#436 When the subway doors stop right in front of you

Neil Pasricha

Come on in.

When you’re first in the car it’s time for some smoooooth sitting. Yes, you’ve got your pick of the seats before anyone else gets in there. Do you want the chipped orange plastic one in the corner with the Coke spilled on it or the stained yellow one in front smeared with smudgy newspapers?

Decisions, decisions.

Now, when the subway door stops in front of you it sort of feels like you own the train. After it screeches to a slow stop make sure you smile thinly, check your pocket watch, and tip your hat to the conductor before swishing your trenchcoat up into your private car.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here and here

43 thoughts to “#436 When the subway doors stop right in front of you”

  3. Only happens to my with trains because I don’t travel by subway, but still awesome :D

  4. Nice! This IS great! In college, my school had shuttles that went all over campus, and it was SO. AWESOME. when it stopped right in front of you. They never really stopped at the actual designated stop … it was always before or after it, so it was a guessing game. Sometimes you won, most times you lost, but it was great when you were the first one hopping onto that shuttle! Sorry, all y’all in this huge throng of people, but I get to be first! I won the game today. :)

  8. I live in a town where there’s not much public transportation, but I remember how cool it felt when the subway doors in New York would stop right before me awaiting my entrance like royalty!

  10. Something tells me that this awesome thing isn’t really relatable in whatever country this video was taken. (Or maybe it’s even MORE relatable)..

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9nnXw_6WQs&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

    1. HOLY CRAP. The conductors/security people shoving everyone inside is killin’ me! I don’t know that I’d want to be first onto this train. Or last. Or really on board it in any form or fashion. Eek.

      1. What the crap?

        Does claustrophobia not exist in Japan?
        Obviously not…
        Is it acceptable Subway etiquette in Japan for strangers to forcefully and collectively shove one another into submission?
        Yes. Yes it is.

        That frightened me a little bit…or a lot..

    2. Maybe they should issue those conductors with a lubricant. It would make their job a little easier!

      1. Don’t you think that, as a passenger, getting lubed up before being shoved unceremoniously into a subway car only adds to the indignity of the whole situation?

        Somehow, I have a feeling that when you finally show up for your job at the widget factory, clothes wrinkled and covered in lubricant, it will be difficult to explain to your boss the details of your morning.

    3. Now, THAT is how you cram into a train car!!

      The people on our buses at school could do to see this, they’re killing me! They never move all the way to the back, and insist on having elbow room. I say screw your elbow room, I have to get to class!!

  12. also awesome when you’re running to the elevator and the doors stop so you can get in…just in time!

  16. oh man, talk about a win.
    this is the best thing ever. After riding the bus an hour each way through four years of highschool, all I can say is YES.

  17. And the bus.
    This is great, because you’re the first person to get on the bus and the others have to wait.

    Awesome!

  18. Yes, this is AWESOME. Similar to one of my favourites- getting a car park right in front of your destination (which is a close relative of reversing into a car park in one smoothe manouevre). You feel like you’re in the movies when people ALWAYS get a car park right in front of the hotel or wherever they’re going (even when it is implausible that there is any kind of unrestricted parking in front of that type of building!).

  20. This is so true. When the train approaches, I’ll be silently praying “Let it stop in front of me, pls pls pls” and voila, when it happens, it brings a smile on my face! :)

  23. Want this amazing miracle to happen EVERY time you wait for the train?
    Look along the platform and spot the places along the edge where it’s dirtier than others. This is where everyone would be walking past the edge of the platform when getting on the train. It’s easy to spot, and once you know you get the door every time!

  25. It happened to me today! After a long wait of 25 Mts for a bus to board for travelling a distance of 6 KMs, so to catch my cab on time, suddenly, unexpectantly a car (of my new friend) stopped in front of me and asked to get in!! Awesome & amazing, which made me to smile & my day started!!!

  26. I fell awesome… when my train ticket got confirmed from waiting list and got a Seat to sleep when Iam tired of the whole weekday @ work…

  30. Yea, that’s pretty awesome except in Japan, the platforms are marked where the train doors will stop and open. Everyone has to line up in an orderly fashion. Now, when you’re the FIRST in line…that’s awesome.

    1. First time on subway- in France on school trip. *Shelley and I, 13 and lost. Several hours jumping in and out of those sliding doors; everything moving far too fast; looking exactly the same at every station. Our eyes widening and hearts racing as darkness set in and we cried. Then as if it had been there the entire time…in the middle somehow missed~ a miracle~ our stop. Awesome:)

  32. I’d love to experience this, but it doesn’t happen in Singapore.
    Here, there are barriers w/ automated sliding doors separating the platform and the train tracks and the train doors will ALWAYS stop at the the sliding doors.

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