Here's my biggest Metro (that's the DC subway) pet peeve. Even bigger than people who stand on the left side of the escalator. I'm sitting in my aisle seat next to a stranger. We pull out of a station and chug along for a minute or so. This stranger noisily folds up his newspaper and leans forward a little in his seat. The train keeps chugging along. The stranger puts one hand on top of the seat in front of him, and one hand on his own seat back. The train chugs. I notice that my neighbor is getting antsy, but I keep reading my book. After all, the train is still chugging.

But then, he says to me, "Excuse me please." The train is still chugging along. We're sitting 7 feet away from the door--a distance that can be traveled by an average human adult in approximately 1.8 seconds. Yet my friend here feels the need to make me stand up in a moving train and let him out so he can walk over to the door and "be ready" when it's his stop.

It's not always easy to stand up in a moving train. Especially if he waits till the train is actually pulling into the station and it's slowing down. Inertia makes anyone stumble in that situation, especially someone just standing up.

If he would just wait till the train comes to a complete stop, I'd be glad to get up to let him out. He might make it to his destination 1.8 seconds later, but in truth, he can easily make that time up by hustling just a little up the escalator (assuming no one is standing on the left). And more often than not, he can get from the seat to the door before the door opens, even if he doesn't stand up till the train comes to a complete stop. Thus, he loses no time at all.

Metro has an ad campaign going on promoting courtesy. They have signs that give a dictionary-like definition of some made-up word like "conseaterate" (mindful of those who need the special seats by the door) or "escalump" (someone who blocks an escalator). I need to get them to add "ainxshove" to the campaign.