For this project, I have chosen to observe and understand the social behaviors of people who ride on Caltrain. Caltrain is a commuter rail service that provides transportation from San Francisco to Gilroy. With a total of 32 stations, some available at specific times for specific trains, people living in the Peninsula have the ability to travel up and down the Bay Area. As a Caltrain user myself, I travel from San Mateo (Hayward Park Station) to San Jose (Diridon Station) and back for school.
Because of an increase in traffic and the fuel consumption of my vehicle, I believe that Caltrain is better in terms of saving money. A ride on Caltrain is around $12 right now, and for me, it takes an hour to get to San Jose from San Mateo. Driving takes 30 minutes on a good day, but again I take Caltrain to save money. My 2001 BMW X5 gets about 15 miles to the gallon. It’s about 30 miles to drive from my house to SJSU, so in a day, I would drive about 60 miles. That would burn about 4 gallons every day.
My car holds about 20 gallons of gas, so after a whole week of driving, I would need to refill. Gas is steadily around $3, more or less, so to fill up would cost about $60. $60 for 4 or 5 weeks in a month, would cost me $240 – $300 a month. If I drove, I would also have to pay about $5 every day for parking. Fortunately, Caltrain offers a monthly pass for Clipper Card users, i. e. me, so the cost of a full month of rides is around $190. So every month, by taking Caltrain, I save about $50 – $110 for an extra 30 minutes.
Funny enough, I still need to drive to the Hayward Park Station, in San Mateo where I get on and off, but it only takes about 5 minutes and it has free parking. For that hour on the train, I usually sleep or do homework, which I cannot do in a car. I tend to keep to myself and listen to music on my headphones, building sort of an aloof or antisocial atmosphere, but if someone manages to asks me a question or strikes up a conversation, I would be willing to carry that conversation on or answer the question. But in the end, I would rather not bother people nor have people bother me.
There are also two different kinds of trains that operate on the rails; both are double decker, but the difference is in their structure. The first type is the Bullet train which will skip a number of stops to make the trip quicker, hence the title “Bullet”. The Bullet train usually runs starting at 6 a. m. to 9:30 a. m. and then from 2:40 p. m. to 6:50 p. m. going both ways. This is called “peak hour” where most of the passengers are going to work. It’s kind of like traffic but in the train. The second type of train is the Local Train which stops at every stop.
It starts running at intervals from 4:30 a. m. to 5:25 a. m. , 9:15 a. m. to 3:00 p. m. and then again from 6:50 p. m. to 12 a. m. Another thing to mention is that the trains run at 45 minutes to 1 hour intervals. So if you miss a train, you would probably have to wait around an hour before the next one comes. The structure of the Bullet’s passenger cars is different compared to the Local passenger cars in that it allows it to hold more people and it has tables for people to work on and outlets to recharge devices.
It is also more aerodynamic, allowing the whole train to travel faster and consume less fuel. Sometimes, the passenger cars will switch around to accommodate with the different flow of passengers which may occur when there is a Giant’s game, 49’ers game and/or Shark’s game. I tend to ride on the Local trains as it is the only train that fits with my concurrent class schedule. Riding on the Bullet trains to school would require me to arrive way too early, and riding back home on one would require me to skip class or leave early on some days, and leave later on others.
For both trains, I have a specific seat that I like to sit in every time I board. On the local train, it would be the bay side of the car, essentially the right side if you are facing north, and the 4th seat from the entrance facing forward. The Local trains are made so that one-half of the train faces south, while the other faces north. I tend to be on the north side, but sometimes there will be a lot of people on the north side, forcing me to sit on the south side, which I have no problem with.
On the Bullet, I like to sit in the last car all the way in the back or all the way in the front, depending on which way I’m going. I like to sit in the front of the train when going south (the front is the direction the train is going; it doesn’t have to be where the locomotive is) because the entrance to the underground passageway in San Jose is closest to first car when you get off. Going north, I like to sit in the back of the train because it’s closest to the exit of the station, which in turn is closer to my car, saving time and making things more convenient.
Methodology: Now, because I thoroughly know my reasons for taking Caltrain and my own behaviors, I came to an understanding of what to look for when observing others and what to ask them. I wanted to be able to get more coverage of different people so I committed myself to board the train, both north and south , at different times. I couldn’t exactly ride the train everywhere, at every time and every day though, due to my monthly pass restricting me to travel specifically between Hayward Park and San Jose, so all my observations are not entirely complete.
After observing, I went a little deeper into understanding people by asking them a few question and doing a brief interview. Observation: Starting at Hayward Park, I would take into account how many people boarded the train and how many people got off. As Hayward Park is a small station, not many people would get on or off. I come to the station 5-10 minutes before the train is scheduled to arrive so as not to be late. I have arrived 20 minutes, before the train arrived, a few times and no one was at the station.
People tend to start coming around 10 minutes before the train arrives, and the numbers vary from 5 people, around 11 a. m. and after 7 p. m. , to 20 people during peak hours. This situation is similar for: Belmont, San Carlos, Menlo Park, California Avenue, San Antonio, Sunnyvale, and Lawrence. From Hayward Park to San Jose, the most popular stations, or the stations that have the most pick up/drop off rates are: Redwood City, Palo Alto and San Jose, which have very high rates of 20-50 people, and sometimes even more, getting off and on, albeit at different times of the day.
