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This is great. People everywhere I go are incredibly friendly, especially in New York. It's always fun to take a moment, act like a human, and talk to people. N
by brndnmtthws 9y ago
This is great. People everywhere I go are incredibly friendly, especially in New York. It's always fun to take a moment, act like a human, and talk to people. Not because you want to sell them anything or buy something, but simply because being social is part of being human.
One of the things that bothers me about individual automobile travel is how isolating it is. I want to interact with people and experience local art and culture, of which there is a lot in the NYC subway. We're a communal species.
- humanrebar 9y ago> One of the things that bothers me about individual automobile travel is how isolating it is. I want to interact with people and experience local art and culture, of which there is a lot in the NYC subway. We're a communal species. You can make phone calls and listen to local podcasts in a car. You get better exposure to architecture, nature, and automobile design in a car than in an underground train. >I want to interact with people... You must be riding other trains because on the trains I have ridden, everyone is extremely efficient at avoiding eye contact.
- superplussed 9y agoThat's mostly true, but then try living for a few years in Germany and then your perception of what it means to avoid eye contact will vastly change :)
- guruz 9y agoI'm a German living in Germany. Can you clarify your comment for me? :-)
- mvdwoord 9y agoAs a Dutchie who just spent three years in Germany... You are perceived to be very closed, at least initially. Nice when you want to be left alone, going about your business. Not so nice when you are used to more interaction with strangers.
- scirocco 9y agoI'm from Scandinavia and it's pretty much the same.
- acjohnson55 9y agoThere's a whole other level - try riding the subway in Seoul if you look like you're definitely not Korean. It's like you're invisible and inaudible.
- brndnmtthws 9y agoReal life is so much more interesting, IMO. Also there's far more that you can only experience by walking or riding a bike around the city.
- humanrebar 9y agoThere are things you only experience scooting around the city, but there are things you only experience when you get at least 30 miles out of an urban area. And there are things you only experience if you go on a full-blown roadtrip. I think there's a lot to find interesting out there. Generally I only feel limited by my curiosity and imagination. If you're on a road trip across a "boring" part of the country, chat up a trucker at a rest stop. Ask how the business works, how they got into the business, how things changed since they started, what their bosses seem like, etc.
- brndnmtthws 9y agoYeah, and try doing it on a bicycle. I biked across the US (SF to NYC) last summer, and it's something you simply cannot replicate any other way. There is so much more to the world when you hear the sounds, smell the smells, and have spontaneous conversations with people ("you're on a bike? going to where? what?").
- muninn_ 9y ago>You can make phone calls and listen to local podcasts in a car. And on a train > You get better exposure to architecture, nature, How? You're watching the road or stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I drive most of the time and it's a nice relief when my girlfriend drives because I can actually look around and not focus on driving. > and automobile design in a car than in an underground train. Seriously? Better exposure to automobile design in a car? lol.
- JohnTHaller 9y ago> You can make phone calls and listen to local podcasts in a car. You get better exposure to architecture, nature, and automobile design in a car than in an underground train. You can listen to podcasts and music on a train as well. You can even make phone calls (much to the annoyance of the rest of us). Some of us spend a lot of our train time above ground. Some of the views from the NYC subway in the parts when it's not a subway are fantastic.
- chrisseaton 9y agoHa ha is that how you aspire to feel when you travel in public or how you actually feel? Because it sounds nice but then you try it and you realise many fellow people are unpleasant, annoying or offensive.
- vintageseltzer 9y agoIt’s obviously a mixed bag (and sometimes dreadful), but IMO it’s a lot more fulfilling to live and travel in the real world among real people than some aseptic Uber-only lifestyle (which many of my friends unfortunately prefer).
- 1spiffy2 9y agoIt can be entertaining to get out and see the people in a place.
- brndnmtthws 9y agoYou experience life however you choose to experience it. If you go around with a shitty attitude about things, you'll probably have a shitty experience.
- icebraining 9y agoYeap. Which means your experience of individual automobile travel as isolating is solely due to your attitude about it.
- Lambdanaut 9y ago> unpleasant, annoying or offensive. You define pleasantries, annoyances, and offenses, and that attitude of setting yourself above so many others by default without spending the time to understand their unique human stories is going to cut you out of many fullfilling human experiences. I can only imagine you have a far more difficult life than I, if your world is populated by such annoying characters.
- 9y ago
- wyager 9y agoI love interacting with strangers when the median interaction doesn’t involve a homeless person asking/threatening you for money. I would emphatically not describe the NYC subway as a good social experience. (Speaking from personal experience as of the last five minutes.)
- dionidium 9y agoIf you think the NYC Subway is bad, you should try the light rail in smaller cities where most people don't use transit at all. New Yorkers have no idea how good they have it.
