Comments on: The Laboratory on Wheels

By: john

john — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:06:23 +0000

Here’s my take on the psychology of almost-meeting– related to safe driving of course.

http://bestdriver.blogspot.com/2009/02/gone-in-50-seconds.html

By: Tom Vanderbilt

Tom Vanderbilt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:09:21 +0000

Jeff, thanks for the tip — it’s now on my viewing list.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:07:06 +0000

Hi Tom…very interesting article you’ve written here, especially since it rekindled my thoughts and interest in a small gem of a film from 1967 called The Incident. Of course, this would fall squarely in the middle of that 60s-70s heyday for analyzing social behavior on the subways.

Though what’s even more interesting about the film (apart from starring a very young Martin Sheen and Beau Bridges) is how many of the elements you discuss manifest themselves here. It’s basically staged as a play, though many parts were actually shot on the NYC subway system late at night as to avoid the ordinances they were breaking to do so…anyhow, I don’t mean to ramble.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth seeking out and deals with how a group of various people all react or don’t react in many cases to two street toughs who terrorize a subway car. The end result is well worth the experience.

Thanks again for this article!

The Incident http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061814/

By: Yokota Fritz

Yokota Fritz — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:18:50 +0000

Apropos to spiderleggreen’s observation: I wonder if bike people in transit are a little different? I regularly take my bike with me on transit, and we all get to know each other, sometimes fairly well even though we might have absolutely nothing else in common besides our transportation mode.

John Murphy in San Francisco posted something along similar lines regarding some differences between BART and Caltrain riders: “Now, I am of the Caltrain ilk,” writes John, “where everyone helps each other out, we share a bond formed through numerous Caltrain disasters that have forced us to finish our commutes like the Israelites heading out of Egypt, where we rely on each other. The cyclists form a paceline and head to Millbrae BART. Those without bikes gather ’round the twitter and call cabs to split to various destinations, or offer rides in their own cars when a loved one comes to the rescue. This all seems very natural.“

By: spiderleggreen

spiderleggreen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:05:55 +0000

I pretty much only use public transport when I take the Light Rail(LRT) to the airport, but I have managed to get into quite a few conversations when I did. I think the “in” is in finding something in common that is obvious to both of you. One time a women had a bike that she hung in the space provided, then sat near me. I had an inkling that the bike was a Surly and asked her if that was so. She said yes, happy that someone knew something of her bike. That started a ten minute conversation that was very nice and didn’t break any of “the rules”.