On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 11:31:17 +0100, Ian Tindale
wrote:



Right handed *******s are the ones I find infuriating, especially the stupid
****s that have the audacity to design systems like ticket barriers the
wrong way round. I've absolutely no tolerance for right handed people,
they're the most bigoted arrogant ****s you're ever likely to find on the
underground.

Just walk backwards.

Martin Underwood wrote:

PS: Next week's rant... drivers (especially of automatic cars) who sit with
their foot on the footbrake (instead of slipping the car into neutral and
putting their handbrake on) when they're stopped for ages at traffic
lights - this blinds the driver behind (eg me) at night!

Would now be a good time to broach the subject of ludicrously oversized
umbrellas wielded by pinstriped knuckle-scrapers in the City?

One would've thought their City bonuses could cover the cost of a proper
umbrella.

JRS: In article , seen in
news:uk.transport.london, Clive D. W. Feather clive@on-the-
train.demon.co.uk posted at Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:41:56 :

Scissors only work if held in the right hand. If you want ones for use
in the left hand, they need to be constructed in a different way. If
you're left-handed, you might find such scissors better for detailed
work.

I am right-handed. I've just tested a new pair of WHS scissors in my
left hand, and they cut in the normal fashion (there is, of course, less
dexterity). Those scissors have symmetrical handles.

An ancient, and less sharp, pair, also cut properly when held left-
handedly; but a little care is needed initially.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - w. FAQish topics, links, acronyms
PAS EXE etc : URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/ - see 00index.htm
Dates - miscdate.htm moredate.htm js-dates.htm pas-time.htm critdate.htm etc.

This often happens and there is a simple tip on dealing with the problem.

If you sense a person that close and you suspect they are ''piggy backing''
on your ticket, walk slowly through the gates. Remember that its when you
pass the second set of sensors on the other side that the gates close. If
you time it right, there isn't room for them to get through before the
sensor register you passing and the gate closes on them.

BUT.....

DON'T do this if the station is busy
They may still try and squeeze through and push you out the way.
Be safe!

Steve

PS: On one occasion I was very pleased to witness a person push through
behind another guy. Unfortunately (depending on your view point) he pushed
through behind a plain clothes ticket inspector who promptly took his
details :-))
"Dan Gravell" wrote in message
...
Nick Cooper wrote:
Detrained at Lambeth North this morning. Lanky bald ******* got into
the lift just as the doors opened, and then stood there repeatedly
punching the operation button until they closed again. When he went
through the barriers, it flashed up "child" on the display. He even
had the gall to then not leave as quickly as possible, but rather
stood using the payphone next to the entrance. ****.

Not as annoying as people getting through on your ticket by following
closely behind. I'm trying to perfect the art of leaving it till the
last possible moment before going through the barriers and them closing.
Unfortunately my laptop bag makes this harder.

And to broaden it a little, people that get onto a bus through the exit
doors on the side (and don't pay).

Dan

I have total sympathy for you. If its getting a real pain for you, when you
get to the tube station you are departing from, ask the Station Assistant if
they can radio through for a member of staff to meet you at your
destination. I doubt it would be a problem.

Always gives me great satisfaction taking the visually impaired to the
platform and getting them on their train. Do other customers vacate a seat
for them, of course not. Then I just ask the fit healthy person desperately
attempting to avoid eye contact if they could give up 'the' (not their)
seat.

That reminds me of the story a blind person told me about....He was walking
down the platform when a guy trips over his white stick and then goes
ballistic threatening to sue him for tripping him! it takes all sorts :-)))

Steve
"Laura-Ann" wrote in message
news:I0akc.769$7S2.280@newsfe1-win...

"PhilD" wrote in message
om...
Niklas Karlsson wrote in message
...
Indeed. Another thing most people get right is letting people off the
train before trying to get on.

Most of those who don't get this right (seems to be more common on NR
than on the Underground) seem to be teenagers, and some even have the
gall to be offended when I insist on getting off first.

