I was at Columbia this afternoon waiting to change trains. I was standing just outside the open doors of the train I wasn't taking when I spotted a guy running up the stairs obviously trying to catch the train, and he was not going to make it. So I stuck my arm in the train door to hold it open for him. Now the transit officials don't much like when you do this sort of thing, but they weren't around, and besides, by now, the number of times I wish someone had done this for me is probably higher than I care to count. He made it onto the train, and I choose to believe his day was better for it.
Now if I was a proper feminist, here is where I go on a rant about how he called me "sweetheart" as he got on the train. However, I'm not a proper feminist, so it didn't really bother me; also, I am a jaded transit rider used to dealing with people who are frequently rude and obnoxious, and what really caught my attention was that what preceded that "sweetheart" was "thanks". There's a word you don't hear nearly enough on transit. He also sounded genuinely surprised that someone would hold the door for him, which he shouldn't be if people would just follow the ultimate transit rule: "Make transit suck less for others, not more."
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