This time, however, it’s not about book reading or kids scanning their tablets for the latest pseudo-educational game. What got me thinking this time was the recent drive – which happens on an annual basis at this time of year – of the Warsaw municipal transport company, ZTM, on how to behave on public transport. “Don’t be a monster” the flyers regale, telling passengers not to stand in the door no matter what the cost, even if the bus or tram is half empty. Also, more pertinently, it ridicules passengers who have to talk loudly on their mobile phones telling other commuters what they’re having for dinner or who in the family has had to be taken to hospital. It’s all there, and we’ve all heard the conversations: “Oh, Basia, tell me about it, there was blood everywhere!!”, and “No, don’t get the pizzas out of the freezer I’ll get a takeaway instead”. You know the drill. There’s also the usual poster on how people shouldn’t eat fast-food on public transport, meaning everyone who’s riding the number 17 tram gets off stinking like a greasy hamburger.
While I admire the continuous efforts of ZTM to try and keep the riding rabble in line, their annual drive seems to have an effect for about all of a month, and then it wears off and everyone goes back to what they were doing previously. But I think that the transport authorities have missed out on a couple of other groups which need a good ticking off, yet have they produced any posters related to them? I think not, because they might be treading a fine social line. I, however, am not bound by these rules so I’ll make a proposition for some missing categories of people who should be given a firm ticking off for antisocial behaviour on public transport.
Firstly, and I think most importantly, I have to address the absolutely outrageous behaviour shown by Varsovian old-age pensioners, who, unfortunately, more often than not, show absolutely no manners whatsoever when taking public transport. A case in point. Dad, i.e. me, takes his son out in the pram and has to take the 116 bus from Plac Wilsona up in the northern district of Żoliborz down to the Old Town. A trip which is not that far, but one which turned into an absolute nightmare simply because a whole hoard of OAPs completely rejected the idea that someone with a kid in a baby buggy should be allowed on the bus first. May I remind you, dear listener, that there is only one set of doors which are capable of accommodating a pram. One. Out of four. Four entrances. But no, as many as ten grannies all pushed me out of the way and clambered on board, only to tut when I had to ask them to kindly move out of the way so that I could get on the bus. On other occasions, I have been physically pushed by old babcias trying to get on or off, without a care in the world of what’s going on around them. And they say that the Polish youth have no manners, well I’m not surprised if the older generation had anything to do with it. There’s a constant hustle and bustle, and they have the nerve to say they’re not getting the royal treatment when, quite frankly, their behaviour is absolutely criminal. I say this to the old grannies and grand-dads who must insist on using public transport, especially during rush hour. Treat others as you’d like to be treated yourself. I don’t care if you’re bitter, you don’t have to brush your negative granny-perfumed energy onto me thanks very much.
Apart from the granny question, there’s also the case of public decency, by which I mean it would be great if there were some social drive to tell people how to wash. I understand that on hot summer days we all have to sweat it out, but for the love of God, it would be marvellous if people insistent on using public transport would have the common courtesy for other commuters by learning that a shower a day is no bad thing in reality. I don’t really need to ponder on the subject much longer, anyone taking a bus in Warsaw has experienced this…
So all in all, while I really do regard public transport in Warsaw as being far superior to a number of other cities that I’ve been to, it would be great if the missing points on this year’s “monster list” were included next year. It would be better late than never.