Straphangers IQ

Most of you know that since I've moved outside Manhattan, I've had to ride the subway daily. This was quite a change for me after walking to work nearly everyday for almost a year. The transition was easy enough although I've become accustomed to cruising in around 9-9:30 a little more often.

As a "straphanger", I started picking up on little tricks and techniques right away. For example, if no seats are available during rush hour, I either stand directly in front of the door that leads to the next car (often taken) or in the space directly in the middle of two sets of doors. This allows you to have plenty of room as the car gets crowded and often no one will stand directly behind you. Also, if a seat does open up and there are no elderly people or ladies around, you can pounce on it (which is actually not that often, unless you're either cold hearted or a misogynist).

Probably the most key strategy that can be followed however, is which car you initially get on. Granted, if the train is arriving when you're flying down the stair around the obese and old, you have little choice but work with me here.

I learned that when returning home in the evenings, I need to be on the second-to-last car and exit out the second set of doors to get to stairs the quickest. My other option is to be in the third-to-last car and exit the last set of doors. I had some initial success employing this strategy and felt pretty good about myself. Other riders were stupid, I reasoned. I've got this figured out already.

Not so fast, Nebrasky.

I must have been fortunate to get some beginner's luck because when I started commuting during the peak hours, not only were these strategic cars full, people lined up at the doors two or three stops in advance to get first shot at the stairs.

DRAT. When did subway riders get so smart? Had I been prematurely overconfident and drastically underestimated them?

But then I figured that many of the people on the subway have been riding it since the Johnson Administration and my science-loving brother would further reason that: "Organisms, when in an environment for a prolonged period, eventually will adapt effectively to that environment or perish."

The other possibility is that I'm still just a beginner at this.

In any case, it definitely isn't as bad as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axwMxUBL_ws