Month: December 2014

It’s been bitched about, paired with cats, and ranks high among transit rider complaints. The phenomenon of “manspreading,” or sitting with your legs wide open to the discomfort of those sitting next to you, is also the subject of a recent Gothamist video that attempts to get to the bottom of why people do it. The blog interviewed so-called manspreaders on the New York City Subway and, with the aid of a tape measure, got their take on what is an acceptable amount of spread.

Now, lending Old Media cred to the backlash, The New York Times interviewed subway etiquette expert Johnny T. about the phenomenon and how best to counter it.

In January, New York transit officials will launch a campaign aimed at preventing riders from taking up too much space. But according to one man interviewed by Gothamist, that effort may be in vain.

“We have no choice to have our legs like that,” he said. “You know what I mean? You feel me?

Looks like a problem that won’t get solved anytime soon.

What do you think Muni riders. Is there any hope for our big-balled brethren?

Public transit riders share a very special common bond (hello, “Back door!”). It seems that transit riders everywhere band together whenever there is a need.

Commuters in Australia recently started an amazing campaign called #IllRideWithYou to show solidarity after the hostage crisis in Sydney earlier this week. In this report, we learn that Australian transit riders are offering to ride the train with their fellow Muslim riders who may be scared to be attacked on public transit for fear of retribution.

After a rider tweeted about seeing a Muslim woman removing her hijab on the train, other transit riders on Twitter started offering to ride with their fellow Muslim commuters. The hashtag went viral and there’s been 150,000 tweets with the hashtag in just 12 hours, according to mic.com.

We know that Muni riders show one another kindness all the time (like in this story of random kindness or this very San Francisco-style sweet gesture). It’s pretty neat to see how this translates across the world.

Photo by @jennifermarielane

The nonprofit who brought us Bay Lights, the neato fantastic LED lights on the Bay Bridge, has set its sights on Market Street, specifically the rail transit vehicles on and below the street.

Curbed SF has the deets:

LightRail, a 2.1-mile-long LED scultpure that would render the movements of underground trains in lights above Market Street, won approval from the Board of Supervisors [Tuesday] in a unanimous vote. Sponsored by Illuminate the Arts, the nonprofit behind the Bay Lights, the sculpture would string 124,000 LEDs above Market, in what the group is calling the world’s first subway-responsive light sculpture. Stretching all the way from the Embarcadero to Van Ness, the lights would reveal the trains’ movements in colored pulses of light, effectively letting everyone on Market peer below ground without ever going under.

Awesome!

Check out the Curbed SF post for more information.

Photo by TJ Gehling

• Transbay Transit Center grand vision includes thriving retail hub (SFGate)
• Muni Wants You… for Online Advisory Panel (SF Weekly)
• Man struck and killed by AC Transit bus in Alameda (SFGate)
• Injury concern prompts Muni to remove over 1,400 seats (SF Examiner)
• Supes app­rove purchase of 60-foot Muni buses (SF Bay)
• Geary transit improv­ements set to arrive early (SF Bay)