Spitting, seat hogging, smells: annoying transit pet peeves

An image captured by a Vancouver transit user shows two young people sitting in priority seating while an elderly man stands just feet away.

Every day more than a million trips are made on Metro Vancouver’s transit system, but users say some inappropriate transit transgressions are making the rides less than pleasant.

Spitting, hogging seats and backpack body checks are just some of the complaints TransLink logs from users.

Spokesperson Derek Zabel said he hears about a lot of people littering on the floor of the transit system. But poor etiquette isn’t limited to how people act either.

“Smells are a really big thing on the transit system. People will comment on the person who comes on wearing way to much perfume or cologne,” he said.

Transit riders who spoke to CTV cited loud talking or blaring music from smart phones as one of their pet peeves, as well as people who knock into you with their bags. Another common offender: the person who doesn’t wait for others to get off the train before rushing on.

Many also mentioned people coveting courtesy seats meant for seniors and the disabled.

Transit user Erica Hargreave recently witnessed two young people sitting in the priority seating while an elderly man stood just feet away.

Hargreave confronted the two younger people and said they then followed her off the train to scold her.

“I was utterly shocked,” she told CTV News. “If I were them I would have been really, really embarrassed.”

TransLink's own list of etiquette issues includes things like loud music, loud cell phone conversations and eating and drinking on board.

Etiquette expert Margaret Page doesn’t believe people are intentionally being disrespectful or rude.

“I think they just don't know,” she said.

Page said while there are times when people should say something to the offender, simply acting the way we want others to act can also be effective.

“If we continue to see other people demonstrating good behavior it does begin to get us that way,” she said.

Have your say: What are your transit pet peeves?