Are people really unreactive?
Ok, this might not apply to you and it hasn’t applied to me (yet). But I really needed to let people know what happened to my friends.
On Monday, my friends were travelling on the usual swanston street tram getting to uni in the morning. As always, crowded like hell. We had a test at 10 and they were already late. They had to get off at Linclon Square. As the tram reached that stop, the doors open, people get off except for my friends. Why? Coz, they can’t freaking move! My friend yells out “Excuse me!” and guess what? Everyone just stands there as if they are deaf. And no, they don’t have earphones/headphones. The doors begin to close and they yell out to someone to push the button. Same response.
The result – they had to get off at the next stop and sprint back all the way. Late by 5-10 minutes.
I felt really sorry for them..but it made me think if people can actually be that way. Not that they are doing that deliberately, but I can’t think of any reason. I don’t know how loud she yelled out but atleast the person standing next to her must have heard her…(sigh)
Anyways, have fun with voting!
Till next time
Coming from Hong Kong, where rush hour public transport is incredibly crowded, I can say that really the most efficient solution in such situations is to rudely shove them out of the way. That said, I think the whole layout of the trams really sucks and needs a redesign – there’s so much to trip over between the door, the seating area and the ticket machine, and the doors and aisles are so narrow that I’m surprised people can get on and off at all.
Sad but true, a great deal of Melburnians are actually rude, self-absorbed (excuses for) people. This counts for double on public transport.
Well, at least Connex (God bless them) are doing something about it:
http://www.martinmerton.com.au/
PXW
So it’s just Melbourne? I’ve seen this type of thing happen time and again for the past two months, and I was about to conclude it was an Australian thing.
I sort of agree with Suzanne, if they are just going to ignore you then use force!
Quite surprising though, I find at least on the train back home are always willing to let you out and hope out of the train for a moment to let you get out.
and on a quick second rant I noticed people don’t normally move for efficiency when leaving Melbourne Central. As soon as people are up the escalator they move across towards the ticket gates, but this cuts off people still going up the escalator. This was particularly bad when one day they’d forgotten to put that barrier between the two escalators and people from the other escalator were moving right across, and I started to get squashed and my foot got stuck in one part at the top of the escalator and hurt for quite a few days. (I’m guessing if it had’ve been a bit worse I’d have had a broken toe or foot.)
I haven’t got into a situation where I have to forcefully cleave my way out, probably since my stops are always the most popular (train or tram alike) – there’s always someone reaching out for the doors before I do every time. I also haven’t witnessed any incident described by Kripa in my trains – maybe people are nicer on the trains (I haven’t hopped on a tram for ages)?
There are several reasons that the person next to Kripa’s friend couldn’t hear her. Perhaps he/she was lost in their own thought and temporarily disconnected from reality in that split second (I did that a couple of times, so I can assure you it is possible). Also, the person may not realize the message was directed to him/her (again, it happened to me once. I failed to recognize that someone “excuse me” behind me).
In the end, I guess the most ample solution is to resort to brute force. I don’t like being rude but if words fail, violence must play its role.
Hmm..first time someone’s being asked to be rude..
Sorry to hear abt ur foot, Rick!
Thanks for the wonderful responses, guys!