Of course, to properly observe people on a train, I can’t be sitting in my usual spot all the time, so I moved around the train a lot for three weeks. I’ve never really been to other parts of the train before, but I really got a good understanding of the seating arrangements that people grow accustomed to. For example, it seems people are more comfortable in facing in the direction they are moving, so more people are found sitting on the north side of the car (with seats facing the south) when going south and vice versa.
So if you know the train is going to be a bit crowded, and you don’t mind the spacial distortion of movement, then your best bet in finding a seat would be to go to the opposite part of the car in the direction which the train is moving. Another fascinating observation is that there are two bathrooms, one for handicapped people and a smaller one not meant for handicapped people. Each bathroom is in the north car on different ends, and hardly anyone sits near them, probably because of the foul odor that leaks out.
I’ve taken Caltrain for 2 years now, and I would look around every now and then to take in my surroundings and the people in the car, so some quirks that people tend to do are as follows: putting their bags or luggage in an empty seat next to them, never sitting next to someone unless they possibly know them or when it’s extremely crowded, playing or reading on their phones, newspapers or magazines, listening to music or sleeping, standing or moving to the exit of the train when their stop is next, and looking out the window.
Everybody keeps to themselves and very rarely socializes. If there are people socializing, you can only assume they are acquaintances. My favorite moments to witness are when people get into trouble. The scariest people on the train are the attendants who open the doors to the train and walk around to make sure everything is going fine. What makes them scary is their duty to check people’s passes and tickets because if you don’t have a pass or a ticket, you essentially get kicked off the train or have to pay a fine.
I’ve been kicked off a few times because I forgot my wallet (which holds my Clipper Card) at home, but I’ve never had to pay a fine, so I’ve always questioned that threat. Sometimes the attendant is nice and they’ll let you tag on (if you have a Clipper Card) or buy a ticket at the next stop. Interview: A lot of the interviews where like surveys, but instead of handing out a paper to people, I just started with asking them if they could answer some of my questions. A majority of the transcripts look like this: Sage: Hi, excuse me. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?
Passenger: Sure. Sage: Alright, my name is Sage and I would like to know why you are taking the train? Passenger: I go to school (at SJSU, SCU, Stanford) / work (in San Jose, Palo Alto, Redwood City) and I don’t want to drive through traffic because of my schedule, so I’d rather take the train. Sage: Where are you coming from? Passenger: I’m coming from (San Francisco, Millbrae, San Mateo, Hillsdale, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Mountain View). Sage: How often do you take the train? Passenger: About (2-4) times a week. It’s a lot more convenient/cheaper than driving.
Sage: Why are you sitting here? (< Favorite question) And this is where the conversation gets more diversity. The main response I got was, “Because no one else was sitting here (awkward shifting of eyes that tell me what other reason is there? ,” but I also got responses like, “I get motion sickness if I’m facing the backwards from where I’m going,” and, “The sun at this time of the day is on that side, so I sit on this side to avoid the glare. ” I know I said that people have this antisocial behavior like I usually exhibit, but when approached, most people will open up and cooperate.
One elderly woman I was talking to about the antisocial behaviors of people told me, “I’m pretty sure that’s normal. It’s hard to talk to strangers, especially when you get older and no one wants to listen to you… I think it’s hard for people to try and make friends who they may not see again. ” This lady was taking the train to Sunnyvale to see one of her friends who lives near the station. She takes the train at least twice a month, and usually it’s to see friends or family. But the insight of the elderly really gave me a new perspective in understanding human behavior in general.
The train ride is only for an hour, longer for some, shorter for other, but it’s only a moment in our lives. You can’t get to know someone in those hours that you have together, so the only way to really get to know each other is if both individuals take the train at the same time frequently. People tend to not want to put effort into something that won’t last. They would feel that it’s wasted effort, so they don’t try at all. I’ve been trying to break this recently by taking notice of people that are in the same places every time I ride the train.
If I could find someone that rides the train as frequently as I do and at the same time, then making friends or at least being social is a possibility. Another experiment I’ve been trying is the “Bless You” bandwagon. I’ve noticed that no one says “Bless you” when someone sneezes, and it’s a common courtesy to say “bless you,” so I started saying it to see who else will say when someone consecutively sneezes. Unfortunately, the bandwagon is harder to start than I anticipated and couldn’t get anyone to join so far. But the observation continues.
During a few of my interviews in the bathroom car, I would ask the interviewees if they smell something funny, to which some responded, “No. ” The one’s that said “Yes” would add, “But it doesn’t bother me. ” None of them admitted to not being able to smell, but one man who replied “yes” said he used to work as a school janitor, which made me believe his comment that it didn’t bother him. He was currently working as a security guard for a company in Palo Alto and took the train because his car was getting repaired.
Once his car is fixed, the chances of running into him will decrease, and this made me understand that bonds like friendship take a lot of time to make. You won’t want to put effort into something you know won’t happen. This topic of human behavior in public transportation, specifically trains, is an example of a culture in a more modern, Bay Area society. It’s actually ironic how I said that we behave aloof and antisocial when on board a train. Compared to the San who are a part of a close-knit society, when strangers approach them, they tend to move away.
In our society in Caltrain, we are enclosed in a box and can’t really move away. If someone were to approach you, you would have to acknowledge them and respond accordingly. I know some people tried to ignore me at first when I asked for an interview, but they eventually responded and went along with it. But in a way, if the San were put in a situation where they couldn’t move away, like if they were put in a cave with no exit, I’m pretty sure they would just sit around and ignore each other, just like how people do on the train.