Riding the tube is a test of faith in humanity.
After all, it takes up to two hours to get ready to board an airplane, but doesn’t that make everyone feel safe?
The security checkpoints in airports are annoying. It’s kind of disgusting to have to walk barefoot through the metal detector, and it’s annoying to have to throw out your water battle. But it assures the passengers that there’s NO WAY anyone’s getting a bomb on that plane. And that’s why people still fly them.
For the London metro system – the “tube” – things are a little different.
First off, nobody’s walking barefoot through there. That’s even more disgusting than at the airport, and if no one’s asking you to (they aren’t), you’re not going to.
Second, bag check? Nope. Bring whatever you feel like onto the tube. A baseball bat? A kitchen sink? A tree? Not a problem. If you really needed to transport an elephant underground, you could probably work something out. I never saw anyone try to bring a weapon onto the Tube, but I am certain it could be done. There are no checkpoints, no searches, no metal detectors.
You wouldn’t imagine then, if you didn’t know, that the Tube was violently bombed just a few years back. It was tragic, and I know whoever did it must not have had a problem getting the bombs onto the trains. Even now, after that disaster, there’s nothing stopping someone from doing it again. Why isn’t London putting in the same security measures that airports have?
Because people still ride.
I haven’t yet figured out why airports experienced such a decline in ticket sales after September 11, 2001, but three years after the London bombings, I can’t get a seat on the Tube. Perhaps it’s something about being in the air that makes people think there’s a chance they’d be able to get off that train, above ground and far, far away if they sensed danger. But something tells me they couldn’t.
When I was a little girl, my dad told me that every time people left their homes, they were taking a risk. That when they walked out the door, they were putting trust in the rest of humanity to take care of them. But he said people take that risk to lead a real, full life, because a life holed up in your house because you’re afraid of the world isn’t much of a life. And I remember that every time I want to complain about how something bad could happen to me. If I wanted to, I could have just stayed at home.
But it’s hard to believe these millions of Tube riders can still find it in their hearts to leave their homes, get on the public transportation system and trust each other. All people have seen that trust violated too many times, and you’d think on the Tube, the memories would be too strong.
Maybe it’s the trust, or maybe it’s convenience.
Perhaps they don’t trust each other at all. Perhaps they tell themselves to “forget” the transgressions from the past, because riding the Tube makes life so much more simple. And cheap. And the city of London doesn’t change a thing, because the people still seem to trust the system.
And it won’t change, either. Not until trains are running empty and the hollow underground echoes. It’s an interesting case study in human habit.
Planes, trains – it’s all personal safety, and to the rest of society, it’s all a matter of trust. e-mail this page back to Student Columns
After all, it takes up to two hours to get ready to board an airplane, but doesn’t that make everyone feel safe?
The security checkpoints in airports are annoying. It’s kind of disgusting to have to walk barefoot through the metal detector, and it’s annoying to have to throw out your water battle. But it assures the passengers that there’s NO WAY anyone’s getting a bomb on that plane. And that’s why people still fly them.
For the London metro system – the “tube” – things are a little different.
First off, nobody’s walking barefoot through there. That’s even more disgusting than at the airport, and if no one’s asking you to (they aren’t), you’re not going to.
Second, bag check? Nope. Bring whatever you feel like onto the tube. A baseball bat? A kitchen sink? A tree? Not a problem. If you really needed to transport an elephant underground, you could probably work something out. I never saw anyone try to bring a weapon onto the Tube, but I am certain it could be done. There are no checkpoints, no searches, no metal detectors.
You wouldn’t imagine then, if you didn’t know, that the Tube was violently bombed just a few years back. It was tragic, and I know whoever did it must not have had a problem getting the bombs onto the trains. Even now, after that disaster, there’s nothing stopping someone from doing it again. Why isn’t London putting in the same security measures that airports have?
Because people still ride.
I haven’t yet figured out why airports experienced such a decline in ticket sales after September 11, 2001, but three years after the London bombings, I can’t get a seat on the Tube. Perhaps it’s something about being in the air that makes people think there’s a chance they’d be able to get off that train, above ground and far, far away if they sensed danger. But something tells me they couldn’t.
When I was a little girl, my dad told me that every time people left their homes, they were taking a risk. That when they walked out the door, they were putting trust in the rest of humanity to take care of them. But he said people take that risk to lead a real, full life, because a life holed up in your house because you’re afraid of the world isn’t much of a life. And I remember that every time I want to complain about how something bad could happen to me. If I wanted to, I could have just stayed at home.
But it’s hard to believe these millions of Tube riders can still find it in their hearts to leave their homes, get on the public transportation system and trust each other. All people have seen that trust violated too many times, and you’d think on the Tube, the memories would be too strong.
Maybe it’s the trust, or maybe it’s convenience.
Perhaps they don’t trust each other at all. Perhaps they tell themselves to “forget” the transgressions from the past, because riding the Tube makes life so much more simple. And cheap. And the city of London doesn’t change a thing, because the people still seem to trust the system.
And it won’t change, either. Not until trains are running empty and the hollow underground echoes. It’s an interesting case study in human habit.
Planes, trains – it’s all personal safety, and to the rest of society, it’s all a matter of trust. e-mail this page back to Student Columns