From Tourist in DC, per the front page of DC Blogs:people there can get really rude if you stand on the wrong side of the escalator on the metro. what's the big deal. you're in their way, and god forbid they just say "excuse me". i was afraid that they were going to push me down the stairs.
I'd respond there, but I don't feel like registering with Blogstream, so I'll do it here.
In many years of riding up and down escalators in DC, I have yet to see someone get pushed down the stairs. Not one.
It may have seemed like they were going to run right into you, but I guarantee, if you hadn't moved, they would have indeed slowed down and said, "Excuse me." (Or some variation thereof. I can't guarantee it wouldn't have sounded more like, "Get the fuck out of the way," but that's kind of like saying, "Excuse me" in a big city.)
But here's the thing: as annoying as you found people in DC who you think came close to rushing into you, we're ten times as sick of people (almost always tourists) blocking the left side of the escalator. Yes, we're always in a hurry. No, usually not for a particularly good reason. We just are.
In a city where no one agrees on anything, this is pretty much the one social norm there's a total consensus on: Walk on the left, stand on the right.
Look, it's like that story, The Lottery. Where every year in the village, someone's name is chosen and they're stoned to death. Even though an outsider might consider it odd, and yes, even somewhat insane, it made perfect sense to the villagers. Same principle here. You don't have to understand our strange ways. Just accept them.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Trampling tourists for fun and profit
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8 comments:
I've been sworn at many times by tourists when I say "excuse me" on the metro escallators - and that's just when I'm being polite!!!!
I've never been sworn at, but I've heard several exasperated sighs and mutters about how rude people in DC are. All because I had the gall to politely ask them to move a foot to their right.
I think people just tend to be self-centered. They figure if they're not in a hurry, no one should be.
Hurrah! Hurrah!
I wanted rather badly to leave a comment on blogstream as well, although not enough to register either, so I am so pleased to see that someone else has taken up the cause.
I have lived in "tourist towns" of one stripe or another my entire life, and I have to say nothing pushes me over the edge faster than someone who thinks I should behave as though I am on vacation too, just because they happen to be where I live. We have rights, too, and I've never seen someone be truly awful when asking someone to move off the side of the escalator.
Although, my personal favorite was a few weeks ago - I live in G'town, so my stop is Foggy Bottom, which in the summer is a cesspool of interns. One day, as I was racing home late from work to try and get to the house and walk my poor dogs before their little bladders exploded, there was a major clusterf*** on the right hand side. I very politely raised my voice and said "If you would like to stand, please move to your left." (I'm a very petite woman, so it's not like my terrifying mass was going to threaten everyone.) And this little collegiate twerp turns around and says to me "You should really be more sensitive to the fact that they don't know the customs here."
To which I could only respond, gape-jawed, "The next time I want a lecture on morals, I'll be sure to drop by your dorm room, but save it on public transportation."
I really wish I had a better response than that!
Coffee clearly hasn't kicked in - reverse left and right in the above!! ;-)
The BEST thing I ever saw was a couple weeks ago at the West Falls Church Metro (not a tourist but still). 3 large women were babbling to each other on the up escalator from the bus bay into the station when some guy POLITELY said excuse me to one. She went off on him and stood there as if she was the cat's ass making the whole damn line wait, just so she wouldn't have to move the conversation (you could hear her from 20 ft away anyways).
A couple minutes later on the down escalator to the platform, still clucking, the escalator all of a sudden stopped, sending her fat ass tumbling down about 12 feet of stopped stairs. I didn't even wait to see if she was OK before I burst out laughing.
I wish a similar fate on every person who refuses to move when asked.
I've lived in DC for more than 20 years and I have never seen the "pass on the left" custom anywhere else in my travels. I use Metro escalators every day and I just tend to stay on the right, but until Metro posts official "pass on the left" or "slow traffic keep right" signs, I reserve the right to stand smack in the middle of the step and the hell with everyone else. Passing on the left (or the right) is not official Metro policy, and just because most locals feel they're so important that they have to get up or down that thing 3 seconds before anyone else doesn't give them the right to pass on the elevator. It's a dangerous practice. Chill, people!
cartherder -
while metro has no official "rules" regarding where to stand, if you've ever actually noticed, there are signs that refer to the practice of standing to the right all over the metro trains. and while you may think this is a DC thing, I was taught YEARS ago that you always should be on the right if you are not passing someone. We do it when we drive, walk down the sidewalk, etc. etc. It's not that much of a stretch for people to know it's customary to stand to the right on the escalator. And yes, you are more than welcome to stand in the middle and it is unlikely that anyone will push you. But if someone says excuse me to get by you, you should reserve your judgment of their "superiority complex" and assume that they have a reason to be hurrying along. Maybe they have an appointment or somewhere to be. Maybe they really have to use the bathroom. Maybe they just don't like what you're wearing and don't want to have to stare at your ass the entire way down the escalator. People aren't running down the escalator for the hell of it. You're entitled to stand where you want...and we're all entitled to think you're an asshole.
Cartherder, for someone who's lived here for 20 years, you're using some pretty tourist-esque logic.
Contrary to tourist belief, people in DC don't rush down escalators because they think they're "important," because truly important people don't ride the Metro.
But for the rest of us, those three seconds that we save by running could mean the difference between making the train, or having to wait five, ten, or fifteen minutes for the next one. Why I want to make the train isn't any of your concern. Maybe it's to get to work on time. Maybe it's to meet my crack dealer. It doesn't matter.
And you can "reserve the right" to do whatever the you want, but we both know that if someone asks you to move, you will. Because as Carrie Broadshoulders points out, only a real asshole would refuse a polite request to move, and you're not an asshole, are you?
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