Reverse Culture Shock

I don’t envy my friends in London, struggling with another tube strike. On Facebook, it was the only subject anyone in London had anything to post about.

Here in Atlanta, I am impressed by the MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority). It’s clean, air-conditioned, and has working elevators that don’t smell of urine.

When I told mothers in my play group that I had had a positive experience with the MARTA, they gave me blank looks. None of them had taken the MARTA, even though they had lived in the city for years.

My Dad took it to the airport when he came to visit (his stay with us coincided with our daughter’s lice attack, so driving him to the airport was just not possible). He loved it. As a New Yorker with 50-odd years of subway riding experience, he wisely proclaimed: “It’s the only way to get to the airport.”

That prompted a tirade about why New York should have a subway that goes all the way to the airport, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish.

I suppose my fellow play group moms don’t feel the need for the MARTA, because they all have cars. In London, millions of people — myself included –don’t have cars, and have to take public transport.

That’s why this sign from London Underground, thanking riders for taking the tube, makes me laugh. On principle, the high cost of a ticket (nearly $5), the seemingly annual strikes, the almost constant stoppages, might deter tube travelers, except for one thing — they don’t have a choice!