Thursday, December 22, 2005

Of subways and elevator buttons

In honor of the current MTA/TWU strike, this post is all about worker rights, evil capitalists, greedy workers, idiot socialists and a whole slew of the other ethical and moral issues that a transit worker strike raises. Specifically:
Has anyone noticed that people standing on a subway platform tend to look down the tracks to see when the subway is coming? What does this accomplish? It makes even less sense than pushing the elevator button after everyone has already done so. At least with elevators there is an off-chance that the first person to get there just stood there and didn't push the button (which, might I add, would be fun to do). Therefore, while pushing the button does not get the elevator arriving quicker, it at least ensures that the button is in fact pushed. With subway cars, however, no matter how hard you stare down the track the train will not arrive any quicker. So, I implore you: please stop staring down the track and do something productive -- like count lightbulbs, subway mice or homeless people -- instead.
PS: Wish me luck getting home. How long do you think it will take to walk from 186th street to 34th street?

7 comments:

  1. The comparison you made is false. With an elevator - at least the common modern ones - after the elevator summon button had been pressed, or the floor selected, the button tends to light up. And, yes, it is idiotic and pointless to press the button again to ensure it validity. (Those people lose my respect on an exponential scale.)

    But, looking at the tracks, or more likely, down the tunnel, is like looking at one's watch. Merely to prepare his schedule for his impending journey. Like, when waiting for a scheduled train, to check the clock to see what time it is for the purpose of knowing when the train will come. Nobody, even grave idiots, would think that. (Well, maybe grave idiots.)

    People don't like waiting blindly, in fact I think some form tortures are based on this. In some forms of this transportation, there are electronic signs telling of the time until the next train - like on the Amsterdammer trams.

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  2. I believe that my comparison is accurate. Regardless of if there is a value to knowing if the train is 10 seconds away (which I doubt), looking down the tracks still does nothing to cause the train to arrive quicker. Just as pushing an already pushed elevator button does not help the elevator arrive quicker.

    And about the issue of people needing to know the time all the time: When you have no control over the time it will take you to get somewhere (i.e. subway), looking at a watch is also usless.

    And how do you lose respect on an exponential scale? Each time they push the button your quantifyable respect drops by e^-p ?

    [By the way, in Gulliver's Travels (a deathly boring read) the Lilliputians deduce that the pocketwatch is Gulliver's god, since he consults it before doing anything (Wow! I did learn something in that "Comedy and Satire class!).]

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  3. Indeed looking to see when the train is coming is certainly pointless. But it is more than that. People have gotten serious injuries by looking down the tracks. Admittedly that is a moron who probably has hearing problems, but he can stilll teach us a valuble lesson in patience.

    Then there is the matter of all the time people waste looking to see when the train/bus/trolley is coming, asking other poeple when the train/bus/trollley is coming, look down the tracks/road, looking to see when the train/bus/trolley is coming, asking other poeple when the train/bus/trollley is coming, look down the tracks/road,looking to see when the train/bus/trolley is coming, asking other poeple when the train/bus/trollley is coming, look down the tracks/road,looking to see when the train/bus/trolley is coming, asking other poeple when the train/bus/trollley is coming, look down the tracks/road, etc. In that time you could get some serious work done maybe think of something that will be a boon to society. So please don't look down the tracks.

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  4. I think it has been scientifically proven that looking down the tracks makes trains come slower . (I have confirmed this experimentally, in fact). I think it's a corollary to the theorem that "a watched pot never boils", although the actual derivation involves a bit of tensor calculus. there's a shorter proof as well, but it wont fit in this narrow margin.

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  5. In the spirit of long comments (sometimes longer than the post) the only grave idiots I have every seen, are the people looking in the wrong direction down the track to see if the train is coming. Also, looking at ones watch on public trasportation can have its uses. If your train was late or held up for some reason, you can look at the time and than contact that person you where supposed ot meet and telling them that you will be late because the train was 20 minutes late (this gives your statment more validity). Last of all (and my personal favrite) if you know what time it is or how late it is you can complain to the person sitting next to you about it.

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  6. To Eli -

    "When you have no control over the time it will take you to get somewhere (i.e. subway), looking at a watch is also usless."

    - A watch does not control time, only displays. Why do they bother to print a schedule of trains, if they come every 30 minutes (like some do) if the rider cannot control the schedule.

    Regarding your first paragraph. Nobody - or very stupid people - believes that looking at the track makes a train come faster. Some people may believe that pressing an elevator button MAY bring an elevator car quicker. The comparison is NOT the same. Some people may not believe, or care to notice, that an elevator-summon request has already been made.

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  7. I have to agree with Eli-

    Ironically, when a person waiting for the train looks down the tracks, he is probably thinking something along the lines of, "Gee, what a waste of time it is to sit here waiting for a train." But he is actually wasting more time by thinking about the time he is wasting instead of putting that time towards something productive, like taking a census of homeless people, as Eli suggests.

    So if he really doesn't want to waste his time, he should stop worrying about wasting time and actually do something.

    And speaking of wasting time...

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