Ounced Now with no hands!

Shhh, no talking.

A new acquaintance I met this weekend brought up a good observation. There is no talking allowed on BART.

Ever noticed this? Everyone’s quiet, zoned out in their little headphone world, rustling of newspapers, occasional cough, passing of gas. Then someone laughs out loud. No not ‘lol’. LOL’s now a days don’t even mean laughing out loud. When you LMAO, then you really laugh out loud. Eyes turn, brows furrowed, ‘Who in the fuck disturbs my Clay Aiken ballad?’, culprit is found, but nothing said, nothing done, not even a dirty look. I know I’ve done it, a group comes on to the train, huddles together and won’t shut up about how ‘Bro done did that’, or ‘TakeelahMoniqueShaliequea ain’t be having his baby’ or how every overweight white collar worker with a cell phone that’s worth more than his car has to yell into the mouth piece after the train has entered a tunnel, and I give them the dirtiest looks…. behind their back. But as soon as they turn around, its eyes down for me baby. I ain’t stupid, I gotta sit in this train with them for a few more stops, don’t want any ‘caps being popped in my knee caps’, or be all ‘busted up like shit’. I’ll just fart a few times and do harm to their nasal cavities.

Because I’m a nice polite middle class BART patron like that.

Now lets hop across the coast. New York to be ‘original’. I’ve ridden the transit there. Got a tattoo about NY transit. “Representin’ yo’s!”, so yeah, I like NY transit. Why? Because there is no BS. During commute hours, you pack in tight, noses in other peoples arm pits, hanging on for dear life on any precious hand hold you can find. Everyone is talking in New York speak. Its fine, its normal. Ok, sure, all the talking going on is just someone bitching out another, Johnny Appleseed looked at Tony Soprano wrong, but its black and white. No grey.

But I do like my quiet BART trains, don’t get me wrong. But I’d like the occasional New York rip every now and then.

just moved to SF from NYC. indeed, no comparison. granted, i haven’t ridden BART during rush hour yet, but i have been stuck on Muni at rush hour, and people are pretty talkative on a crowded Muni train. you’re right about BART’s perceived silence, it’s awkward. but what pisses me off is that cell phones actually work under the Market St. corridor, so you’ve got to listen to all the suits barking at their secretaries for five minutes.

that’s when the occasional “new york rip” comes into play.