Saturday 11 February 2012

The London Underground from a Shorter Perspective

I have recently had to re-acquaint myself with the morning rush-hour over the past two weeks. I would firstly like to point out that while we do have our problems (do the words we are waiting around on this platform 'to regulate the service' sound familiar?) I love the idea that you could walk around anywhere in London and never get lost because there is always a station somewhere.

However when you stand at a pretty unimpressive 5ft tall, the following can happen when you are on a very crowded train/station ...

  • Never being able to see the board that tells you when the train is coming, and therefore having to ask a tall person nearby what it says
  • Being knocked over by people wearing over-stuffed rucksacks when they get on the train
  • Never being able to reach the overhead bars when you don't have a place to sit - the alternatives are tip-toeing or over-stretching your arms
  • Your face being at exact arm-pit level of taller commuters who are able to hold on to the aforementioned bars (extra bad during summer-time)
  • The top half of your body being pushed further into the carriage so your feet are in a completely different location to the rest of you
All of this is true, and none of this is exaggerated readers   :'(

How about you? If any of you are short, do you encounter any other similar problems?
And for the rest of you ... what are your transportation annoyances?

2 comments:

Meredith said...

Ha, those London trains are SO tiny! One time, I was wedged into one of the doors and bent over in half. It was horrible!

Deniz Bevan said...

I'm short too, I know how you feel!