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1nevets its totally untrue that from Pehlam Bay Park to 125th the trains become a "total mess"...that is the exception, not the rule, and I ride those trains everyday, for years. Secondly, why be surprised that people pee in the stations, I have done it....when you gotta go and there are no bathrooms, what do you recommend? Casting a spell? Praying to St. Patrick? Wishing the pee away?
On that note, I have also puked on trains...why? I am a human being and I get sick and you cannot control when you are going to puke...but seems it's always at the most inopportune time. I think you are holding the trains to a standard that it cannot achieve because we are human being and not machines.
I agree the man was a little out there . However the point is that in New York they allow bad behavior to run unchecked or will solve problems with more bad behavior (your way of handling that situation is a perfect example of using bad behavior to deal with bad behavior).. From my observation of NY suburbs people take more aggresive means to prevent it from happening.
Two examples I've noticed. Now this is something I see on many residential streets in the Bronx. I always have to look down while walking to avoid walking in dog feces. People do not clean up after their dogs. I saw this problem in Soundview and I see it in Pelham Bay. I had a week assignment on Terrace Ave in Hempstead, a ghetto street with several tenement buildings no dog crap anywhere along the pedestrian streets.
On Suffolk bus on several trips I have witness riders picking up litter or asking fellow riders if they need an empty cup thrown away because there is a litter basket at their stop. On both NYC buses and subways I have frequently seen people spit on the floors of the car or bus. I saw one man even spit on the window of a subway car.
I like seeing your post because we have been through alot of the same areas. Though, I dont see as big of a difference as you. I take the BX over the 'Stead anyday, though i still rep the 516 hard lol. I say alot of what I saw in Long Island prepared me for the BX.
Also, unfourtantly I have done alot of the things you guys are complaining about. Some days the menatality takes over.
Im sure ive seen you on the train before lol. I take the 6 to 125 and 4,5 down to City Hall. When you riding on one of the busiest lines in the world, not everything is going to be peachy lol.
i was responding to comments you said about the suburbs. Now you want to change it? You are the one that said it is even worse in the suburbs. So you brought that subject up. How often do you take suburban transit?
My worse experience on li bus was on the n40 which rides from mineola to freeport. Anyone who knows the area will agree that this bus runs through the worse towns in nassau county, hempstead, uniondale, roosevelt and n. Freeport. At the hempstead terminal a man tries to bring a full size shopping cart from a supermarket onto the bus. The female bus driver got out of her seat and told him to not even think about it. He took his groceries out of the cart and got on the bus. I thought "oh no, this is going to be one horrible ride." the man was loud and abrasive and 5 mins. Into the ride he starts making sexual and profane comments. A woman yells at him and said' i got kids here. They don't need to hear that mess. He was silent for the rest of the trip. If something like that happpened on a nyc bus.that bus driver and that woman would have been dead.
I was told on this board to ignore people who sneak on the back door of the bus because a bus driver was attacked when he stood up against someone taking a free ride.
I suggest you take back your comments that it's even worse in the suburbs unless you have experienced it. For me, i have not.
Once upon a time (when I was still a conductor), I was working on the N line when a man in a gray trenchcoat, carrying the Times in one hand and a candy bar in the other, threw the wrapper on the floor right in front of my face. So, of course, something needed to be said.
I said to him, "Excuse me, do you work in a nice office?" He had no idea where I was coming from or where I was going--and he certainly wasn't expecting commentary from the train's conductor. So he stammered for a bit and finally mumbled, "Yes, yes I do." I nodded at him and replied, "If I came into your office and threw garbage on the floor, the first thing you'd do is call the police, wouldn't you?"
He turned as red as a tomato, bent down to pick up his trash, and mumbled something about being sorry--which was when I got mad. Because you know he wouldn't have thrown his garbage on the floor in a Long Island Railroad car--not in a million years. But put him on the N train, and all of a sudden it's OK.
The real problem with garbage is that, let's face it, an awful lot of New Yorkers are pigs. Plain and simple. That accounts for most of the behavior we see described in this thread. They don't like it if you call them pigs, but that's exactly what they are. And say what you want about MTA, but they could hire five times as many cleaners as they have on staff now, and they still wouldn't be able to keep up with the amount of garbage generated by the riding public.
By the way, Nevets, there aren't any more pre-war cars in the system. The last ones went out of service in 2003. At present, the oldest cars running are the model R-32s, now in service on the C line.
Well said Fred...you will find the LIRR / Metro North crowd exist solely to rape the city for everything they can, and have a general disdain for it and could careless what happens. Of course they would not act the same way on the LIRR or in their own neighborhoods, but since it's NYC they could care less.
They are something akin to an occupying force at times.
This is the reality of multicultural society, its not like television and what you are seeing is a bi-product of the lack of a cultural or moral standard on a city bus, in order for something like "considerate" by your standard to happen, you have to be surrounded by people who share this standard, but you are dealing with people from all over the world who have varying standards of what is considerate that do not match yours, so usually it goes to the lowest common denominator, which is no consideration at all on a city bus. Are you surprised by this?
