Montréal Metro Riders More Polite Than Politicians (how hard can that be?)

So, thirteen days in, has anyone kept to their New Year’s resolution? Diets, exercise, good will… all are available at a surplus in early January. Hold on to what you can find, though, because they will be collectors’ items in a few short weeks.

The change of the calendar by no means endows us with any more will-power or discipline than we had in months previous. Yet, there is something about a whole new year that can inspire people to take that step. One would hope that with so many good intentions out there, society might change for the better. A tall order, you say? A grandiose suggestion? Indeed. We’re all so hell-bent on self-improvement, so why does it seem people are getting more and more individualistic, hiding under their ear-pods, shuffling by becoming experts on sidewalk construction, grunting like pre-historic pre-teens? We need to make a species-wide New Year’s resolution—to resolve to be more polite.

Even in a city like Montréal, where everyone is mostly perfect, or pretends to be, there is always room for a civic upgrade. In general, I find this town to be pretty communal. People smile on the street, they say hi, or bonjour, hold doors open, and are generally agreeable. The one vice Montréalers seem to have is the impatient habit of not waiting for people to get off the metro before they crowd on. It is the oddest of phenomena in this supposedly-better-than-Toronto, European-minded city. Even in the grumpy Big Smoke, riders wait for their co-patrons to exit the subway car before moving in. Not so in Montréal! Until now.

For that has been the Montréaler’s resolution—to resolve to not push into metro cars before everyone else has got off. It seems that our collective will has decided that this is to be the year. And, so far, so good. It is as if some force has overcome us. My fellow commuters look as surprised as I do when, as the doors open, we stand aside and…wait. Those exiting the train peer curiously from the doors, elbows raised. Where is the crush? They put out a tentative foot: tap, tap, tap…what’s that? The platform! And then the rush from the rest as we, the embarkers, stand, amazed at our own adhesiveness in the face of those open doors.

Really. It’s weird. I’m glad to see it though. A better world, one metro stop at a time.