Straphangers Find Etiquette Takes A Pounding On Station Stairs

[mark1447]

t's hot and humid and someone’s in a hurry. But they should forget about making their train because some riders are hogging the stairs.

 

“It sucks because you end up being late for work, you miss the train and the next one is crowded. It’s like you can't win,” says one straphanger.

 

New Yorkers drive on the right, walk down the street on the right and the MTA encourages them to keep to the right when walking up or down subway stairs. And many riders seem to want to oblige. But the temptation of saving a few seconds can be too great. Someone dashes to the left and the crowds often follow.

 

“It is like a stampede of animals going up and down the stairs. It is very dangerous, people are very rude. We just need some type of organization,” says a rider.

 

Some riders want the MTA to hire staff to enforce the common courtesy of staying to the right.

 

“Have signs,” one says. “Just direct people the right way because it is frustrating.”

 

In fact, the MTA does have signs at Borough Hall and Court Street from a pilot project a few years back. But it didn't work well enough for them to implement system-wide.

 

So some riders hope for kindly conductors who wait, while other riders fight back and push.

 

“My attitude is if they don't get out of the way than sorry, I am not responsible. They've got to stay in their lane,” says a straphanger.

 

Some wonder why riders can't be more like the English who have a reputation for staying to the proper side.

 

“It's New York. Anything goes,” says a rider.

 

Video + Source: http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/transit/166313/straphangers-find-etiquette-takes-a-pounding-on-station-stairs

[Q10 Airport]

Here are the strappies, once again pointing out the painfully obvious.

[Quill Depot]

You can't fix New Yorkers. Conductors can't sit there and wait for you to get your butt on the train.

 

You are usually expected to be on the platform when the train comes. You stand to the side and let the people out. Then you board the train.

 

Half of the stairs won't be going up and half the stairs won't be going down. When people get off the train it's their stairs. They won't be polite and let you through. They have a place to go, just like you.

[pjbr40]

_{Sign wont work because it never enforced the rules. Look at all the idiots in Ny Penn station in Nj Transit waiting area. There sign all over the place "Do Not Sit on Stairs" Even tho there cops and employees there but it was not fully enforced and people are just sitting anywhere on the stairs and don't care. For me it frustrating because i have to wiggle my way up or down those stairs. It same thing when rush of people who come up the stairs on their left while people who walk on the right to go down the stair. It crazy. I usually push my way down there because they should know better then that. i would never say excuse me if they are blocking my path because they should know better to keep to the right and you will get out of the staircase.}

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Well I'll tell you something... Folks are becoming ruder every day, especially my generation and folks younger than me. Everyone is so self-indulged these days that they can't be bothered. This nonsense about people being in a hurry... Well sure everyone is in a hurry, but you can be in a hurry and not be rude. The two don't have to go hand and hand and is a lame excuse. They should do something to be honest. I blame these damn cell phones and I would certainly favor some sort of fine for walking and texting because even though you're in the subway below ground where most stations don't have cell service, people can't stop with the damn cell phone. It's amazing. I mean how can you expect people to be courteous enough to not block the stairs and stay to the right if they stand in the friggin street texting almost being run over by a bus because they refuse to leave their little world for one minute?

[FamousNYLover]

It's not only station stairs, even the building stairs.

 

Even thought packages or strollers are not allowed on escalators, they take it up.

 

Sometimes even cyclists refused to obey and bringing bike in subway cars and I thought bikes are supposed to be on first or last subway cars.

 

Cyclists also create obstacles for people with vendor package, package, strollers.

[Snowblock]

 

So some riders hope for kindly conductors who wait, while other riders fight back and push.

 

 

 

There's nothing kindly about delaying every rider on my train by holding for one person who wasn't on the platform before my train arrived. I would gladly inconvenience the late-comer than the customers who already waited to get on my train. Whenever customers ask why I won't reopen, I ask them "well where were you when my doors were open and everybody else was boarding?"

[FamousNYLover]

It's not only on ()' /> subway, and almost every bus companies.

 

Even people should know all strollers must be folded before getting onboard the bus just like every city bus and tour bus company states, however some people don't obey until the B/O says.

 

It also happens lots on M15 SBS.

 

When people try to get off the crowded bus, some people pushed into the bus.

 

It also happens at any building.

[MottAvenueMan]

So in all the years these people lived here and whined about the stairs, they never learned to shimmy, side step, or straight gorilla their way past people?

 

Or maybe it's just me being a big guy, people usually move when i come up or go down...nobody wants to be run over by the train's little brother, lol. But don't get it twisted, i do use the words Excuse and Me when i need to get by...works most of the time.

[Interested Rider]

I do not like to say this but for as long as I can remember rudeness has been around whether on the subway or on the street. I remember getting off a R1/9 at 34th Street and 6th Avenue and I had to act like a lineman to get off the train, so it is nothing new. When I worked in Queens and had to take the #7 at 42nd Street - 6th Avenue, I learned that one of the big umbrellas and looking down worked fine at getting the crowds to part the way for me. While it seems to have gotten worse with people not looking where they are going (the cell phone conversation is more important then to look where they are walking) or the geniuses going through red lights (bicyclists and drivers), the truth is that they will never learn to be nice to others. They figure I am wrong and they are right.

