There’s been a pretty significant transformation on public transit in the past decade or less. Whereas riders used to start up a conversation with complete strangers on a regular basis in the past, more and more riders are plugged into their iPods, iPhones, iPads, or other electronic gadgets and stay in their own world despite being surrounded by others. I noticed the change happening years ago, but it has gotten to another level now and has even penetrated the heavily trafficked transit of major cities like New York.
Alex Marshall of NY Daily News recently covered this topic as well and proposed the idea of “conversation cars” for those who want to socialize on transit (& maybe even meet a nice transit-friendly partner). Sounds like an interesting and useful idea, but will it ever happen? Who knows? Maybe if he or others can build up some organized public demand for it. Here’s the full piece: Let’s talk, stranger: Why our subways should have conversation cars.
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Photo Credit: moriza