I was sitting in my favorite seat, looking over old photographs in my phone. I came upon one from my trip back to Los Angeles in summer 2011:
Traffic, I do not miss you. Sitting in traffic alone, you suffer an isolating feeling. Yes you are surrounded by people of like minds, but you're separated by white lines, heavy metals weighing up to 2 metric tons, and personalized music that allows you to stay in your own world. It's rare to make eye contact with another, or even a smile.
It is even more worrying when one steps onto a busy Tube train, and the isolation continues. You are touching others, you are right next to many people yet it still feels as though people are dividing themselves with white lines and 2 metric ton boxes. How sad it has become that if you get a cheerful smile from a stranger once, that is out of the norm.
In the opening scene of Crash - Don Cheadle's character is quoted saying,
"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."
I feel now that this is lack of human interaction has spread widely to most large cities. With new technology of iphones, ipads, kindles, mp3 players - it has become easier to ignore those around you and get distracted with the fun toy in hand.
Now more than ever is the time to raise attention to SMILE. JOY. BLISS. HAPPY. in public transport. To create Joy in Movement.
Look up. Smile.
