreading isn't really the problem it's made out to be by the internet's pro-am social critics? Last few times I've been on the Red Line with those bullshit longitudinal seats, I didn't have a chance to splay my legs and ventilate my balls because the train was standing-room only and it was cold outside anyway.

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+1 for your take.
+2 for a Pretenders reference.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Also, I totally understand why this is the way it has to be, but I can count on zero hands the number of times a guy who looks like Frank_Coztansa's cousin has been loudly imposing his music on everyone.

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I only use CTA when I'm downtown on the weekends or occasional weekday trip to Midway so I don't experience rush hour version. But avoiding the middle is more just not wanting to put my ass or nuts in front of the face of the person sitting down.

They do have signs up about no eating or music all over the place.
I can understand eating a bag of chips or something small but I can attest to have seen people eating entire Chicken dinners. Don't get me starting on the music shit. I have my earbuds in and I can still hear the guy at the other end of the car blasting Lil Wayne on his phoine.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

I'm glad the CTA decided on this new tac aimed strictly at white people from Appleton WI who will never have the requisite personality to play their boombox on the train, or break any rules whatsoever. Great use of funds, is the Yellow Line still laying in a ditch somewhere?

Those who will abide by these requests most likley already do and those that dont , wont.

They most have taken a poll.

So this guy is no longer welcome?

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Bingo. They paid an agency to put this together, but the people who write into the "Bitch About Everyone Around You" feature in On the Bi-Level have been giving it away for free.

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you can tell they hired a 3rd party to make those ads because not since star trek the voyage home have i seen someone blasting a boombox on a train or public transportation. like chas said, it's mostly phones now. which doesn't make much sense because it sounds like shit turned all the way up.

I didn't see anything about clipping toenails being forbidden.

Good news for that 350+ lbs. lummox I saw in full task last month on the Red Line.

Why did he have to be wearing a Sox Jersey?!?

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."

There's a little unintentional humor woven into the last one with the issue of garbage starting fires and delaying the trains. I mean, wouldn't it be more effective to have the sign read "WARNING: LOOSE TRASH MAY CAUSE FIRES" than this "Hey, I didn't bother you did I? I did? I'm so sorry I just had to let you know that, like, I know its TOTALLY understandable to think its OK but we'd really appreciate it if you didn't throw your trash on floor of the train." People dont respond to this shit, much less the train-people. If you want to clean the thing up (fat chance) that's where you start.

But I think the guy who huffs a can of keyboard cleaner then hops on the train to scare everyone is going to, perhaps unknowingly, outwit some marketing firm's focus groups.

That Lara Mundane and her forced playlist selections on 'XRT.

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CSFMB: Home of the small minded

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but something about a government agency poster reading "please don't leave your crap behind" feels a little Idiocracy to me. It's been a long way down from 1930s poster art, huh.

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Apparently the Metro has the most orderly bunch of riders you'll ever find, in part because the cops will ticket you on the spot for eating a donut but probably also because their public transit is dominated by six-figure office drones who wouldn't be in Washington in the first place if they didn't gravitate toward doing exactly as they're told.

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When I was a kid the announcement on the el was "No smoking, littering, radio playing." I don't remember when "radio playing" became"Playing of loud devices" or whatever. "Gambling is strictly prohibited" worked its way in as a stand-alone somewhat recently too.

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

Maybe they feel they are trying to connect with their audience.

I don't care for public transportation.

i like it, but people will still be assholes regardless

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

Yeah I don't eat a lot of gluten anymore. I don't like a lot of stuff I guess.

I don't care for cities that have shitty transit systems and sprawl interminably and cause pollution. I get too anxious to drive on the Kennedy. I'm happy to sit back. My Metra/L experiences are like 95% good, which isn't bad for five years of sporadic riding.

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I had the opposite experience. On 55 or the Eisenhower I was able to be by myself, usually listening to MJH for a little over an hour. That was good times. Being squished, with people, on the el is not a good place for me. Everything feels greasy and since I don't do it often, I get that unfamiliar fearish feeling.

Its a good thing that the CTA has the disposable funds to pay for things like this.

I rarely drive into the city anymore. I dump the car at Cumberland and relax on the L reading or stare out the windows.

