Sister, lemme tell you about a Vision I Saw (#2)

Visions that encapsulate London – #2: Commuter rage

Number two in this regular series. Today I’m looking at commuter rage. Road rage is a well documented phenomena, but in London we have commuter rage. It’s been especially apparent over these last few weeks as tubes haven’t been working properly.

A few weeks ago when I was staying temporarily in Leyton and the central line was down. Luckily I had a tip off from my friend and walked to a bus stop a couple of stops away from the tube station, got a seat easily and sat down among the other three people on the bus. When we got to the tube station as normal and there were about 1,000 people at the bus station, the bus stopped people started running to get on. People were pushing, the bus became so full that the driver couldn’t close the doors, no-one wanted to get off. Then two women started throwing punches at each other and clawing their hair out. A proper cat-fight.

After a short moment of arousal, I realised that this is something that only Londonders experience. All that good-will and charity after the 7/7 bombings had been thrown out of the window because people were actually going to be late for work. Selfishness and the product of the Thatcher years have left Londoners with no compassion for anyone but themselves.

The District Line was particularly busy that Day

The tube is also a place where this happens. I saw two grown women (Again! I think women like to fight around me) having a massive shouting match because one accidentally put her umbrella too close to the other person for comfort. I know that this is unpleasant, I know that the tube is crowded and wouldn’t pass EU health and safety rules for transporting cattle, but it’s only a journey into work. Can’t we all be civil? This shouting match went on for about three stops, by the end I couldn’t help but look at them with a grin on my face, until one of them said to me, “and you can wipe that stupid smile off your face you twat”. She was trying to spread commuter rage.

The problem is that people lead stressful lives nowadays, but we have to remember that this is part of living in London and it’s a by-product of needing to commute. We should all also realise that their jobs won’t suddenly go if they are five minutes late, and that their offices will not grind to a halt. The world will not stop if we’re not at our desk at 8.59am on the dot. People tend to loose sight of the bigger picture. "Your life is not your job", is what I will shout the next time I see two people fighting on the way into work.

Read other 'Visions of London'



Precious Angel