Just wondering why there is a ban on eating and drinking on the MRT, but I have notice the increase of people carrying their half drank Starbucks, 7/11 slurpies or Pearl Milk Teas onto the MRT.
Surely if the MRT people were concerned about people making a mess in the MRT system, isn’t there just the same amount of chance for people to spill their drinks as if they were drinking their drinks in the MRT.
It is strange as you can eat and drink on the subways in Tokyo and Seoul, they even have shops and kiosks on the platforms so you can by stuff.
I have been caught twice by MRT security with gum (luckily no fine), and have also had two passengers on two seperate occasions tell me you cannot chew gum on the MRT, once in almost perfect English. But I try and only do small chews when on the MRT, while I have seen others standing next to me chewing with their mouth wide open like a cow with a mouthful of grass, but I have never seen anyone else pulled up for chewing, or going back to my initial question, bringing drinks into the MRT system…
[quote=“TaipeiSean”]Just wondering why there is a ban on eating and drinking on the MRT, but I have notice the increase of people carrying their half drank Starbucks, 7/11 slurpies or Pearl Milk Teas onto the MRT.
Surely if the MRT people were concerned about people making a mess in the MRT system, isn’t there just the same amount of chance for people to spill their drinks as if they were drinking their drinks in the MRT.[/quote]
Depends on the container / drink, i.e. it it has a cap, you drink it with a straw or it’s open etc. To make it fair / consistent it’s prohibited in general.
I am fine with the fact that no food and drinks are allowed, after all it’s not like you take trips on the MRT that take several hours. In HK it’s not allowed either btw.
I took a pic on my cellphone of the couple sitting with their Starbucks, but I can’t get it onto my computer at the moment. Most drinks I have noticed lately have been in the cups like from the numerous juice and tea shops around and they are half drank with the straw in the top. Ha, I know what a mess one of those can make on the floor. My boy has dropped them at home more than once. And Slurpies, they aren’t sealed too well. Sure a plastice bottle with a screw on cap should be fine.
I also think it is good that there is no eating on there too. I only started being brave enough to chew gum after I saw others… You know, the old “Do as the Romans do…”
I couldn’t remember about th HK MRT so I didn’t mention that one, but I was in Korea last month and Tokyo and Osaka last year, so I remember that clearly.
Anyway, not really my problem if they make a mess (unless it goes on me), I was just wondering why you can carry but not eat, especially since lately they have also started plastering the trains with silly little cartoons about MRT etiquette, and some of them are about eating.
I have been caught twice by MRT security with gum (luckily no fine), and have also had two passengers on two separate occasions tell me you cannot chew gum on the MRT, once in almost perfect English. But I try and only do small chews when on the MRT, while I have seen others standing next to me chewing with their mouth wide open like a cow with a mouthful of grass, but I have never seen anyone else pulled up for chewing, or going back to my initial question, bringing drinks into the MRT system…[/quote]
That’s funny. I once had that happen to me also. I father pushed his son in my direction and instructed him to tell the “dirty” foreigner that gum wasn’t allowed. Luckly, the son left out the “dirty” part.
No eating or drinking should be allowed. If you could only see how dirty the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) buses and trains are not to mention the stench from urine and whatever else is dropped, sticky fabric seats with pop spilled on them, and gum ground in…ARRRRRG…
I’m not sure whether I think it should be allowed or not, but I always have a bottle of Supao on the MRT (because I always have one wherever I go), and have never been stopped for it.
It’s a good thing, try taking the tube in London and you’ll see what kind of a mess people make. Gum I guess is ok, but I think they’re concerned about people not disposing of it properly, which often happens, as it’s easy to drop it on the floor, stick it under or even on a seat etc…
Besides, would you want someone sitting next to you eating their chodofu dinner? I rather not, chips on the bus in the UK was bad enough, that rancid vinegar smell still haunts me
MRT cop in Danshui berated my friend about bringing her bubble tea through the gate & tried to get her to sign a ticket for a fine. Once we convinced him we didn’t quite understand what he was saying (she’s Japanese & my Mandarin doesn’t yet extend to mumbled half-Taiwanese MRT cop muck) Finally figured out it was ok if she carried it in the little plastic baggie, which really didn’t make much sense, but seemed to make him happy (I wondered what the hell purpose those are supposed to serve … now I know!).
