The CTA is a transit twilight zone where the rules of society don’t seem to apply.
Well-heeled professionals litter as if on some deserted island, and otherwise courteous people shove each other to get into or off of buses and “L” trains.
Last week, I watched four people block the stairwell to the Grand and State subway stop during rush hour, just to finish a conversation.
It’s no wonder, then, that two etiquette experts “Going Public” contacted said they could not recall ever having been consulted about how to be polite on public transit, despite endless questions of courtesy regarding business lunches, job interviews, gift-giving and how much to tip a team of movers.
“When we’re on buses and trains, it’s like we focus only on ourselves,” said Leah Ingram, author of “The Everything Etiquette Book: A Modern Day Guide to Good Manners.” “You see anything from loud gum-smacking to yelling into cell phones or even pushing.”
Despite that seemingly accepted apathy, riders constantly e-mail [email protected] about bad manners on buses and trains. I presented some freshly submitted CTA etiquette questions to Ingram and Patricia O’Brien, owner of Skokie-based etiquette company Manners, Please.
Here’s how they said manners — when applied — would dictate rider reactions in the following CTA scenarios. Take a read and then tell me how you would solve these public transit problems … please.
Mobile makeup
Jefferson Park rider Meagan Lopez was fired up about a “fuzz ball” woman who stared at her while she applied her makeup on the Blue Line. Lopez, 22, said she doesn’t like to doll up on the train, but her baby prevented her from doing it at home. Applying makeup in public is typically a no-no, both experts said, but in the specific case of the CTA … “It’s not hurting anybody,” said O’Brien, who provides her “Manners, Please” seminars to students and business professionals citywide. “I don’t condone having an entire makeup kit, but there’s no harm in a little blush or lipstick since there aren’t bathrooms on the train.”
Rear views
The CTA announcement on buses asks you to exit through the rear of the bus, but from where I’m sitting, riders rarely comply. What do you say, O’Brien and Ingram?
“If you are asked to do something, you should comply,” O’Brien said, adding an exception for those in priority seating who may have trouble making it to the back of the bus. “If it’s within reason for you to exit by the back, by all means do that.”
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Ingram said this issue goes beyond mass transit manners.
“You are creating a traffic jam of people who likely aren’t waiting for you to get off before they start to board the bus,” she said. “Just exit through the rear of the bus and save yourself some trouble.”
Squeezed out
A rider recently wrote to “Going Public” distraught about a “larger rider” who sat next to her on the “L” and took up much more than the allotted share of space. Ashamed to reveal her name due to the non-P.C. nature of her question, the rider asked what she could do about space-stealing riders in the future.
“If I were in that situation and getting off soon, I’d probably not do anything, but if I were uncomfortable and would be on the train for 40 minutes or more, I’d get up and move,” Ingram said, adding that saying something is not only rude, it’s downright dangerous. “I don’t condone any sort of confrontation on the train because you don’t know who you’re dealing with.”