Paris Metro System Forced to Admit Parisians Act Like Jerks

If you've ever wondered why Parisians often look grumpy or poker-faced on the Metro, a survey commissioned recently by Paris transport bosses could help explain why. The study, published this summer by city transport authority RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens), found that the French capital’s network is blighted by an epidemic of the sort of rude behavior that would put anyone’s back up. From all Parisian passengers questioned, 97 percent said they’d witnessed rule-breaking and impoliteness from their fellow Metro and bus passengers at least once in the past month. As a result, the RATP has been trying to shame selfish transport users into better behavior by running an ongoing advertising campaign (featured below) that portrays them as animals.

The campaign might seem to feed the tired (and unjust) prejudice that Parisians are a bunch of connards, but the petty annoyances RATP's survey records will be familiar to any public transit user. Public enemy number one, said respondents, was people talking loudly on the phone (86 percent had experienced this in the past month), followed closely by fare dodgers jumping ticket barriers (83 percent had seen this) and riders blocking people’s way (76 percent). Standing still on the left side of escalators was also frustratingly common (75 percent), as was eating in cars (73 percent), and pushing people without apologizing (71 percent).