AIBU for getting the rage at people who walk through the (open) barrier?

[CustardLover]

My local tube station (London Zone 3) has only got two little gates which means that when the herd piles off the trains at 6.30/7, there are queues on the platform to get through. This means that the gates are often left open, although the scanner still registers your oyster card / travel card.

Now, as users of London Underground will know, if you fail to check out again after checking in at the beginning a journey, LU will default bill your card for the maximum possible journey price, even if you're not liable for it, so even though the gates are open, most people still want to scan themselves out, hence the queues.

So far, so annoying for us all. However, the thing that drives me batshit crazy is when we're all politely (and yet clearly tired and annoyed after a day at work and having to shuffle these tiny, slow beeping gates) taking our turn, some arseholes just ignore the queue and walk straight through, without scanning. No skin off my nose you might think, if they have a travelcard / didn't scan in / don't care about paying more then whatever. HOWEVER, when someone walks through the barrier like that, it freezes the scanner for the next person - the light goes red and you have to wait a beat of two seconds (which feels like 20 minutes with the bubbling crowd behind you) to then scan your card and proceed. Sometimes, while you're waiting for the light to go amber again, another joker walks through AGAIN and sets it off.

Obviously, I am terribly British and never say anything, perhaps occasionally tut under my breath, but AIBU to want to run after those people, grab them by the lapels and scream 'WHY DO YOU THINK YOU'RE SO BLOODY SPECIAL? Do you think the rest of us like queuing? That's we're too stupid to see that the gates are actually open? YOU FROZE THE SCANNER YOU SELFISH LITTLE PRICK.'

Or should I just go on holiday?

What linerunner said - can anyone confirm this? And if it is true, then surely the gates wouldn't work at all when dozens of people are milling through. It just doesn't add up

Surely the gates are left open specifically to allow people to walk through, thereby avoiding queues during peak times. If they wanted everyone to queue and wait their turn, they would leave the gates closed like usual.

What playdoughgirl said. Why do you think the barriers are open? I would imagine it is to stop long queues and stop blocking the escalators.

Only people using Pay as you Go need to scan their Oyster. If you have a Travelcard on it, or using some other ticket, you do not need to queue at the reader, and if you did you would increase the wait for those who do need to queue. OP - I think you need to read up on how the Oyster works, as not everyone will be charged a maximum fare for not swiping it.

I don't understand the scenario here at all. I have a Freedom Pass so I never bother to scan it when the gates are open - no charge to me so no need. What is happening to people behind me when I walk through without scanning?

I was under the impression that they open the barriers for safety reasons, if we all queued and waited this would defeat the object of opening the barriers for safety reasons.

Oh god I am no good with machines. I'm always the one with the machine which decides now is the time to break down and I go bright red with embarrassment.
I give the travel cards to my dh to hold so he can pop them in and we just walk through.

does everyone know this? Are there big signs up that they are ignoring?

I am still not convinced this is true. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Does anyone out there work for TFL/London Underground and know what OP is going on about?

if the gates are open and im using card tickets, ill go through the open gates. My time is just as valuable as yours

I'm a bit confused but to me it seems as though people must be queue jumping.
When you go through a ticket barrier there is a 'beam' which you break. Once that is broken the reader will not read any Oyster cards. As soon as the person is through then the beam is intact and the reader will work again. It's the same reason that if you shove your child/buggy/suitcase right up to the barrier, it won't read your card and open the gates.

I'm not sure how someone just walking through would cause more of a delay than someone actually using the reader though

This doesn't make sense to me. When we go to football on the tube there are clearly hundreds and hundreds of people piling off each train and queuing to get up the stairs to the gates. They have all the gates open for obvious reasons, so people pile through all at once. People who need to scan their Oysters do so at one of the readers and believe me if the people piling through the gates was causing a delay to those wanting to scan, we'd know all about it!

If you want proper London transport RAGE and I mean severe angst like this then you need to go to the taxi rank out the back of Waterloo.

I just got this from the LU site

When stations are very busy we may leave the gates open to control crowds and ensure that people can leave the station quickly and safely. If so, you might not be able to touch out but we'll aim to fix this for you when you touch in to start your next journey

For big events such as the football they are able to set up auto complete so they can get loads of people out or in the station quickly. On a regular commuting crowd they would not set this up

I live in another country and they very kindly allow me to keep an Oyster card for my use when I need it I may not be as quick as a local, but I can manage quite competently without annoying the local commuters too badly.

You learn something every day don't you?

OP based on this thread I think it's safe to say that the "selfish little pricks" you refer to probably have absolutely no idea they are inconveniencing you and probably think they are being helpful by reducing the length of the queue.

Hello, sorry have been away, have only read a few replies and realised I have lots of requests for clarifications so on the two most frequent requests a) yes I mean queue jumpers who push in when the rest of us are queuing and b) yes I should have said there are two gates - one single, one double, but the pushers push in at both, when scanners are waiting patiently and taking their turn.

Right, off to read the rest of the replies, sorry if I have missed something fundamental, back in a sec if so....

But you said the gates were open.

Open to get people through quickly?

Open because there's no staff available I expect but as I said, you still have to scan if you have oyster whether they're open or not. The scenario is big queue / people waiting / others walking right past the queue and pushing in, thereby slowing down the others behind. They don't have to scan but why shouldn't they wait their turn to walk through? Plus there are only two gates, not lines of them as someone upstream suggested.

Why do you think the paper ticket holders have any idea whatsoever that walking through an open gate locks the scanner? I would also walk trough, past those needing to scan an Oyster card, because I would assume it made no difference.

TBH, I would think the Oyster card people were really annoying and slowing my progress down with their scanning

I don't commute anymore but I'm with you OP, it would piss me off too.

It's not queue jumping if you decide to create a queue though surely?

The gates are open for a reason, which is to get as many people through as possible during times when the station is going to be very busy. The people walking straight through are doing exactly what TfL want them to do for H&S reasons. If everyone queued up then it would defeat the purpose of the gates being open.