Rant #2

We now return to our regularly scheduled rants:

I ride the train each day and bring my bike on board. This isn't an unusual occurrence and a number of us do this day in and day out. There are designated spots on each car with a neat-o sign that has a picture of a bike and says (in English) bike storage area. Pretty plain and matter of fact.

The other day I got on the train to go home. I was getting on at the second stop as the train originated at Union station in downtown L.A. I'm used to a bit of crowding and riders shifting around to accommodate everyone but I wasn't ready for this sight:

Five middle aged ladies apparently had done their month's shopping at downtown L.A. (for cryin' out loud!) and were taking their booty home with them. It was piled in the bike area and across from the bike area, and on two seats so that these five women had effectively occupied the space of seven people and four bikes. I had no place to go so I stood and held the bike. The conductor (the coward) took one look at me and left the car, not to return for the rest of the time that I was on the train. As we moved down the line three more bikes got on the same car, each one snared as I had been: from outside the car the mound of groceries, flowers, bananas, tote carts, and the like could not be seen from outside and when the door opens a rider has about 20 seconds to get on. Very little time to decide to try another car and the next train is 45 minutes behind. So we squeezed in. The ladies were nonchalant and really could've cared less until a young Hispanic man got on with his bike. suddenly they cared that he had no place for his bike and one of the women tugged ineffectively at the pile 'o produce to make room for his bike while the other pointed at the isle and presumably asked (in Spanish) if he would put his bike there. He answered firmy (in English) 'that would be a hazard' and stayed with the rest of us in the bike mash.

While we were all dealing with this, at one of the stops a phalanx of deputies pushed onto the car, went up the stairs to the second level and came down with a young woman between two of them and hustled her off the car. She had a little smile on her face like 'this happens all the time, no worries'. Just something else to add to the drama of the trip.

Do you wish to know what was the worst of this little encounter? I'll tell you. About half way through the ordeal, as we clutched our bikes and tried not to fall over as the train lurched and jerked and people squeezed through us and gave us dirty looks, the ladies proceeded to open up bags of fresh bakery bread which they proceeded to eat without even offering any to us! All would have been OK if we had gotten a bite of that bread. It smelled great.

Afterword: The next day the same group was inspected for train tickets by the deputies. They tried the 'no comprende' routine and the 'no English' routine but eventually dug out their tickets. The deputy wasn't amused.