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No commute is complete without running into someone annoying you. Most common are:
Listening to videos/music without headphones
Talking loudly and/or swearing
Putting feet on the subway/train seats
Walking slowly in the middle of the sidewalk
Blocking the escalator by standing in the middle
For sure many more to add, but these are nearly guaranteed in most commutes. I do my best to switch seats or avoid such people. I will give them a dirty look while doing so. Guess I am surprised how such people make it through life without someone losing their temper with them? Particularly in a place like NYC where there are lots of people with short fuses.. Can't say I've ever seen someone call someone out on their bad behavior though..
Most subway riders just want to get to work alive and then back home.
Even if you were to drop kick someone over a loud phone, do you really want to deal with the police and arrest and trials later, with cameras being everywhere.
Normal folk have been castrated for some time now.
No, because I avoid public transportation altogether and thankfully don't need to be exposed to these irritating behaviors which, as you correctly stated, are prevalent. I drive into Queens from Boston and then take an Uber to Midtown. Eventually, I'll buy a place that's walkable from the office and won't have to deal with the Uber situation either.
As for walking slowly in the middle of the sidewalk or randomly stopping -- natives and tourists are both guilty of these behaviors so ignore them and move on.
As others said, I also don't want to get involved in a ridiculous situation with my life/safety is at risk.
Everything you mention is a minor annoyance at best, and no one has much cause to "call" anyone out for those things. This being the United States, we all have the right to swear, and if you attacked everyone walking slowly, you would destroy our tourist industry. I find it's perfectly possibly to pass a slow walker, and if someone is taking up an extra seat, I just ask if I can sit, and it's always fine.
I'm far more likely to speak up in situations that actually affect or hamper someone - salesclerks ignoring customers or people talking loudly in movies or coughing alarmingly right at people.
I was in a train with some jerk who not only had a huge bike in front of him taking up a lot of space but he was also playing loud music from a bluetooth speaker mounted on that bike. No one was saying anything until a middle aged woman spoke up loudly asking where the music is coming from. Someone pointed her to the bike. She told the guy to turn it off. Amazingly he did, not immediately but he did after she argued a little with him.
She said, kind of to herself, I have teenagers at home and I need my train car to be quiet, this was giving me a headache.
I think everyone else in the train car was grateful to her but no one else was willing to get in a fight/argument/have a knife pulled on them whatever.
I was in a train with some jerk who not only had a huge bike in front of him taking up a lot of space but he was also playing loud music from a bluetooth speaker mounted on that bike. No one was saying anything until a middle aged woman spoke up loudly asking where the music is coming from. Someone pointed her to the bike. She told the guy to turn it off. Amazingly he did, not immediately but he did after she argued a little with him.
She said, kind of to herself, I have teenagers at home and I need my train car to be quiet, this was giving me a headache.
I think everyone else in the train car was grateful to her but no one else was willing to get in a fight/argument/have a knife pulled on them whatever.
Alternate outcome.
News 11.
A woman on an E train was set on fire and later died due to her injuries after confronting a man playing loud music on his speaker. She left behind a husband, 6 kids, 17 grand kids and a cow.
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