Passenger Tales

When riding the MRT or LRT I get irritated with passengers who lean with their whole body on the vertical handrails, making it difficult to impossible for others to hold on to the rails. There are very few handrails and for people like me who have a hard time reaching the circular things hanging on the horizontal handrails parallel to the seats, vertical rails are the only things that keep me from intimate encounters with the floor whenever the train lurches. Don’t people get it? It’s a handrail and not a backrest or for some, a substitute boyfriend to hug! For the hands my dear…for the hands. I don’t know if these people realize how inconsiderate they are being. Maybe they don’t have any idea because they were not taught at home or in school. Maybe they don’t have any idea that other people are entitled to use the handrails also, that these handrails are public property and not for private use. Whatever it is, maybe I can start educating those I see hogging the handrails like their own private treasure, about the proper etiquette so that they’ll know better. Or maybe I’ll just continue to stew inside whenever I encounter such people. Better yet, why don’t I send this post to DOTC or whatever agency of the government that oversees the MRT and LRTs and they can make a public service commercial to educate commuters on the proper etiquette on riding a train. They can add another reminder “No hogging the handrails” to the “No eating, drinking, and smoking inside the train, No pets allowed in the train, No drunks allowed, etc.”