Warning Signs: The Ballad of Charlie Darwin

             Watch gap between train and platform, do not exit moving train, automatic door, keep feet off seats, brake for emergency use only, emergency exit. All inarguably good advice wrapped in candy cane patterns of eye catching red; a truly inspired design as the same person who might attempt to step off a moving train might just as easily miss a less apparent sign.  Better for the sign-smith to take the extra care, really pay attention.

Leverage

Reading the news is a staple in the commuter’s daily routine. A good article with that first cup of caffeine can brighten your mood and ignite your mind.  This morning I read a particularly fascinating article about something that’s possibly definitely been plaguing the world for years maybe.  At this point we’re like 99.99% sure that we’ll be sure soon that it’s a problem, definitely a big problem too, not just like one of those small potentially probable problems.  Yes, global warming is still out there and the discussion about it is almost getting to the point where it might start getting somewhere like really soon.

Quarantine

There is a perpetual sense of solitude that takes hold of you during the commute.  You’re surrounded by people but you feel oddly removed from everything around you.  They have nothing to do with you nor do you have anything to do with them.  Each person commutes within the comfortable confines of his or her own reality.  It is a world in which no others exist until the moment your solitude is shattered by the rogue reality of another.

Slip N' Slide

A canopy of umbrellas shields the concrete jungle from a rainy day.  Each falling drop joins the groundwater army collectively turning the walking commute into an escape from the temple of doom.  Puddles can be an inch or a foot deep but only hindsight can make that destinction.  Tidal waves rush over curbs and into your shoes leaving you yearning for fresh socks.  You curse the wind as it furiously blows the flying water under your umbrella and straight onto your once dry pants. 

Game Over

Grasshoppers have the incredible ability to fly in swarms of thousands separated by mere micrometers without ever colliding.  This ability is so evolved that companies are studying grasshoppers in an effort to develop the next generation driverless car.  Humans do not posses this talent.  We walk around bumping into things all day, especially in the freewheeling flurry of the morning commute. 

Riding Backwards

In the battle between quality and quantity public transportation has always leaned much closer to quantity.  That isn’t to say that the new trains, buses, or subways that get rolled out every so often aren’t an improvement but in their attempts to accommodate the ever-increasing commuter crowd certain sacrifices must be made.  As a result, seats are sometimes installed in slightly inelegant positions.

Commuting in the Dark

It’s been a long day and you’re catching a ride home way later than usual.  You know what lies ahead.  You are about to cross into the illusory world of the night commute.