Category: diaries

Photo by Charles Haynes

Transit etiquette and decent human behavior, yet again, flew out the window at Millbrae BART, dropping the chivalry index to a record low.

No, seriously. This was my morning: BART was running at least 15 minutes late to Millbrae, so people on my BART train making the Millbrae Caltrain connection were getting visibly antsy. It looked like we would miss the bullet train, after which the local Caltrain only comes every hour. As the Millbrae BART train pulled in, we could see that a Caltrain was already waiting at the opposite platform, but we would have to go upstairs to cross the platform and then down another set of stairs to catch it.

The BART train stops and everybody makes a mad scramble to the fare gates. As I walked up to the faregate and reached out to scan my Clipper card, a young man (Silicon Valley type, corporate backpack), leaped over two other people to jump in front of me to scan his Clipper card.

His Clipper card didn’t scan so the fare gate was still closed, so he hoisted himself up to jump the gate, kicking up his feet to nick me right in the shin, breaking skin (I was wearing a skirt and heels on account of the great weather today). No apologies.

None of us made the train.

How about this for an etiquette rule: don’t take fellow riders out at the knees (or the shins). Now does anyone have a Band-Aid for me?