Niklas

From my experience, when they get older (I won't say "grow up") they
all go and live in Maidenhead!

I never understand why, particularly if it's a crowded train, anyone
even thinks there's room to get on until others have got off. It was
much easier fo me a couple of years ago: it is hard for anyone to get
on whilst a pushchair is coming off.

PhilD

--


Just chipping in...this is one of the things that annoys me most.

I have to trek around, at the moment with a knee brace. I did it for the
first time in London yesterday. Now, it was very much on show because I
was
wearing a skirt. Everytime I went to get off a train, it was
exceptionally
difficult to bend my knee, and I ended up jumping, or hopping down.
People
were tutting, and pushing me back into the train. Is it so difficult to
wait a few seconds while someone gets off?

And, even before the doors have opened, they are crowding around it
waiting
to get on, not leaving any space for those who wish to get off. Many
times
yesterday I shoved myself through groups of people waiting at the doors,
and
got "you piece of scum" looks. And for the first time yesterday, I
actually
swore at people who couldn't be patient. It's difficult enough for me at
the moment to get on trains, I don't need it made more difficult to get
off.

Now, the idiots who ignore the "Keep Left" signs in tunnels and on
stairs...that's another story.

Laura-Ann
-----------------

A few interesting incidents and other incidental happenings from a pure blue
polyester wearer!

a) Customer claimed they inserted their ticket into the gate but the gate
didn't open (normally a single and the gate has opened but they were too
busy waiting for it to come out the top). - In this case: opened the gate to
find it wedged between the metal plates.

b) "My ticket wont work!" (in disgruntled voice) - concertinaed ticket
handed over for inspection.

c) "Sorry" - As the cup of coffee placed on top of the barrier whilst
retrieving ticket is knocked over by the bag in their hand as they try to
retrieve said ticket from the top of the barrier to open the gate.

d) "How do I get to 42 Winchester Place?" (or some other residential
address in the middle of nowhere) - Please PLEASE check where you want to go
before you set out, we can try and find it for you but if its busy it may
not be possible.

e) The tickets shown either 5 metres away or, 1cm from your nose or
'swiped' in front of you. - Staff don't have implants to read long distance
or the micro dots or speed lenses.

f) Can your eyes tell you what's on an Oyster card? - nor can ours,
please place it on the reader.

g) Shock and amazement when a customer decided that thy took priority
over another customer I was already helping and decided to poke me in the
back with the finger to get my attention.

h) Not buying a ticket before you travel just because the gates are open
isn't a valid reason for not getting one before getting on the train.
Simsbury's doesn't have gates either.

Enough for now.......this is not a rant, OK OK it is a bit. I know the
rants from the other side too, I used to be a annual gold card carrier
myself 2 years ago and even now see some staff who make me wince. Its just
food for thought.

Steve


"paulglondon" wrote in message
om...
Stuart wrote in message

snip

1) Walk to barrier
2) Realise what that little piece of card they were given half an hour
later is for
3) Open handbag (because it usually is a woman)
4) Rake around in handbag for a bit
5) Get out purse
6) Find ticket in purse

Or then decide to use the next barrier, the one that I had decided to
use a few seconds earlier, and so walk straight in front of me.

In fact I find the most annoying thing about these barriers are women
(invariably) who will try to race you to the barrier and then, when
you've decided to use the neighbouring one (no need to fight over a
barrier when there are two), will stop you doing so by moving straight
in front of you.

We don't need the bloody barriers in any case. Penalty fares and
inspectors would speed things up a lot.

7) Try to insert ticket in top of machine
8) Realise mistake and insert ticket in the front of the machine
9) Stand there for a bit wondering why gates haven't opened
10) Take ticket from machine, gates open
11) Stand there for a bit wondering if it's safe to go through
12) Pass through the barrier

I can tolerate this one because it's more predictable

Paul

SJCWHUK ) gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying :

h) Not buying a ticket before you travel just because the gates are
open isn't a valid reason for not getting one before getting on the
train.

