Subway commuters have lost their humanity
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 ~ 10:20 am
Since I started working at the consulting firm, I’ve been pretty spoiled in the fact that I could work 10:00 – 6:00. Actually I could start any time between 7:00 – 10:00, but let’s be honest here, if you know me you know there is no way in hell that I would be getting up at 5:00 am to start work at 7:00.
There are two great things about a 10:00 start time. Th first is that I get to sleep in, always a wonderful thing for someone like me who doesn’t go to bed before midnight. The second was that I miss rush hour traffic. I would normally get on the subway around 9:15 and by then I’ve missed the 7:45 – 9:00 am crunch.
As of Monday I am now working on site at a client’s place and I have to work the regular 9:00 – 5:00 shift. The client site is only a few blocks south of my company’s office, about a 5 minute walk but what used to be a 45 minute commute to my office, now takes me 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the client’s. I can thank rush hour traffic for the extra 25 minutes.
I had forgotten just how nasty it gets in the subways during this time. People are shoving, pushing, elbowing and kicking. You’re literally a herd of animals being forced from one gate to the next. It makes me sick to my stomach. No one is smiling or friendly, and if you do happen to find a friendly soul it’s like a beam of light has found it’s way to the dark, rotting hole that is humanity in a subway.
I’m reminded of my trip to New York at the end of October. We were there during the week so we got to witness firsthand the sea of people coming to and from the subway during rush hour. It scared me a little bit when I imagined falling in that unstopable tide of people. I don’t know if anyone would stop or care. I’m pretty sure Torontonians, on the subway going south from St. George station on a weekday would just get annoyed and scuttle right by you in order to wait outside in line again for the streetcar.
