TriMetiquette: You told us what makes you cringe on board

Back in February, we asked for feedback about which transit etiquette, or “TriMetiquette,” rules riders should follow. Well, the results are in!

After sorting through 1,071 responses of what bugs you while you ride, we’ve narrowed it down to three TriMetiquette sub-categories: Noise, Gross and Space.

About 45% of the responses mentioned annoyances involving noise. Two hundred and seventy-seven responses were about people talking too loud while on board (“Speakerphone is not for the bus!”), and about 207 replies referenced riders playing music or games too loudly on their personal devices.

“Turn your music down, we can all hear it coming from the headphones and it sounds awful. Keep your voice down during both face-to-face and phone conversations—if the phone connection is poor, call them later—we don’t want to listen to you yell into thin air.”

This sub-category covers a range of pet peeves including feet on seats and smoking (“People always ignore the non-smoking signs and smoke right next to passengers”) to odd smells (“Bathe, for the love of all that’s holy, and not in Axe.”) and offensive personal grooming habits (“No cleaning your ears or clipping your fingernails on the bus”).  Overall, 51% of the received feedback fell into this category—164 replies were specifically about feet and dirty shoes on seats.

“No feet on the seats! I think that feet on the seats is unclean, gross and it makes it difficult for other people who really need a seat (when the bus or train is full).”

Leading the way with a whopping 639 replies and 60% of the responses were frustrations about space. Riders really can’t stand seeing other riders take up more than one seat (“One butt, one seat”), stand too close for comfort (“Please do your best not to lean on your fellow passengers”), exit the bus from the front (“Remember, exiting by the front door keeps everyone waiting“), or hop on the train before letting others off.

“Stop blocking the door when people are trying to get off the MAX.  Stand back and let people exit before getting on.”

But the pet peeves don’t stop there—we also received plenty of feedback about practicing common courtesy, like giving up your seat to seniors, people with disabilities or others who could really use is, and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze

We want you to have an enjoyable ride, but that can’t happen without your help. So, let’s be considerate to one another, use headphones while we ride, keep our belongings  on the floor and our feet off the seats!