Next time we are annoyed by someone on public transportation, we can always say, it could be worse.
In India, the local commuter trains actually have to have SEPARATE CARS FOR WOMEN ONLY. If they didn't, the women would all be PREY in the crowded trains to pervy behavior: felt up, molested, and verbally harassed. Indians have a cute little term for it: "Eve teasing." Men are not taken to task for it in their society and women are expected to "deal with it" and try to stay out of the way (don't walk alone in the street, stay in the women's only car on the train, etc.). Yes, this still exists in the year 2011 and the separate women only train cars are not going away anytime soon.
Anyone that asks whether this is native to NYers has never lived outside of the 5 boroughs, because NYC could not function in any way without order and laws...there are just too many people and it would all come to a grinding halt.
This type of behavior is HUMAN behavior, and we are trained by society to be orderly..so you will find it everywhere, especially out in the suburbs. Anyone who believes it doesn't happen in the suburbs never leaves their cars long enough to interact with people. I have never been more terrified and shocked than when I venture out to middle America...and those who have spent time in middle America would agree.
Considering we have every country and their cultures represented in tightly packed trains, buses, streets, etc., we all get along quite well..moreso than the homogenized white washed Middle America in fact...why is that? You pack 8 million middle Americans on the 6 train and watch all hell break loose, especially since 50% will have a gun (legally) and will demand their space.
What in the world happened?
Do you mean the stress of being on NYC public transport would make them act crazier than usual or just that they are naturally like that?
Once upon a time (when I was still a conductor), I was working on the N line when a man in a gray trenchcoat, carrying the Times in one hand and a candy bar in the other, threw the wrapper on the floor right in front of my face. So, of course, something needed to be said.
I said to him, "Excuse me, do you work in a nice office?" He had no idea where I was coming from or where I was going--and he certainly wasn't expecting commentary from the train's conductor. So he stammered for a bit and finally mumbled, "Yes, yes I do." I nodded at him and replied, "If I came into your office and threw garbage on the floor, the first thing you'd do is call the police, wouldn't you?"
He turned as red as a tomato, bent down to pick up his trash, and mumbled something about being sorry--which was when I got mad. Because you know he wouldn't have thrown his garbage on the floor in a Long Island Railroad car--not in a million years. But put him on the N train, and all of a sudden it's OK.
The real problem with garbage is that, let's face it, an awful lot of New Yorkers are pigs. Plain and simple. That accounts for most of the behavior we see described in this thread. They don't like it if you call them pigs, but that's exactly what they are. And say what you want about MTA, but they could hire five times as many cleaners as they have on staff now, and they still wouldn't be able to keep up with the amount of garbage generated by the riding public.
By the way, Nevets, there aren't any more pre-war cars in the system. The last ones went out of service in 2003. At present, the oldest cars running are the model R-32s, now in service on the C line.
Trust me ... he would! I've been on LIRR trains that come into Penn and go straight out again without being cleaned and there is plenty of garbage on them: discarded food wrappers, discarded drinks sloshing around, spilled coffee sticking to your feet, discarded newspapers. And there's no excuse because the LIRR has trash cans up and down the platforms literally a few feet from each other.
In contrast at Jamaica Center subway station (not the LIRR station), there are not enough trash cans on the street (and/or they fill up very quickly and aren't emptied enough) because they are always full, so you can see a lot of the people in this "hood" are at least trying to dispose of their trash in the right manner.
Next time take the F or Q train start at Coney Island and work your way up. Heck, even do it during the morning rush hour thats even better. I ride the Q/B everyday to work and it is always clean and most of the time spotless with not even a gum wrapper lying around. The only times these trains are not clean all the way to dt Brooklyn is when the B does not get cleaned when it comes back from the Bronx from the trip before (this is during the day) and when the Q gets some passangers at Stillwell avenue stop. By the way, the 2 is one of the worst lines in the whole NYC metro... I think thats the line that still uses those old pre-war trains....
What are you talking about? The 2 along with the 4,5and 6 are all from the same era. You might be talking about the 1 and 3. They are older cars. Expect to hear "Stand clear of the closing doors, please" on the 2 train.
Once upon a time (when I was still a conductor), I was working on the N line when a man in a gray trenchcoat, carrying the Times in one hand and a candy bar in the other, threw the wrapper on the floor right in front of my face. So, of course, something needed to be said.
By the way, Nevets, there aren't any more pre-war cars in the system. The last ones went out of service in 2003. At present, the oldest cars running are the model R-32s, now in service on the C line.
I didn't say that. Gantz made that claim. I don't have issues with the cars or the subway system. It's some of the people who ride it that annoys me. Sidenote, I love the next car signs. It's my favorite new tech on the subway system.
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