The Little Book of Tube etiquette: just fun or social commentary?

David Sexton's article in the Evening Standard on 24 February 2011 'All aboard the sardine can' discusses the behaviours of people on the tube.

He talks about the number of London Underground journeys potentially rising to a record 1.1 billion this year - 4 million every weekday with further rises of 7% every year.

This is a scary fact - one that will make regular commuters shudder at the prospect of our journeys to work becoming even more cramped and uncomfortable in what is already, let's face it, a constant invasion of our intimate personal space.

He also talks about The Little Book of Tube Etiquette as a jokey new guide but dismisses the notion of 'tube etiquette' as a misnomer because 'etiquette implies that there are social norms at work, imposed by a dominant group'. If we look at this description, Sexton is absolutely bang on. 

There are no social norms on the tube and the behaviours of tube users are at times baffling to me (and others).  My book is by no means meant to be a social commentary that, I think, Sexton is calling out for in his article. 

Rather, I have created a book which is basically a wish list for the way, in an ideal worrld, tube users would behave.  However, at no point is this meant to be a serious tome. It is, as Sexton rightly believes, my hopelessly enraged denunciations of what gets my goat as a commuter.

But what I also hope the book is however, is something that all commuters can identify with. It may be my 'hopelessly enraged denunciations' but it probably strikes a chord with others who feel the same way. People at my workplace (and, I'm sure, at others) often gather round the kitchen areas, drinking coffee, and complaining about their journey to work.

The Little Book of Tube Etiquette is meant to put these complaints and conversations into an observational humorous coffee table book.  Sexton needs a book that is a social commentary into why we behave as we do, and that's for someone to write with more of an interest in the drivers for behaviour, which isn't the theme of most of my coffee morning tube-related rants and chats. 

Sexton is right, most commuters just want to get to work as painlessly as possible and resort to playing one's music louder to block out the lack of personal space, but then this creates less personal space for others.

Let's face it, while we want a painless commute, we are never going to get it, particularly as the tube becomes steadfastly more cramped. I do accept this but this does not mean we all won't moan about it nevertheless.

I am happy to look at what simply annoys me about the lack of tube etiquette and make fun of it.

Perhaps my next book should delve deeper - but then, where's the fun in that?