Boarding crowded trains

Day 152: Boarding crowded trains. Practical drills you can run on your commute today. Week 22 of the year-long curriculum. Here are the rules for this one. Here's the split-second that matters: a Hudson Yards plaza in glaring sun. Lean on the same rule you'd use anywhere else. Boarding etiquette is a safety system: let riders off, board with intent, and don't hold doors. The whole platform depends on it. Make it a habit by the end of this week. Three things to do. Do 1: Stand to the side of the doors and let everyone exit first. Do 2: Step in decisively and move toward the center of the car. Do 3: Watch the gap between platform and train when boarding. Three things to avoid. Avoid 1: Pushing onto the train before riders have exited. Avoid 2: Holding the doors open for one more person. Avoid 3: Boarding the last car alone late at night. Why this matters: Held doors and shove-boarding cause platform-edge incidents and the closing-door injuries the MTA tracks every month. Risky move: Crossing while a delivery e-bike is approaching at speed. E-bikes are faster and quieter than they look. Let them pass first. Safe move: Letting passengers exit the subway car before stepping on. Prevents the shoving that pushes people toward the platform edge. Risky move: Darting out from between two parked vans. Drivers cannot see you and you cannot see them. Classic dart-out collision. Safe move: Letting a right-turning truck complete its turn before stepping off. Removes you from the truck's huge right-side blind spot. Risky move: Standing at the edge of the platform with toes over the yellow strip. A bump or a gust from an approaching train can pull you forward. Stay behind the tactile strip. Safe move: Holding kids' hands and keeping them on the inside of the sidewalk. Puts an adult between them and the curb — the simplest, strongest protection. Risky move: Hopping off the curb to wave down a cab in a moving lane. Drivers behind the cab won't expect a pedestrian in the lane. Wait at the curb. Risky move: Trusting a turn signal as a promise the driver will yield. A blinker shows intent, not yielding. Wait until the vehicle actually slows. Risky move: Stepping into a crosswalk while a driver is staring at their phone. If their eyes aren't up, treat the car as if it has no driver. Wait. Safe move: Standing behind the tactile strip until the train fully stops. Keeps you outside the danger zone for sway, suction, and the platform gap. Risky move: Stepping straight into a bike lane to look for cars. Treat the bike lane as its own crossing. Check it before you step in. Safe move: Waiting on the curb until the steady white walker appears. Steady walker is your green light. Cross at a normal pace. Risky move: Crossing in front of a stopped school bus that still has its stop arm out. Kids are crossing or about to cross. Wait for the arm to retract. Safe move: Crossing only at the marked crosswalk even if it adds 20 seconds. Drivers expect pedestrians at corners and almost never expect them mid-block. Risky move: Walking out from behind a tall SUV without leaning to look first. Drivers in the next lane can't see you and you can't see them — a classic blind-pull collision. Safe move: Stepping back when a cyclist rings a bell behind you. A bell is a request for space. Giving it prevents a sudden swerve into traffic. Risky move: Crossing a one-way street while only looking the way cars come. Cyclists, scooters, and wrong-way drivers come from the other side too. Safe move: Walking an extra block to a lit, signaled corner after dark. Lighting plus a signal dramatically cuts your risk at night. Risky move: Walking next to a truck that has its right turn signal on. Truck right turns are the deadliest interaction for pedestrians. Stop and let it pass. Safe move: Pausing audio before stepping into the crosswalk. A second of silence is cheap insurance against the thing you did not see. Watch the clip, then decide which of these reads is the safer call for boarding crowded trains.