I don't think this is a fair criticism in this particular case. I ride the Caltrain and Bart 5 days a week, for about 3 hours per day. I have never once seen a

I don't think this is a fair criticism in this particular case. I ride the Caltrain and Bart 5 days a week, for about 3 hours per day. I have never once seen a train car where everyone was looking at their phones. I see people talking with those accompanying them, reading books, grading their students' homework, programming on their laptops, staring out the window, listening to music, people-watching, trying to avoid the ticket checkers, asking other passengers about which stop to get off at or about their dog. Other cities I've lived in or visited also don't seem to have everyone glued to their phones. On a particularly bad day perhaps 60% of people will be looking at their phones. On a good day maybe just 1 or 2 will be. I think people have this image in their heads of some imagined past where strangers made friendly banter on public transit, before technology got in the way. But people were never idyllically friendly with one another on the train and not everyone today is blindly tapping away at Angry Birds or Snapchat.