Codes of civility.

by sam on 12/6/2004

The MTA is proposing new rules (again) in an attempt to enforce civility on the subway. What fun. Most of it is common sense, but apparently some folks, like the guy in the photo, seem to think that they walk by floating on a cloud of air that keeps their shoes from picking up any of the detritus of our city streets.

My personal favorites? The "pole-huggers" – those folks who seem to think that the way to utilize the center pole is by leaning their entire body up against it so that no one else can hold on. I know that it’s actually an attempt to not touch the pole with their bare hands because of some kind of germophobia, but they should just do what the rest of us do – wash their hands as soon as they get to where they’re going. Or wear gloves. I have a tendency to intentionally wedge my hand between the pole and this type of person, just to annoy them.

But apparently the new rules are also going to attempt (again) to reintroduce the photography ban (which some police seem to already believe is in effect). I’d like to see how long it lasts when the police start ticketing, en masse, groups of tourists who haven’t read the rules before boarding the subway. I understand the intent of the law, but it seems a bit overbroad (and frankly, the terrorists are sneaky – they’ll figure out how to take pictures with non-obvious cameras – they’re not going to be the ones taking pictures of their drunken friends on New Year’s Eve).

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