The Tourons are out so it must be summer
DC is a place of order and courtesy, civilized people leading civilized lives. Then come the Tourons. Touron is short for Tourist Moron. Take the Metro for instance like 700,000 of us do every day. Quiet, clean and orderly until the Tourons arrive and then it is children swinging from the poles screaming. Escalators have a simple rule stand to the right and walk to the left. I have never seen it posted but it is just something everyone knows, everyone except the Tourons. DC is one of the most livable cities in the world because most of us follow the unwritten rules.
Still we love them since without the Tourons and all they come to see we would be boring, that and they spend like crazy. After 911 they stopped coming for awhile and this town suffered. So what can I say but, “ Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses and let them drive us crazy here in civilization.”
The body text was lost in an error so I will try to post it here:
DC is a place of order and courtesy, civilized people leading civilized lives. Then come the Tourons. Touron is short for Tourist Moron. Take the Metro for instance like 700,000 of us do every day. Quiet, clean and orderly until the Tourons arrive and then it is children swinging from the poles screaming. Escalators have a simple rule stand to the right and walk to the left. I have never seen it posted but it is just something everyone knows, everyone except the Tourons. DC is one of the most livable cities in the world because most of us follow the unwritten rules.
Still we love them since without the Tourons and all they come to see we would be boring, that and they spend like crazy. After 911 they stopped coming for awhile and this town suffered. So what can I say but, “ Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses and let them drive us crazy here in civilization.”
I feel your pain. The Tourons are the source of misery and discontent at Metro Center each day. I swear….between them and the Tour Buses….
Regarding the stand to the right, walk to the left rule: Metro used to have signs advocating this, but no longer do. I think the reason they took them down had something to do with safety, but I don’t remember too clearly. Basically, there is no reason tourists would know this vital piece of info, at least anymore.
Personally, I don’t mind if it’s a family, and I can just say “excuse me” to get by. It’s a whole other story when it comes to large school groups, etc. I rember seeing a school group being led on a school cheer while they were on the escalator. I guess it was crowd control on the teacher’s part, but I pitied the poor folks behind them on the escalator, wanting to get past.
They took it down because technically, walking on the escalators is a safety hazard and they didn’t want some liability lawyer thinking they were condoning such behavior.
Though I think the tourons could probably figure it out by watching other people on the escalators. But that’s not my biggest touron pet peeve. My issue is the people who get off the escalator or train and immediately stop, thereby causing a huge traffic jam as the residents try to avoid running smack into them while we’re all trying to get on with our lives. People! Walk to the wall side of the platform before looking at your map!