Hiromi_X

When I lived in NYC I saw the same kinds of behavior all the time. The younger the person was the less they seemed to care whether they inconvenienced someone else. I've actually talked to several people in the age group you mention and many of them are, quite simply, blind to what goes on around them. One young lady told me she doesn't waste her time caring what others think.

The reality is that we all tend to cling to our comfort zones. It's something governments and corporations rely on. Give us what satisfies us and we can be led anywhere...

I had to ride the bus in LA when I was there for school. And it's not limited to just Austin. It happens all over. I bowl right over them. Run into them, elbow them 'accidentally', always with a well-timed, if rather snotty, "exCUSE me!" or "I'm SO sorry. I have to get off here and YOU'RE BLOCKING THE WAY FOR EVERYONE(emphasis on caps, of course)."
They always apologized and moved out of EVERYONE'S way.
I personally blame the whole 'Me' attitudes of the 80's. The bird has come home to roost, so to speak. It's not that society as a whole has moved away from from that attitude, it's that the people who grew up with parents with that attitude (people now in their 30's and 40's and 50's) have now taken it to the next level, which is full entitlement... For everything. They don't have to wait in line, be aware of other people, none of that stupid polite stuff... They're entitled.

People here generally have much better public transit manners than that, presumably because public transit doesn't have the stigma. It's not "the thing you do when you suck too much to have a car". Those people are being passive aggressive.

The only folks here who seem consistent about being a pain in the ass on transit are the predictable groups--boys in the 15-17 range, and social pariahs (gutter punks, junkies, etc). Even so it's hard to generalize, there are LOTS of kids who are well behaved, and hell even the various groups of street people ride without much trouble.

It probably helps that the older/middle aged women are often ready to explain loudly and in detail how the situation needs to be improved, and right-fucking-now.

But man oh man was it evil in Boston. Total chaos.

I take public transportation in the SF Bay Area and have noticed some very anti-social behavior getting on and off trains. There is a platform etiquette where you stand in the general area of the door based on your arrival time at the station; FIFO. However, there are always people that either rush through the crowd at the last minute or push their way through. I just don't understand that. A few weeks ago, a woman in her 30's decided she wanted to get on the train in front of me. She started pushing me from behind to get around me; I turned around and stopped (which stopped the entire crowd) and told her if she doesn't stop pushing, I'll call the conductor and have her kicked off the train. The regulars around me all joined in at that point, telling her to chill out . The funny thing to me was the pent up mob mentality that came out when I apparently opened the floodgates.

I guess people understand the protocol, but are reluctant to enforce it, and there will always be those that take advantage of that.

By the way, the woman now pushes her way onto a different car and stays away from me...

I've had to stand on the #5 a couple times lately. You may be giving too little benefit of the doubt - often my thought process about where to stop is "how likely is it that more people are going to get on before more get off", since there's a lot more room to let them by in the "lower" section of buses like that one (the ones with the higher floor in the last 5-6 rows).

Oh, and btw, the bus population varies dramatically by time of day and route. My last two trips were #5/#30s, full of college kids, professors, downtown workers, and a few bums; but I also used to do #3/#982s up northwestways - and those were all college kids working at the Arboretum (except me).

Had a trip out southeast for a business meeting once where I stayed on the #7 as it turned into the #27 - on the way into downtown it was all office workers; then it started picking up people who were clearly coming off overnight cleaning shifts downtown and heading home. Kind of neat, actually.

I think people have the capacity to change, but little incentive, as of right now, to change.

I've found the Paris subway system to be okay to ride, but muder to get through the stations. People head in straight lines and mow down anyone in their way. Actually, I found that in NYC as well. Toronto is almost painfully polite- I enjoy their public transit. And everyone in our town (Hamilton, ONT) rides public transit, so there's a big emphasis on courtesy. The local paper has ongoing discussions about bus politeness.

In general, I think young people tend to act like they're starring in a movie and the rest of us have rudely wandered onto the set.

I ride the bus and subway daily in New York City, and while people generally try to ignore wacky behavior and the rants of religious zealots and homeless guys, rude behavior vis-a-vis seating is usually greeted with disapproving glares or outright challenges. This seems especially true on the subways. The demographic for both bus and subways riders runs the gamut from young to old and rich to poor. Public transportation in NYC doesn't carry the stigma often seen in other parts of the country. And riders usually aren't afraid to ask others to scoot over, move a bag, or turn their music down.