All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height.
(Casey Stengel)
Every culture is different when it comes to lining up for things. Western cultures seem to be more haphazard about lines, especially lines to get into something, like through doors or into buses. Other cultures are calm and orderly, and there is never any pushing and shoving. Yet others are a mixture of both. So can you guess what it's like in Montreal?
If you said that people in Montreal lining up for buses are calm and orderly and never push and shove, then you are correct! Coming from Sydney, where getting on a bus requires a certain, shall we say, assertiveness, especially if it's peak hour in the city and you're on your way to work with a million other people, it's quite refreshing to be in a place where it really is first in, first served for bus rides.
This concept was new to us, well not new but just foreign I guess, and when we first arrived I'm sure we made the social faux pas of waiting for the bus near the front door end and then getting on when the bus came without knowing who was there first, second, third... We might only have gotten away with it because we had a child with us. Adults are forgiven a lot when they have children with them.
Anyway, after a few bus rides, we noticed that people would form a neat line from the front door end of the bus stop along the footpath towards the end of the bus end. When the bus came along, the first person in line would get on, then the second and so on until everyone was on. I've even seen some people not get into the line but remember where they are in it and pop on in the right order anyway.
Now it is important to notice that I say 'bus' rides. This lining up rule applies to bus queues but doesn't seem to be the case for the metro. Maybe it's too confusing with so many doors opening at such short intervals along the platform. There is even pushing and shoving, especially noticeable in peak times, like when I get on in the morning to go to work and the metro's full of students from the University of Montreal just two stations away. People on the platform hardly wait for people to get off the train before they shove their way on. You really have to be quick or the doors will close and you'll be left standing dumbfounded!
What lining up experiences have you had in Australia or other countries?
If you said that people in Montreal lining up for buses are calm and orderly and never push and shove, then you are correct! Coming from Sydney, where getting on a bus requires a certain, shall we say, assertiveness, especially if it's peak hour in the city and you're on your way to work with a million other people, it's quite refreshing to be in a place where it really is first in, first served for bus rides.
This concept was new to us, well not new but just foreign I guess, and when we first arrived I'm sure we made the social faux pas of waiting for the bus near the front door end and then getting on when the bus came without knowing who was there first, second, third... We might only have gotten away with it because we had a child with us. Adults are forgiven a lot when they have children with them.
Anyway, after a few bus rides, we noticed that people would form a neat line from the front door end of the bus stop along the footpath towards the end of the bus end. When the bus came along, the first person in line would get on, then the second and so on until everyone was on. I've even seen some people not get into the line but remember where they are in it and pop on in the right order anyway.
Now it is important to notice that I say 'bus' rides. This lining up rule applies to bus queues but doesn't seem to be the case for the metro. Maybe it's too confusing with so many doors opening at such short intervals along the platform. There is even pushing and shoving, especially noticeable in peak times, like when I get on in the morning to go to work and the metro's full of students from the University of Montreal just two stations away. People on the platform hardly wait for people to get off the train before they shove their way on. You really have to be quick or the doors will close and you'll be left standing dumbfounded!
What lining up experiences have you had in Australia or other countries?