To think there's some things you just don't do on public transport...

[SamanthaBrique]

...and flossing your teeth on the tube is one of them?

More of an observation than being grossed out but I saw a woman filing her nails on a plane and the sun was shining in through the window. The cloud of nail dust that everyone was breathing in that was coming from her file surprised me.
I guess that’s not the worst thing people breath in/ingest on a plane, though!

Categorising all these could be fun. Which grossed-out reactions have a rational basis, and which are just social conditioning? Here's a quick try:

A. Things which affect other people on public transport and which they can't avoid easily if next to you :

• Smells eg changing pooey nappy, sweat, picking toes
• Potentially infectious particles eg coughing, sneezing
• scattering / transferring bodily debris, eg picking toenails, scattering nail clippings, wiping bogeys on seat.

B. Things which may commonly trigger a disgust reaction but aren't actually any threat to a neighbour's health or cleanliness. :

• clipping fingernails and putting all the clippings in your bag so leaving no mess
• changing wet nappies?

Amateur psych guess - it's the fear of contamination which upsets people, even though there's no actual risk in these cases.

C. Things which don't affect you in any way, are easily solved by looking away, and which I predict most people just don't care about :

• someone putting makeup on, if they're not elbowing you whilst doing it. Maybe they don't have time to do it at home.
• A woman committing the cardinal sin of being an adult and not shaving her pits.

Amongst my friends, it's almost embarrassing to shave because people might think you're not a feminist

Enjoy this hilarious Buzz feed photo collection of Women who shave despite constant peril.

I get kinda grossed out by people putting on make up in public though

It isnt disgusting but women putting on their makeup always makes me feel embarrassed for them. Like they dont real8se they're behaving so inappropriately. I was mesmerisred by a woma n recently using a v good creamy concealer and i spent the journey trying to see what brand it was. I was ready to rip it out of her hand to have a closer look.

Not on public transport but rather on public television - as much as I like Jogi Löw (coach of the German national football team), I wouldn‘t want to shake hands with him

Liking your organisation there GiveMePrivacy

I do think that if the “worst thing” you’ve seen on public transport is a natural armpit, you probably haven’t used TfL much. And am proud of MN for taking your disgusting body shaming to task.

My question is - why do people sit there and watch these (category A) things without saying something? I was sat a few seat away from a man clipping his nails on the tube a few months ago, and I spoke to him asking if he could not do that as it was disgusting. He was collecting the clippings on the seat between his manspread legs. He replied “why not, it’s perfectly normal, and anyway I’ll wipe them onto the floor when I’m done”. He seriously thought I was the weird one for objecting. Everyone else in the carriage buried their heads in the metro. Where’s the solidarity for common decency, people.

When I used to get the tube, a girl got on same stop as me.

Get out a little variety box of cereal and pint of milk, bowl and proceed to eat on packed train. Even if she was standing and always train, regardless of how long she been waiting at platform.

Aries like a forest under her arm dirty bitch there is no excuse for hairy pits *
*
really?

I was on a train once when a women near by (alone) had a phone call to tell her that her dad was dead.

Hate it when people don’t shower between gym and pool, or get out of the sauna straight into pool or jacuzzi. At hotels in Austria, its considered foul to go in without a swimming hat though.

@Mia184 eurgh that is just so so wrong!!

I remember many moons ago when someone changed their child's shitty nappy on the tube some of it dropped on the floor as the nappy was leaking out🤮 I've never been so happy for my stop to have been next!!

Omg I'm so glad I don't commute anymore some of these are gross. Do none of you ever say anything? I routinely used to request fellow travellers turn down their music and not sure I'd be able to resist commenting on nail clipping / wanking etc. Music seemed to be the only/main irritation 10+ years ago - times have definitely changed wrt what is socially acceptable

@Mymadworld

I once asked a woman if she could take her phone off loud speaker and talk normally into her phone (I was fed up of hearing her friend screeching with laughter and "what went down" in Benidorm) I was met with a barrage of abuse! I got off the bus at a random stop and she started banging on the window quite aggressively like an ape! Got on the next bus and someone had left a load of spit on the floor!!

I really don't miss public transport anymore!!!

I nominate people eating hot smelly food. Burgers, pasties, noodles, pizza. These are not allowed on long distance buses. Why is it permitted on underground trains? Occasionally I've seen a poster discouraging it but it is far too low-key. These offenders are often drunk, too: I just have to move away as there is a danger they may throw up. After a tube journey recently I can add spicy crisps to the list.

Worst one for me someone who terrorised the whole bus, throwing things at people, saying they wanted to shg someone up the arse, and then pissed all over a seat at the back before punching the driver and leaving. One of his friends knew me as I'd worked with him and announced that 'no c** was to mess with that lassie at the front (naming me)' Days before mobile phones so we all just sat terrified. Ended up in jail a few months later as he stabbed loads of random strangers so all pretty scary.

Had a couple of wanking incidents too which I really don't want to think about. Someone playing a harmonica at 7am was pretty bad. The man who sang the wrong words to Elvis songs, absolutely pissed out of his nut at 6am was quite funny though.

Changing a tampon Why oh why?? Do people like this think they are at home?!!

I was sitting next to a poor woman who vomited in her lap. I could see she was about to hurl and tried to get my newspaper on her lap but I wasn't quick enough.
She definitely had porridge for breakfast that day.

I once sat next to a man who threatened to kill me (in a plethora of very violent ways) loudly for 25 minutes before he got off. I was penned in as I was by the window and he in the aisle seat of an old routemaster. I was petrified and also upset that not one person on that bus did anything to help-even just maybe mentioning it to the driver. The week before a man had been stabbed to death on a night bus for asking some kid to stop throwing chips at his girlfriend.
Clearly he was probably mentally ill, and that's not an every day occurrence. But I'd take someone filing their nails over that any day of the week!
I also don't mind makeup or people eating really-sometimes it's the only chance they get if they are spending lunch time travelling to work or college or whatever.
Loud phone conversations do my head in though!

Filing your nails and sniffing is unreasonable? 
I always file my nails.

@Ariesgirl1988 I suppose hair on the head is just as vile?
What a weird human being you are, dictating how people should keep their body hair.

I saw a woman change a wet nappy on the bus. I'm sorry but that's just not appropriate at all! The child could have waited until they got off and found a toilet, she didn't seem uncomfortable at all. So unhygienic.

Filing your nails and sniffing is unreasonable?
In public and in a small enclosed place such as public transport? Yes, it's pretty gross and rude!

@ikeepaforkinmypurse How is it gross?
It's a nail file.
Some people may not have a tissue so to avoid snot dripping down (which I'm sure will be more disgusting) they sniff?

An ex-colleague of mine used to use a Stanley knife to dig the dirt out from under her fingernails at her desk daily

I was standing next to a woman with a toddler in a pushchair on a train once and she started clipping his nails which I thought was pretty grim... she then moved onto clipping his frigging toenails.
WHY would you think that's an acceptable thing to do on the train?!

I wouldn't normally clip my nails in public (yeah, I know, the manicurist is horrified that I clip them at all and says you should never clip them, always file them down, but life is too short...) but the other day I was at an event and broke a nail. A friend lent me her nail clipper.... are you telling me that instead of just solving the problem and binning the odd bit of nail before returning her clipper I should have hiked to the ladies' toilet to do it?
Must just go and trim my nails (s'okay, I'm home alone....)