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Early Addition
During the morning rush, no one likes to deal with inconsiderate people who put their belongings on subway seats. But if one combines that annoyance with a rainy day, the result, as Heaneyland points out, is the perfect storm of subway pet peeves: people who put wet belongings on subway seats.
As New York settles in to a season of rain and snow, your friendly neighborhood Ask Gothamist would like to ammend the list of NYC's Offical Rules Of Inclement Weather Umbrella Etiquette to include the following:
1. Never place your wet umbrella on a seat. Put it on the floor. Subway floors are cleaner than you think and, anyway, your umbrella will be rinsed off as soon as you go outside and open it up again.
2. Don't let your wet umbrella drip on other passengers. Holding your umbrella in a position where it can unlease a steady drip, drip, drip of water on someone shorter than you is considered a violation of not only subway etiquette, but probably the Geneva Conventions as well.
What are your tips for dealing with wet umbrellas on the subway?
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The drip to a short person is the least to fear. Being tall puts me in a doubly dangerous position with umbrellas. I'm just eye level with those little metal spikes when a short person's umbrella is up, and my crotch is just the right height to be be hit at the end of the arc of some idiot swinging their umbrella in their hand like a friggin' spear. Hasn't anyone in this town ever heard of pointing those things down when you're walking in a crowd?!?!
I usually hang my umbrella on the bottom of my messenger bag so that it drips between my shoes rather than on someone else's. Plus then it's handy if you need to prod Mr. Waterproof Parka Guy who refuses to use an umbrella at all and squeezes in against you dripping wet. I hate that guy.
Agreed! There should be a law against Umbrella's with metal spikes. I've taken quite a beating these past years with careless umbrella holders.
Yep, the spikes suck. In the most crowded situation, I just put my umbrella between my legs. Subway seat etiquette on a rush hour 1/9 is usually taught by confrontation. People tend to speak their minds early in the day.
Bring along a plastic bag and put your umbrella in there. That way it won't drip all over you, everyone else, and the subway floor. :)
As for subway floors being cleaner than you think... I don't really understand how you can say that. Thousands of people walk on those floors. What exactly could be clean about them?
Use the plastic bag your morning paper came in to put your umbrella in when you go into the subway. Done and done. That's if you get the paper delivered.
When I carry an umbrella on the train, I put it in a plastic bag. What I absolutely abhor are people who pull the umbrella over their face and barrel down the sidewalk with no regard for others. I've been scratched in the face by those metal spikes, and will walk with my arms raised to deflect umbrellas if need be. Rain seems to make pedestrians oblivious.
Neither common sense, common decency nor common courtesy are all that common anymore. I have seen people put soaking wet umbrellas on top of all sorts of things. Seats, tables, stacks of newspapers at the newstand. I really don't know if these people are just blissfully oblivious or if they just don't give a damn. One executive who works in my office building always waits until he's inside the lobby and over the polished marble floor before he begins to vigorously fling rain off his umbrella. Hey, Einstein, polished marble + water = slippery for your fellow tenants! Fucking moron.
Let's talk about the metal spikes some more: I hate people who hold their closed umbrellas (in the subway tunnels, for instance) with the spike-tips pointing out and up behind them. Some guy nearly took out my eye this morning! Luckily, I was wearing my glasses, but still.
My umbrella pet peeve is the people who try to open their umbrellas on those narrow subway entrance staircases. (Or leave them open while they descend and then scrape the people behind them when they close them) You won't melt from ten seconds in the rain -- get all the way up the stairs first. I also try to open my automatic umbrella either pointing it down to the ground or holding it way above my head so I avoid hitting people. But if I ever hit someone, I hope I'm nice enough to apologize and not just glare at the person like it's their fault, which I've seen before.
I mean that the floors are cleaner than you think in the sense that putting your umbrella on the floor for a short subway ride won't result in you catching some rare subway floor-borne disease.
Doug - That's true. I guess I wasn't worrying about catching a disease by putting my umbrella on the floor in the first place, but you're right, if that's what people are worried about, then they're definitely worrying too much!
Does anyone remember that incident in Washington state a few years back where two guys accidentally bumped into each other on the street and got into a scuffle? One of the guys rammed his umbrella spike straight into the other one's head, puncturing his brain and killing him instantly. Sheesh.
But I agree with Jen, my pet peeve is the guy who walks up the stairs, his big-ass umbrella (with a big metal spike) under his arm, poking the people behind him. Some people are just utterly clueless.
I just use the nice, small compact kind of umbrella. They fit perfectly into the water bottle pockets on the side of my backpack.
Areacode212 totally has the right idea. The people who feel they have to carry those huge golf umbrellas are the same people who drive an SUVs in the city even when they never have a passenger.
Wet Umbrellas - What a nuisance ! For those of you who are interested there is a solution - see www.ubcusa.com