OK, you Charlotte-area transplants from other cities with rail systems: I need your input.
The light-rail line through south Charlotte opens the weekend after Thanksgiving. There’s a group of Charlotteans out there who may be setting foot on a light-rail train for the first time. Given the volume of complaints I hear about Charlotte drivers, I imagine there will be a fair number of complaints about rail-riding etiquette.
For those with rail-riding experience, what are your tips? Hopefully most people will know the basics like “let everyone who’s getting off the train out before you try to go in the doors” and “for Pete’s sake, be careful when you’ve got your iPod on full blast.” But perhaps there are more subtle tips you can offer for avoiding annoying your fellow passengers and getting the most trouble-free ride possible.
(And for all you haters out there, this entry is not a referendum on the merits of light rail – you got your chance to weigh in on that during last week’s election. And it’s not a referendum on the merits of Charlotte, either. Please keep your comments on topic).
Personally, I’ve ridden trains in Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, Portland, London and Frankfurt. Each city's system had its own quirks. I’m eager to learn what Charlotte’s quirks will be, and how people will navigate them. In the meantime, I look forward to hearing your advice – and I hope to write an article for the paper, so e-mail me if you’re willing to be quoted by name!
Blog Archive
-
▼
2007
(16)
-
▼
November
(8)
- More light-rail tips from readers
- Please share your Thanksgiving traditions
- Is Charlotte less safe than other cities?
- Light-rail etiquette tips?
- Taken any good road trips lately?
- Need your input: Transit tax, and Thanksgiving plans
- Newcomers: How do you decide how to vote?
- Follow-up: Halloween ghost tour
-
▼
November
(8)
Popular Posts
-
I'm sharing a sneak preview of my column running in this Sunday's paper: After a year and a half spent meeting newcomers, hearing th...
-
Who was W.T. Harris? Where was Sardis? What’s the Community House? Turns out, lots of folks out there want to know more about how Charlotte’...
-
Thanks to the relative strength of North Carolina’s filmmaking industry, the state is usually represented in films at the annual Sundance Fi...
-
This is a difficult blog entry for me to write. It’s a story that reflects poorly on me, as some of my more feisty posters will no doubt qui...
-
Anybody see today’s editorial page in The Observer? It read like one of my old North vs. South blog entries. The first writer led off with t...
-
There aren't many things more maddening than a cell phone dead zone. Especially when it happens in the middle of the largest city in the...
-
When it’s a dark Halloween night at one of Mecklenburg County’s oldest surviving properties, everything takes on a certain spookiness. A bre...
-
With tens of thousands of people sampling Charlotte’s first light-rail line this weekend, the advice is flying. People with light-rail exper...
-
We live in a great place for road trips, and this past weekend brought me ample opportunity to be reminded of that. First, I headed to Durha...
-
This is a long-overdue update post. When I last wrote, I was headed into the adventure of full-time editing for the Observer's Neighbors...