T villains

Regular readers of Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun know that I'm a regular rider of the T, and it's my firm belief that the Green Line is like a rolling crucible of the soul. I've dedicated a number of posts to exposing particularly heinous violators of what I believe to be the unwritten code of not just T-riding, but of existing in our society in general.

Add stroller pushers to the list of offenders.

I love little kids. Everybody knows that. This isn't about babies, infants, toddlers, or youngsters of any stripe. This is about the people responsible for looking out for our tiny little friends. I was just at Government Center, in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, and the station was packed. I got on an empty B train, and no less than three strollers got on. I'm not talking tiny ones, either. I'm talking the huge, Galactic Empire starship–sized ones. One of them had a giant helium balloon tied to it! Suffice it to say, these things took up a TON of space. One of them was parked in the aisle, forcing people that wanted to get off to contort their arms and legs into ridiculous and unnatural positions in order to navigate around this monstrosity.

The most offensive thing was, these strollers weren't carrying around one-month olds. All of these kids were perfectly capable of walking, or at the very least standing on their own two feet. The most offensive thing was, the only woman that actually had the decency to fold up her stroller into a more compact state had the smallest kid!

They don't allow bikes on the Green Line. A giant stroller is AT LEAST as obtrusive as a bicycle, if not moreso. So where's the restriction? I understand that you need a stroller to push your kid around. But is it too much to ask that these things get folded up before the train starts moving? Of course not. Make room for everybody, Stroller Pushers! Riding the T is bad enough. We don't need to be pinched up against the wall by some huge, AT-AT–esque tank.