The Kennedy traffic doesn't bother me as much as finding parking near my destination where I don't have to fear getting ticketed or running every 2 hours to reprint a ticket. Plus, depending on the time of day I find city driving 10x more frustrating with lights, cameras, construction and potholes. Public transportation is so peaceful.

dude CH, what's the term that 4th-wave tumblr feminists use when they talk about men sitting comfortably on public trans? is it manspace or uhhh *googles it* ummmm not finding it right now but i have found http://mentakingup2muchspaceonthetrain.tumblr.com/ --- i shit you not, that's men taking up 2 much space on the train.tumblr.com --- THEY'RE WATCHING YOU *AND* YOUR PRIVILEGE BOYEEEEE!

aha! i scrolled down to find your pics for another look and i saw "manspreading" in there. clearly it's an epidemic that needs to be curtailed, even tho the first of your CTA pics is a rather androgynous bag on the seat, but let's be real here... 99% of the time it's some middle aged/ish woman who plops her giant oversized purse down on the seat next to her (rush hour be damned) so nobody could sit there. and of course in the exceedingly rare times someone asks "hey can i sit down" they get the dirtiest look (literally-)ol girl can muster.

but hey in defense of men by calling chicks out on their bullshit, i hate hate hate FUCKING HATE when you're at a bus-stop (especially in the winter) and these women go over there by the seats and sit down so you stand right by where the bus pulls up and make it a point to stand right there to get on so you can get a good seat. but then as you stand there waiting when the bus pulls up all these women pop up out of the woodworks (seriously 3-4 more will show up like where the hell were they? they must have been inside somewhere) and then as you're waiting to go on teh bus they just walk right in front of you like you're not even there righteously indignant that "[THEY WERE] HERE FIRST!" shit as they proceed to treat you like the need-to-check-that-privilege piece of shit that you are by seriously just going on as if you're not even standing right there, sometimes even stepping on your white shoes (which can be ground for death in certain urban neighborhoods! seriously)

hell just yesterday it was the same type thing waiting for a pacebus on golf road. one dumpy middleaged woman was off 10-15ft away kind of sitting on this ledge by a flower area in front of uhhh... a car dealership i think, or alternatively standing on the sidewalk (while i stood there in the dirt in my white shoes no less) and she's pacing around and giving me looks of death and sitting down.... then as the bus pulls up this chick comes within millimeters of giving me one of those traditionally-male "FUCK YOU" bumps as she casually walked RIGHT THE FUCK IN FRONT OF ME and stood there for a second like 2 inches in front of me just to get on the bus before me. i even said "excuse me you know i exist and i''m standing right here" but of course she said nothing and no doubt had a furious pissed off look on her face when i walked by her in her preferred seat (which would ya guess is one for seniors/disabled/strollers/wheelchairs/etc? i can picture one of them getting on and she gives them the look like "I'M A DUMPY MIDDLEAGED BROAD AND I WAS ON THE BUS FIRST. EVER THOUGHT ABOUT GOING BACK IN TIME AND SAVING YOURSELF FROM GETTING DISABLED?

but yeah of course when these chicks do their rotten shit where they just go above and beyond the call of rudeness like you're supposed to acquiesce simply because they're WOMEN and they were technically 10yds away first, i mean, comeon.,,.. shit. this is how it works. on a city bus last week some high school kid did this pimpfresh thing where he timed his stride and angle to get exactly one step in front of me as the bus stopped 3-4ft short of me and that's acceptable. but literally just damn-near/bumping-int-me and especially standing there with your ass nearly rubbing against me (and it's never an ass you want against you) just because you're STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMYN AND YOU DEMAND NOT JUST EQUALITY BUT JUSTICE AND #KILLALLMEN..... all while never giving up any of your perks of female privilege..... yeah you know you're in the wrong and thats why you very very rarely make any eye contact or definitely don't respond to anything i say like "HOLY SHIT I MUST BE A GHOST BECAUSE I DONT THINK THESE HUMANS CAN SEE ME TODAY! DO GHOSTS HAVE TO PAY A FARE?" --- fuckin beeeeeeeeeeeyotches!

so yeah man while i do shrink up into compact space when people are getting on and give them a chance to sit wherever they desire, you best damn believe that when the bus is moving and there's no people moving aroind on it i'm manspreading like the champ i am.

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wait whats this.... you get a ticket written up for eating and/or drinking on the DC metro? yikes.

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Looked at that tumblr sini and some were pretty bad. Though, I mean, if the train isn't busy who cares?

They had this picture on there:



If you're getting bitchy about this then my goodness. She got stuck between two big dudes. It happens. Relax.

Yeah, they don't fuck around. The Metro is really young as far as rapid transit systems go (like mid-1970s), and from the outset they decided they were going to do everything right and never let it descend into chaos like the NYC Subway had at the time. All the platforms look like rejected sets from Kubrick films, too, none of the shabby patchwork splendor of the L:

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http://web.mta.info/nyct/service/CourtesyCounts.htm

MTA / New York does this, too. But we got guys who do pole dances, so that's covered, too.

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost