Ah, the metro... and the people who ride it

Just like everyone thinks everyone else is getting ruder, everyone has something to say about the metro, and everyone is right. Normally I wouldn't know where to start-- with the people who don't yield seats to the pregnant/elderly/disabled? those who stand directly in front of the doors rather than to the side, blocking your exit? those who try to rush in before you get out? There was even a screaming baby on one of my metro rides earlier in the week, but he or she is forgiven because the accompanying adult actually made an effort to quiet him or her.

Fury at the people who stand on the left on the escalators is not new to me, nor unique to me. It's really annoying. Sometimes it's benign cluelessness-- people don't know the rules... well, they also seem unable to put think about the situation and make the leap that they may be on vacation or on a day trip, but some people live and work in this city. Then there are the people who know the rule, but don't respect it: they don't see why people are in such a hurry, and think they're doing everyone a favor by forcing them to slow down (this has actually been expressed). That would be obnoxious enough in and of itself if it were only those ten or twenty (or much longer, depending on the metro station) seconds that it takes to walk up or down a metro escalator, but even five seconds is enough of a delay to cause one to miss her train (or bus, if one is leaving the metro). It's actually none of anyone's business why anyone else is pressed enough to walk rather than stand; it's just common courtesy to stand to the right; that's what the right is for.

You'll appreciate my annoyance then with tonight's escalator experience. At about 10:30pm, I'd stepped off the Kennedy Center shuttle and onto the metro escalator. At 10:30pm, trains run every 17-20 minutes. I saw people standing on the left, said, "excuse me" and passed as they stepped to the right. Until one woman copped an attitude, gave me a look. I told her it was metro etiquette to stand on the right, and she made some remark about how she knows that but she wasn't in such a hurry, in a tone implying, "who do you think you are, to be in such a hurry?" I rolled my eyes and walked passed her, vindicated as my train pulled up just as I got to the platform. I'd been reading Lynne Truss's "Talk to the Hand," had manners on my mind and at first felt a bit bad, but I really do believe I did nothing wrong. The woman's behavior had been presumptuous and doubly rude-- initially rude, made ruder by an attempt to excuse her rudeness with presumption. My assertiveness won me 17 minutes of not waiting on a metro platform, particularly in heals. I'd much rather spend those 17 minutes tucked into bed, writing this blog. Sure it's Saturday night, but I have somewhere to be tomorrow morning. Sure it's Saturday, but during the course of this Saturday I got an oil change, went to the gym, bought a baby shower gift (as well as three cases of cat food), got copies of our house keys, did two loads of laundry and two hours of homework, did yoga, and went to the opera. I have a lot to do tomorrow, and it's the one morning this week I'll get to sleep in (until 8:30 AM). But this isn't about me... there very well may be people on that escalator who just got off of a long shift at work, or have were just visiting someone in the hospital, etc. So I'm really happy for anyone who's not in a hurry to get to the platform as soon as possible-- enjoy those 17 minutes, who am I to stop you-- but please get out of the way so the rest of us can get home.