Today is no different from other years in terms of cvility and that is why I found Jeanne DuBuono's column in last week's Bay News so refreshing as her subject was "Thank you to transit workers". The column is self-explanatory as she gives thanks to the employees that have to put up with rudeness, day in and day out as our forum members have described. It is the same reason that I say thank you to the transit workers that help me get to my destination, worked to help me with my Metro card and all those that helped me get to and from work over the years.

Oh yes! there are some days where you just shake your head in bewilderment as to the nerve of some individual like I did when I was walking in my area after the 2011 snowstorm and there was a path just for one person to pass and I let a mother and her child in the baby carriage pass and I was cursed out for stopping to let her pass through it.

[N6 Limited]

Maybe the solution are express stairs? LOL. Sometimes people just go so SLOW , you could make your train if they get out of the way.

[realizm]

What I do when I end up trying to get into a station down a flight of stairs against the rush hour crowd is to simply wait for the rush hour crowd to exit before I enter the station. I already got home from work so I'm just chilling. No rush. These people need to get home after long days on the job. After they clear out *then* I go into the station to take the train off peak direction. If say the line is operating at PM rush hour trains at peak capacity uptown in upper Manhattan and I'm heading downtown on the same line. I don't understand why some straphangers have such difficulty understanding basic ettiquite. No wonder. I think all it is sometimes is that people have a basic lack of understanding in concepts of spatial distance. Among other things.

 

Edit: Then again I live a happy responsibility free life. So yeah. *crawls into fetal position on floor trying to convince himself*

[Via Garibaldi 8]

What I do when I end up trying to get into a station down a flight of stairs against the rush hour crowd is to simply wait for the rush hour crowd to exit before I enter the station. I already got home from work so I'm just chilling. No rush. These people need to get home after long days on the job. After they clear out *then* I go into the station to take the train off peak direction. If say the line is operating at PM rush hour trains at peak capacity uptown in upper Manhattan and I'm heading downtown on the same line. I don't understand why some straphangers have such difficulty understanding basic ettiquite. No wonder. I think all it is sometimes is that people have a basic lack of understanding in concepts of spatial distance. Among other things.

 

Edit: Then again I live a happy responsibility free life. So yeah. *crawls into fetal position on floor trying to convince himself*

 

 

What I don't understand is how you determine which way is "peak" and "non-peak". You have folks traveling home in both directions, so that isn't the best example, though I get your point.

[realizm]

If the person is entering the station in one of the outer boroughs where the frequency of traffic is in peak direction then yeah. At major transit hubs then it's like going into a stampede of little elves from hell.

[FamousNYLover]

Slightly might be little off-topic, it even happens on any PATH station stairs, LIRR, NJT Stairs.

 

Right after LIRR leave the station, passengers or walkers just cross the train tracks when gate is down.

 

I even remember when I was at Danbury Railroad Museum or Pavonia-Newport Station, even with sign that says, "DO NOT STOP ON TRACK" but car drivers did.

[Q10 Airport]

All of this shows why NYC is indeed the "rudest city in the country."

[GarbageTruckJuice]

I got into a shoving match with some lady a couple of weeks ago at 42nd & 6th. A train had just emptied out and it was only people coming up the stairs while I had to get down. It isn't one way so people need to get with the program and move. I'm not going to be late for work because some a**holes won't move out of the way.

 

The tunnel between 5th & 6th Avenue can be ridiculous also. If there's a huge crowd coming down in one the direction they almost try to rail the opposite direction into the wall. Move the F over. Once again it isn't one way.

[FamousNYLover]

Even little bit off-topic, relatives but same with Midtown Apple Store, people don't stay to right.

[realizm]

[realizm]

 

 

Ready: Fight!!

[realizm]

 

Aopple loses. Big time.

[Quill Depot]

Slightly might be little off-topic, it even happens on any PATH station stairs, LIRR, NJT Stairs.

 

Right after LIRR leave the station, passengers or walkers just cross the train tracks when gate is down.

 

I even remember when I was at Danbury Railroad Museum or Pavonia-Newport Station, even with sign that says, "DO NOT STOP ON TRACK" but car drivers did.

 

 

That's Danbury, It's the Connecticut Crappola.

[checkmatechamp13]

The thing that sucks is that often both sides are in a hurry. At Whitehall Street, you often have people charging up the stairs to catch the ferry, and people charging down the stairs trying to catch the train. Then of course, it sucks for both of them when they have to shimmy around each other because it takes time. The advantage with the train is that if somebody headed in your direction gets there first, maybe they can hold the door for a few other people. (I remember a couple of times when 1 guy would get to the door just before it closed, and because of it, 7 or 8 people were able to make the train).

[Snowblock]

Yeah just like at Main St, which has very narrow stairs. And then you get one guy who decides to be a "hero" by shoving his way down the stairs so he can hold the doors open for every single other person.......and then the 7 takes off from tk 2 instead!

[Joel Up Front]

Can I ask what in the bleeding hell Microsoft vs. Apple has to do with this?

 

I'd be glad to shove a person holding the doors out. Or something. Then him and his buddies can all get on the next train together instead of snarling everyone's commute.