The New Policy In The Subway

[cignus_pfaccari]

How about water? Is your subway air conditioned? In London it gets incredibly hot, if people couldn't drink water there's a serious health risk.

NYC Subway stations are not air conditioned that I know of. Some may be; I don't really recall it being massively hot in there when I was up there, but, then again, that wasn't rush hour. The trains are A/Ced, though.

DC's Metro is air conditioned, both trains and stations...though outdoors stations aren't, obviously, and a car can be in service without A/C, but that's rare.

I have no problem at all with a no drinking/no eating policy. I like not sitting on sticky, crumby seats, or having coffee spilled over me when the train lurches forward.

At the very least, if you're going to break that rule, make sure that you can seal the drink bottle and clean up after yourself. Not only is that courteous to your fellow passengers, but if you do get caught, the authority in question might be more lenient to you as a result. That, and also you don't lose half your drink when you spill it.

Brad

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Did anybody saw the news. The mayor in New York City (Which I lived here in Manhattan) said that starting in October If anybody caught drinking regardless if it's beer, water, milk and other drinks you'll get a fine! That unethical!

Not to say, possibly illegal. What do you do if you are dying of thirst?

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

*shrug* DC already has the no eatting, drinking, etc rule.

Regardless, people do and I find it terribly annoying. There's nothing more annoying than sitting next to the guy that is CHOMPING his chips on the train or the woman that is stinking up the air with her funky soup in a thermos.

However - you can *take* food on to the train with no problems. A fountain soda cup cannot have a straw, bottles need to be closed, soda cans cannot be open etc... and I think that they make exceptions for babies... I think it's more a desire for clean subway cars (which DC is quite good at) and a baby's bottle is not likely to spill the same way a soda can is...

But - yeah - I've got no problem with the "no eatting" law. It's a public space, you've got to expect to give up some privileges (I won't say rights b/c eatting on the subway is hardly a "right") if one expects to use it.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Not to say, possibly illegal. What do you do if you are dying of thirst?

It's the subway... if you're *dying* of thirst, I think you could get off and find a drinking fountain.

Now - if they were locking you on a subway car for days at a time and refusing food or drink, it'd be different. Instead - they're telling you that, during your commute, you cannot eat or drink. I spend up to 1.5 hours on the train 2 times/day to get to school - generally, I can make it that long without something to eat or drink.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I'd just keep a thermos in my backpack that has one of those durable plastic straws in them. If I needed a sip of some water I'd open the backpack, make it look like I'm searching for something and take a quick sip.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I spend 1.5 hours on the train 2 times/day to get to school - generally, I can make it that long without something to eat or drink.

Hear, hear!

You can drink outside the subway station, so if you absolutely positively must, do so outside. If your commute is long, like the Queen's or mine* is, then odds are you have a weekly pass and can get off whenever and wherever you want. BTW, this also helps if you need to use the restroom...it's often more convenient to know where to get off to find a public restroom than to ask the station manager to use the station's (DC Metro restrooms aren't really public, just emergency only).

Brad

* - 1 hour in the morning, about 1.25 hours in the evening, from Clarendon to Shady Grove.

 

[Hand of Evil]

If you saw the evening news tonight, they are also thing of baning backpacks in some public areas...

 

[johnsemlak]

All this talk make's my chuckle when I think of Moscow's metro system. In Moscow eating and drinking (including alcohol) are permitted (I'm not sure if the rules allow so, or if it's just not enforced, but it's absolutely clear nobody's preventing it). At least smoking's not allowed.

The result is predictably a lot of cleaning for the janitors. I imagine spilling drinks happens, but I don't find it frequent. Most people are pretty careful about that.

All the anti-terror stuff in the last few years has probably diverted attention from eating/drinking actually--people are more concerned about suspicious bags and the like.

 

[el-remmen]

The reality is that they police will only enforce this when they need to meet their quotas or when they want to hassle someone for something else and will use it as an excuse.

It won't actually lower the number of people drinking in the subways. This is New York City for god's sake, no one tells us where to drink.

 

[jaerdaph]

Honestly, I would love it if they banned all eating and drinking on the train.

A few years ago, some dumbass spilled coffee all over me, destroying the book I was reading. Did they offer to replace the book or pay for dry cleaning? Of course not. Fortunately for me, the idiot had her contact info on the back of her backpack (another one of my pet peeves - wearing a backpack on the train) for all to see, so I had my lawyer call her later in the day.