I think it’s a perfectly good rule & glad most people follow it. The chou-doufu example is a great one. I don’t think you can get that smell out - the entire system would reek permanently inside a month
Thank god food and drink are not allowed on the MRT, otherwise the place will look and smell like the local night market at night or like a breakfast place in the morning. There are 2 things Taiwanese people can do anywhere, eating and sleeping, I really would hate to have to ride the MRT sitting next to some bloke eating dry fish at nine in the morning.
Yeah, WTF is UP with that?
What, the whole fucking nation is diabetic/hypoglycemic??
Dude, do you really HAVE TO eat that RIGHT FUCKING NOW?!?!?
Sitting on your scooter waiting for the light?
Walking down a crowded street? Sitting across from me on the bus?
I’m profoundly grateful that there’s one
single
place
where I can be guaranteed to not have to deal with it.
this makes good sense…it would be inhumane to stop someone drinking water on a 1 hour ride to tamsui from nangang…especially if you have a bad cough or something or was already close to sunstroke (ie coming back from the beach).
registered alcoholics should also be allowed to sip a beer i reckon
You could just imagine the trains if they allowed eating. In summer. They['d be crammed full of cheapo office workers riding around while chowing down on their biandangs taking in the cheap aircon. Bastards would skip back off at the stop they got on at and avoid the fare leaving a trail of mangled animal bits, styrofoam and splayed chopsticks. Real horror show.
I used to take drinks with me on the MRT all the time, but just didn’t drink them - using the logic that eating and drinking were not allowed, but they never said anything against carrying a drink.
Chewing gum is outlawed only because, in Mandarin, people ‘chi’ gum, using the same verb as ‘to eat.’ I’ve seen signs in Chinese that only said ‘no eating or drinking’ that had a paired English sign with ‘no gum chewing’ added, presumably because some bright spark knew that the foreigners would otherwise be getting away with something.
the recorded announcement they play (crossing Jilong River near YuanShan, and between SunYatSen memorial and ZhongXiao-DunHua) remkinds people not to eat , drink, or chew binlang (the Mandarin/Taiwanese versions) or chew gum (the English version).
chewing gum and chewing binlang are equivalents…
of course it’s good to have an eating/drinking ban: it makes the place smell better, stops litter, prevents cockroaches getting established, and stops spillage. harder to spill a drink if it’s in a bag than if it’s being sipped.
there’s a rule in the HK MTR, and smallish signs in every car (they need to make those signs more prominent at eye level in BIG letters).
I notice most of those people who ignore this are Chinese tourists
Some HK office workers from time to time
most of the time, it’s parents feeding their kids (which I can be sympathetic about) and the parents usually are good about picking up the dropped bits.
but there was this one time, some stupid Brit woman tourist coming from the Disneyland stop, dropped her bottle of coke, spilled half of it on the ground, and then left the train. That stuff is sticky too, so everyone who walked on it spread it some more (and because of the motion of the train, it was all over the floor). Nice.
This is my exact point of wondering why “No eating or drinking” but you can carry your half drank JunJoo Nie Cha on the train. At the train station there is a yellow line painted before entering the turnstiles and it says “No Eating or Drinking past this point”. Well true they aren’t eating or drinking, just carrying the half drank drink. There is just as much chance of spilling the thing when you are either drinking or just carrying it. Some people do keep it in their little plastic bag, but plenty don’t. That’s what I noticed making me wonder and pose this question on this burning social issue.
Ha, Durians are banned from being taken on the Singapore subway. Imagine a train with someone eating Cho Tofu…
I am sure the announcement says both “binglung” and “Ko Shiang Tung”. But I guess only chewing gum in English as they don’t think us foreigners enjoy that wonderful red delicacy… But the LED light message inside the door does say Beetle Nut.
I am glad too it is banned. Some smells I just can’t stomach in the mornings and some anytime. But also, the MRT is one of the cleaner and more orderly places here in Taipei. It is kinda strange how more people can follow rules in the MRT than anywhere else in Taipei. Like, line up to swipe your card to get out of the MRT station but then fight and push to get on the bus and swipe your card…
I attribute that to the MRT being relatively new, so if you set up new rules in a new place, there’s little resistance, because no habits have been set, and the people can accept it as being “the rules”. Try this on other places and old habits, and you get nothing. human nature i suppose.
I think this little microcosm of civic-mindedness is fantastic! Where else in Taiwan will ordinary citizens ask that you follow the rules? I love how clean the MRT is and how there is never gum on the seats, sticky coke on the floor, or stinky food smells.
I especially love seeing people remind each other to follow the rules. I hope this will gradually expand from the MRT and people will start to take pride in keeping other parts of Taiwan clean as well.
One can only hope.