- billmalarky 9y agoOnce you've used the Tokyo metro it's hard to get that same sweet high on MTA. Tokyo trains are so clean the seats are able to be cushioned and the trains are always on time. http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/51f8a431851a4701b610b25c70dfd14e/tokyo-metro-subway-train-empty-seats-e0g715.jpg http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/51f8a431851a4701b610b25c70dfd14e/t...
- booleandilemma 9y agoAny material that can’t be power washed won’t work for the NYC subway.
- dionidium 9y agoTo call those seats a bad idea for New York would be the understatement of the century.
- dionidium 9y agoI wouldn't compare Tokyo's transit to New York's for the same reason I wouldn't compare almost anything else in Japan to its counterpart in any city in the U.S. It's a wildly different culture. Comparisons are fun, but sort of meaningless, because no city in the States will ever be anything like any city in Japan.
- Spooky23 9y agoDo you live in NYC? Spend actual time in the subway? How long?
- brndnmtthws 9y agoI live in NYC and take the subway almost exclusively.
- neom 9y agoDepends on how fucked up the subway is and what line you're taking, some days it's an hour a day, some days it's 2 hours a day, but I never spend more than 2 hours a day on it.
- Spooky23 9y agoI used to spend quality time going from Forest Hills to various Manhattan destinations. It worked just fine, but wasn’t some idealized gathering place for humanity.
- crazygringo 9y agoAs a response to the children comments who don't believe this... I also love the (NYC) subway when it's not completely packed. I very rarely interact with someone on the subway, but the people-watching is fascinating -- I can't think of anywhere else in the world where you can see such a cross-section of humanity, of so many races, cultures, clothing styles, income levels, and everything else. And I feel the same way about automobile travel being isolating. In the subway, it's not about interaction, but you feel a little bit more a part of humanity and all the interesting people doing all their interesting things.
- Eyas 9y agoAnd once in a while, you do interact-- often out of the blue, and briefly, but those conversations can be much more real than anything you'd expect. I'm not approachable by any means, but I've had interactions where people told me about losing a significant other, how uncertain they feel having just moved to the city, dealing with illness, etc. My impression is that many areas where the culture is social/polite, brief interactions with strangers are usually pleasantries and small-talk. Perhaps some in this thread had such experience, and are unsure how a place where the people are seen to be so rude to strangers can possibly have positive, enriching, interactions with strangers on a packed subway.
- PhasmaFelis 9y ago> My impression is that many areas where the culture is social/polite, brief interactions with strangers are usually pleasantries and small-talk. We have pleasantries and small-talk as well as the occasional deeper interaction. It doesn't have to be either/or.
- fern12 9y ago>In the subway, it's not about interaction, but you feel a little bit more a part of humanity and all the interesting people doing all their interesting things. I rode the Blue line in the DC metro area for 5 years, from Arlington/Alexandria to Farragut West. Coming from car-centric LA, I hated many aspects of it at first (walking on icy sidewalks, sitting next to people picking their noses, etc). But it was a fascinating exercise in people-watching, which I love. I saw so many of the same people every day - a young man with ankylosing spondylitis (which I didn't even know of, prior to seeing him), a grumpy-looking lady who always wore black flats with no socks, even when it was snowing, etc. It was always interesting to see who gave up their seats to pregnant women, and who was too buried in their smartphone. One time, the Blue line got stuck before the Rosslyn tunnel, and I saw one guy get so worked up about it, I thought he was going to have a meltdown. Then, there was an elderly Korean man who would get on at different stops, and start singing in Korean, and you would see people from all walks of life trying to exchange furtive glances with one another. I kind of miss it, at times.
- ggghvggtff 9y agoWhat are you, 12? Wait till you get mugged, then we’ll see how fast your attitude changes.
- PoachedSausage 9y agoCommuting by bike is also a much more communal experience. Its easier to stop and help or talk to someone when you're not enclosed in a box. My best experiences are stopping to help people with punctures and once while waiting at a junction stopping for a chat with a friend that I had not see for a while.
- rospaya 9y ago> It's always fun to take a moment, act like a human, and talk to people. I find this very American behaviour. Talking to strangers (unless in a social event) is considered weird and not socially acceptable in large parts of Europe. In 20+ years of daily public transport usage, I've had maybe a dozen interactions with random people on trams and busses outside of standard "where does this line go" or "is this your stop" conversations.
- xelxebar 9y agoI live in Tokyo and have done this quite a bit, but it makes me feel like such a Gaijin that I don't do it anymore. 出る杭は打たれる The nail that sticks out gets hit. Maybe that sentiment has sunk in. Perhaps loneliness is a pervasive feature of living in a big city.