The rarity of the good, the typical news of the bad, and the inevitable of the ugly. I am speaking of none other than Chicago public transportation (CTA). I never had the joy and discomfort of riding of it until I moved to Chicago for college. I have seen fights/screaming matches, laughter, people falling in love, and random acts of kindness on the many many trips on bus or train CTA. These are just a few of the typical types of scenarios you will see or probably have seen on your own CTA endeavors.

1. Fights

These are most commonly scene one the trains and buses close to sports stadiums like Wrigley Field. They are most definitely induced by defeat and the mass amounts of alcohol they people involved have consumed. The worst I have ever seen is drunk homeless man and an extremely drunk sports fan start shoving each other over spilled beer and on top of that they were swearing a bunch, and it was also still early enough in the night that there were several children to bare witness to it all. The people that par-take in these things soon become the most hated people on the train or bus because they are disturbing the peace, and in some cases making bad impressions on young kids.

2. All the Laughs

One of the nice, but sometimes annoying things about riding the CTA is the noise. That noise ranges from babies crying, people yell fighting, and people’s laughs. I almost 99.9% of the time love hearing laughter on the CTA because that means that through the closeness, the crowds, and the constant stopping and starting someone is enjoying themselves enough to laugh and share the uniqueness of their laugh with their fellow passengers. The .01% when I don’t like hearing it is when someone is obnoxiously cackling and no one else is laughing and they take forever to stop. These types of people will either cause smiles or rolling eyes across the people’s faces who share the bus or train with them.
 

3. Rose Colored Glasses

I have recently seen this most often on the CTA. A couple are sitting or standing close to one another whispering conversations and looking into each other’s eyes with nothing but hearts in their own. These types of people make you wish your significant other was next to you, and if you are single it sets off a twinge of jealousy. There is also a second type of these couples and those are the ones that are making out or basically having sex on the train/bus for everyone to see and those are the ones that everyone does not appreciate, so if you and your partner fall into this category please stop.

4. Kindness Does Exist

This is the rarest thing I see on the train or bus. I haven’t done this as much as I would like to admit nor have I seen it very often. The greatest act of kindness I saw was a man, who had multiple heavy bags with him, give up his seat and hold his bags so an elderly couple could sit. They were probably in their mid 80s and neither of them could stand during the crowded train ride. This was such a kind thing to do, but as I stood in the corner it saddened me too because he was the ONLY ONE that got up, not the 15 year-olds that just got out of school but this adult man with heavy bags to carry. I see and do these acts on the rarity, but I do hope that myself and others catch on because if more people would act like this the CTA would be a million times more pleasant of a ride.

The CTA is a great idea and business ran by Chicago. It allows so many of us to save hundreds of thousands of dollars and stress that owning a car in the city would entail. It has a lot of room for improvement in the technicalities and in the cleanliness of it, but the people who ride it are the true deciding factor on if it’s a nice ride or not; so let’s do each other a favor and stop fighting, continue laughing, keep PDA to a minimum, and be kind to one another.