Feb. 29th, 2008 09:31 am
Commuter rage
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muckefuckIt's been quite a while since I've seen an altercation on the el and never before during morning rush hour. People may be irritable and tense, but they're more hurried than anything else and can't be bothered to start something that will make them late(r). But the CTA seems dedicated to testing our limits of late, so I may be seeing the beginning of a new trend.
Most of the suckage of my commute was my own fault for dawdling. I know by now that stepping into the currency exchange to buy a pass always means getting stuck behind someone who's got some complex exchange going like getting a payday loan, paying three bills, and moneygramming the rest to Somalia, but even I couldn't have predicted that the damn package would be so tough to open. Usually, it parts easily, but today I was struggling with it for minutes until Sonny took pity on me and ripped it open.
Naturally, by then the train was already overhead, yet I ran for it like a fool anyway. As a result, I slipped on the wet stairs and almost took a plunge. It was twelve minutes until I caught the next train because--as happens pretty much every other day now--the next one scheduled to stop went express to Granville and swept past us. By some miracle, they actually held the Linden for us, but (a) it was two cars long and (b) it was at the very front of the platform, whereas I'm normally in the second-to-last car of the Howard train.
The result of this was that the rear car of the Linden train was packed, with many people having had to run clear up the platform. So we were somewhat disgruntled to start with. Finally, we made it to the Davis stop, where there's a major bus terminal, and the car started to empty out. Slowly, however, because there were two idiots standing just inside the rear doors choking off the exiting passengers to a single lane. It's understandable that, with the car so packed, people get stuck near the door even when they're not exiting, but the polite response in such a situation is to step out onto the platform and then hop back onto the train after everyone's out and before the doors close.
A burly middle-aged man wasn't happy with this, and muttered something to that effect while pushing past the slim twentysomething obliviously reading a book on the right side of the exit. "Shut the fuck up!" he said in response. Suddenly, the older man had grabbed him with both hands by the collar of his overcoat and dragged him off the train. "TELL ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP NOW!" he bellowed. More words were said, but I didn't catch them, as the young man broke away and jumped back on the train as the older guy was carried away with the departing crowd. After a confrontation like that, I'd be all flushed and antsy, but the guy just sat down on the nearest free seat, took up his open book (which had never left his two hands), and nonchalantly went back to reading it, wan as ever.
Most of the suckage of my commute was my own fault for dawdling. I know by now that stepping into the currency exchange to buy a pass always means getting stuck behind someone who's got some complex exchange going like getting a payday loan, paying three bills, and moneygramming the rest to Somalia, but even I couldn't have predicted that the damn package would be so tough to open. Usually, it parts easily, but today I was struggling with it for minutes until Sonny took pity on me and ripped it open.
Naturally, by then the train was already overhead, yet I ran for it like a fool anyway. As a result, I slipped on the wet stairs and almost took a plunge. It was twelve minutes until I caught the next train because--as happens pretty much every other day now--the next one scheduled to stop went express to Granville and swept past us. By some miracle, they actually held the Linden for us, but (a) it was two cars long and (b) it was at the very front of the platform, whereas I'm normally in the second-to-last car of the Howard train.
The result of this was that the rear car of the Linden train was packed, with many people having had to run clear up the platform. So we were somewhat disgruntled to start with. Finally, we made it to the Davis stop, where there's a major bus terminal, and the car started to empty out. Slowly, however, because there were two idiots standing just inside the rear doors choking off the exiting passengers to a single lane. It's understandable that, with the car so packed, people get stuck near the door even when they're not exiting, but the polite response in such a situation is to step out onto the platform and then hop back onto the train after everyone's out and before the doors close.
A burly middle-aged man wasn't happy with this, and muttered something to that effect while pushing past the slim twentysomething obliviously reading a book on the right side of the exit. "Shut the fuck up!" he said in response. Suddenly, the older man had grabbed him with both hands by the collar of his overcoat and dragged him off the train. "TELL ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP NOW!" he bellowed. More words were said, but I didn't catch them, as the young man broke away and jumped back on the train as the older guy was carried away with the departing crowd. After a confrontation like that, I'd be all flushed and antsy, but the guy just sat down on the nearest free seat, took up his open book (which had never left his two hands), and nonchalantly went back to reading it, wan as ever.
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