Etiquette Enforcement

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has officially decided we're not polite enough.

They should know, right?

These are the people who have done so much to coarsen the local language with expressions like "The train will be moving shortly" (yeah, right!) and "I have no idea how to get to South Street Seaport. What do I look like? The Big Apple Greeters?"

Well, they're not stopping there.

This week, MTA workers are installing signs in thousands of subway cars telling riders to give up certain designated seats to the elderly and disabled. Riders who refuse? They risk fines of $25 to $50 and up to 10 days in jail.

The give-up-your-seat-you-lazy-bum law has been on the books for years, transit officials say. They're only now getting around to enforcing it.

Now, it would not be fair to say that New York subway riders as a group are impolite.

On a crowded 1 train this morning, I saw a young man in a messenger jersey give up his seat without hesitation to a young mother with a 3-year-old son, although I will concede she was a very hot-looking young mother in a skimpy red t-shirt.

And subway riders are famously generous with travel directions, even if those directions often turn out to be wildly wrong. "Uh, definitely. The F-train goes to Yankee Stadium. Just a few more stops."
But the history of enforced politeness is not is not a bright one in New York. "Quit holding the doors" carries almost no weight in the subway any more any more. On the street, traffic lanes are barely considered advisory. And every night, hundreds of noise complaints come into 311 to no obvious impact at all.

Back in January, Mayor Bloomberg announced yet another crackdown on quality-of-life offenders like subway panhandlers and squeegee men. You'd have to say the six-month record is mixed.
Squeegee guys are still a rarity. But subway panhandlers may be the only current growth sector in the economy of New York.

We'll know soon - whether this new threat of fines and jail time will create fresh politeness and make New Yorkers any quicker to give up their subway seats.

Riders may already be a little grumpy. Sunday also happens to be the day the subway fare is going up again - to $27 a week, $89 a month or $2.25 a ride.

You want to talk about impolite?

Comments

[kkuchenb]

Personally, I'd like to see mandatory jail time for those guys who block the doors when the train is in the station and the ones who spread their legs so that no one else can sit comfortably.

[brooklyncitizen]

MTA on politeness? don't get me started. There seems to be no will or desire to really improve this important and vital system.The­y can start training their employees for one- their hostility is unprecedented.