Manners: How to Behave Underground, or Subways Are Not for Sleeping

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For 4,600,000 passengers a day, the New York City subway system offers the world's longest ride. Last week, to make that ride pleasanter, the Transit Authority issued a list of 39 new, delicately detailed rules regulating the behavior of passengers both on trains and in stations, and for good measure, on buses as well.

To judge from some of the rules, the city's subway riders are not only surly but strange. Among the prohibited activities: riding on the roof, waving a flag, making a speech, bringing aboard dirty clothing or bedding (subways are not for sleeping). Also forbidden: holding a meeting, singing, dancing or playing a musical instrument, and changing into a bathing suit in a station rest room. The rules may be ticklers but they are no joke: violators face $25 fines and ten days in jail.