(Note: if I'm promoting your Twitter account, you owe me some Prairie Girl cupcakes but only the small ones. It's a big deal if I actually give you space on my soap box. Email me so I know when/where to collect. I'm not bluffing. I'm dead serious. I get requests to promote people's GO related Twitter and Facebook channels ALL THE TIME).
I liked this email from R.S. because so many people hate this GO commuter behaviour.
| from: | Richard | ||
| to: | cj@thiscrazytrain.com | ||
| date: | Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 10:25 AM | ||
| subject: | Jockeying |
Hi CJ,
First time reader, first time question-asker-type person.
**If you choose to post this, if you wouldn't mind just using my first name or initials, it would be greatly appreciated.**
I wanted to get your take on a personal issue I have when waiting for a GO Train at one of the tations, excluding Union.
You see, I've noticed a rather troubling occurrence when walking down the platform and waiting for the train. People start congregating around the areas where the train (usually) stops and where the doors will open. (Some days it is quite funny watching people huff and puff when the train stops 5 feet either side of where they're standing, but I digress).
People will stand by the yellow line and that is fine. Then people will also stand at or close to the glassed-in shelters, leaving room for people to continue their walk down the platform; a lane-way, if you will.
My issue is where people now stand in the middle, causing a traffic jam. A dozen people, grouped together with no room to maneuver.
I am therefore forced to:
a) walk on or OVER the yellow line
b) walk back and around the other side of the shelter
c) sit there and take it until these people start getting on the train, which then allows you to pass but now you have to run to get to a door before it closes, or my personal favourite
d) say "Excuse me" and blow through the log jam, "gently" nudging people out of the way
WWCJD?
Kind regards,
Richard
| from: | C.J. Smith | ||
| to: | Richard | ||
| date: | Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 12:59 PM | ||
| subject: | Re: Jockeying |
For a moment there I thought your acronym at the end of your email stood for What Would Jesus Christ Do? Then I realized I'm just dyslexic.
This jockeying for position stuff is really bad at Oshawa. I once tried to encourage people to line up single file. I even rented those velvet rope pole things you see a red-carpet galas. No dice.
I call this the cattle syndrome. Ever watched the Farmer's Report on CFTO or CHCH as a kid and how excited the cows would get when they saw the farmer coming to open the gate so they could run to the fields to chow down on some grass? Cows don't line up! Lining up is for sheep and a pig named Babe.
I don't know how many chromosomes separate us from cows but anyone watching this behaviour on a GO train platform would think it was only 1 instead of 39, give or take a few. I can't science. I only know that humans have 46. I learned that from Jeopardy.
To answer your question, I always go with d) myself. If I can manage a boob punch, I'll throw one in for shits and giggles.
Cj
Science! FYI, a cow actually has 60 chromosomes. And the number of chromosomes an organism has does not correlate with intelligence. But I do support the existence of "cattle syndrome".
ReplyDeleteMost people opt for D), only without the Excuse me.
ReplyDeleteI have given up being polite in some instances. With everyone crowding the top of the escalator to Platforms 12/13 at Union, the fact that I don't ask what Insane Asylum they escaped from is a major accomplishment in being polite. Considering how GO/Union/whoever won't turn the escalator on shows that someone is thinking with a clear head. I shudder at what accidents (and at that point can they actually be accidents?) could have occurred.
I admitted I couldn't science.
ReplyDeleteOh, and mmmmm.... Prairie Girl. Oddly enough I stopped by there today because they FINALLY have the Black Forest cupcakes back this week!
ReplyDeleteGO Stations need these:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/stockyards/story.jpg
Some of the platforms at Union have construction equipment taking up space. It's hard to form neat lines and be civilized.
ReplyDeleteGot excited the escalator to 12/13 was running yesterday - only it was going in the wrong direction! Useless.
Thanks Bicky (for you know what)
ReplyDeleteActually, the worst is when people stand at the top of the stairs (rather than moving down the platform), so no-one can get on the platform.
ReplyDeleteThen, when the train gets in, you've people coming down the stairs, and it becomes impossible to get up. I've missed the train (twice!) because of this, and now take a longer route instead.
Seriously people, the train is 300m long. Move away form the stairs.
If there is but 1 escalator, is should always be going "Up". It is far far easier to walk down stairs, than it is to walk up them. Just ask my knees.
ReplyDeleteI've left room for a lane-way before only to have someone walk through and stop right in front of me, blocking the lane-way.
ReplyDeleteYes! Anonymous @ 8:59 am. I have done this as well, and it's so annoying, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteIt also drives me bonkers when I'm standing with my back to the glass in the morning, waiting for the train, with many, many feet of open space on either side of me, and yet there's always that one person who has to come and stand directly in front of me, closer to the yellow line. I wasn't leaving that space there for you to come fill it up, genius. I was leaving room between myself and the line so people could keep walking along the platform without falling onto the tracks! Gah.