Wednesday, May 25, 2011

TFL FTW

(Post title translation: Transportation for London for the win.)

Look, I love TFL.  Before you read this rantette, I want you to understand that I love TFL.  There are so few cities in the world where public transportation is as reliable and convenient as it is in London; I say this having lived in Washington, New York, and Paris - all of which have decent public transportation options.  (And I say this even though the union staffing the Underground occasionally likes to pretend that we're in France.)

However, I hate natives traveling on the Tube.  Tourists I generally dislike across the board, but they're not more obnoxious on public transportation than they are, say, when walking across the Millennium Bridge and stopping every [expletive] five seconds to take yet another photo of St. Paul's.  But Londoners on the tube are the worst.  They should know what makes a frustrating Tube traveler, but they're so [expletive] entitled that they don't [expletive] care.  (Sorry, this is a hot issue for me - hence all the cursing.)

So, without further ado, I give you my top three most anger-inducing Tube behaviors in no particular order:

- When people actively elbow you out of the way so that they can get on the carriage first - we'll all make it on, lady, you don't have to get competitive about it.

- When people don't move down the [expletive] carriage - if there are 20 people squished by the doors without space to even smell their neighbors' armpits while the three people standing in the middle of the car have enough room to read their copies of the Evening Standard, there's something wrong.

- When the people between you and the door don't move to let you off the carriage - I know it's inconvenient of me to need to get somewhere, sir, but please could you get the [expletive] out of the way?

Sigh.  Here endeth the rantette.

(Editor's note: clearly I had a rough rush hour ride home tonight!  Sorry about the venom...)

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