It may well be.

There's more than a few stations that have either limited hours staffing or
no staffing, and unreliable ticket machines.

But anything to stop people shoving through following you - like the pikey
bint that shoved through at Euston Square after SWMBO last summer, managing
to stamp on SMWBO's ankle and break her shoe before turning abusive when
challenged.

"Darren" ] wrote:
"Martin Underwood" wrote...
- Why should an action such as holding a ticket be a "handed" operation?
I'm sure as a right-hander I'd have no difficulty whatsoever holding a
ticket in my left hand and feeding into a slot on the left side of the
barrier if that's how the barriers were designed. Are left-handed people
less ambidextrous (apart from skilled actions like writing) than
right-handed people?

I don't know. I'm right handed but more than once my right hand's been
full so I've been in the slightly awkward situation of having to use my
left hand to feed my ticket into a slot on the right side of the
barrier...

To me it isn't a problem, I'm left handed, and can happily work a ticket
gate with my right hand, I also do other things the right handed way, I use
a computer mouse with the right.

Ergonomic studies have shown that it's better to use the mouse with the
left hand because it's less far to reach (due to the keyboard's number
pad). Of course whether this is really less stressful depends on the
design of the mouse. Mac users have an advantage there!

I believe it is also common for left handed people to hold a knife and fork
wrong, with the knife in the left - not me though.
Its these silly people who start requiring Left handed clocks that work
backwards and such which make left handed people seem strange.

It's when they start demanding left handed tube maps that you really
have to worry :-)

"Aidan Stanger" wrote in message
...
"Darren" ] wrote:
"Martin Underwood" wrote...
- Why should an action such as holding a ticket be a "handed"
operation?
I'm sure as a right-hander I'd have no difficulty whatsoever holding a
ticket in my left hand and feeding into a slot on the left side of the
barrier if that's how the barriers were designed. Are left-handed
people
less ambidextrous (apart from skilled actions like writing) than
right-handed people?

I don't know. I'm right handed but more than once my right hand's been
full so I've been in the slightly awkward situation of having to use my
left hand to feed my ticket into a slot on the right side of the
barrier...

To me it isn't a problem, I'm left handed, and can happily work a ticket
gate with my right hand, I also do other things the right handed way, I
use
a computer mouse with the right.

Ergonomic studies have shown that it's better to use the mouse with the
left hand because it's less far to reach (due to the keyboard's number
pad). Of course whether this is really less stressful depends on the
design of the mouse. Mac users have an advantage there!

I believe it is also common for left handed people to hold a knife and
fork
wrong, with the knife in the left - not me though.
Its these silly people who start requiring Left handed clocks that work
backwards and such which make left handed people seem strange.

It's when they start demanding left handed tube maps that you really
have to worry :-)

My maths teacher at school, normally a very strait-laced guy, let his hair
down on the "all-the-sevens" date 7 July 1977 and revealed his party trick:
he was ambidextrous. He could write in various ways:

- start with left hand on LH blackboard then continue with right hand on RH
blackboard

- write forwards with right hand and backwards (mirror) with left hand - and
vice versa

- write left-to-right with both hands on one line then right-to-left (but
NOT mirror image!) on next line: like a dot matrix printer did


We were well impressed.

On Fri, 30 Apr 2004, SJCWHUK wrote:

That reminds me of the story a blind person told me about....He was
walking down the platform when a guy trips over his white stick and then
goes ballistic threatening to sue him for tripping him! it takes all
sorts :-)))

This is one of the things i like about cycling - we're much more friendly
to one another. For example, entirely due to my own lack of care at a
blind corner (which i'll be careful not to repeat), i had a head-on
collision with another cyclist on the towpath on friday night; the first
thing he said was "are you okay?", and i said i was and asked him the
same. Only after we'd made sure we were both alright and apologised did we
move off. It really is the only civilised way to travel.

tom

--
Don't trust the laws of men. Trust the laws of mathematics.