What’s the most annoying person who’s encountered on public transport?

[zaraaraz]

On Friday I had a woman loudly demand a seat, the man sat at the table gave up his seat for her.

She then told the woman sitting there that she was glad as had studying to do, told her what she was studying (learning a language) and that she was so advanced she was taking her first and second year at the same time.

She then proceeded to talk into her phone loudly in the other language making voice notes on her phone.

A man on the tube sat opposite me, clipping his finger nails. Disgusting. They were flying all over the place.

Someone eating a macdonalds on the train then wipe his greasy fingers on the seat everytime he ate some chips.

@CasualCucumer

On a plane Before take off Lady & her adult son Lady made a huge, loud speech about being too ill to fly after an operation, that she needed a free upgrade to first class & that she could not sit next to other people People next to her were made to feel uncomfortable Everyone sitting close, felt embarrassed To cut a long story short, the air hostess went away & came back & stated some huge price for the upgrade to first class Lady sat down We all smiled

That reminds me of a flight DH and I took to the US several years ago. We’d booked the exit seats and a man in the row behind made a massive fuss first to his wife then to the flight attendant about not having the exit seats. He was really rude, saying it was uncomfortable for him, he was tall and it was a problem etc etc. obviously hoping we’d let him sit there instead. We ignored it and the flight attendant basically said ‘too bad’.

Anyway, not long into the flight, he gets up for the bathroom and he’s literally about 5’7”.

I actually have so many from commuting but here’s another tube one.

A man with two children aged about 10-12 got on the tube. It was rush hour in summer so busy and hot. He spent at least two stops lamenting loudly that no one would give up their seat to let his kids sit down and how selfish we all were. Mate, they have legs and they’re not toddlers, they can stand up.

Usually I've been to zzzzzzz to notice, although I guess, anyone that argues with the conductors,

Impoverished student, end of term, down to my last pennies, value bread and beans level, on one of the last national express coaches from London Victoria to Leeds, Christmas c1996. Passenger next to me spent the whole 4 hours eating 2 packets of genuine Bassetts jelly babies and didn't offer me a single one. I'll never forget that journey.

Two spring to mind.

First, the lady who used to jog down the platform in full Lycra running gear, get on the train, then start putting her leg high onto the train window (having first blocked off a seat with her backpack) and do these really intense stretching/breathing wind down things. When the train was arriving in London she would push/elbow her way down the aisle to be first at the doors so she could jog away unimpeded. I used to long to trip her up as she ran off the train.

Second, the utter penis in the car in front of us in the Eurotunnel train who switched his engine on mid way through the tunnel. DH tapped on his window to ask him not to kill us with his exhaust fumes and his excuse was he was charging his (bloody) mobile! He switched the engine off for 2 mins, then it was back on. DH asked him nicely to switch it off for the rest of the journey or he’d switch it off for him and call the guard. Some people are just morons.

The woman on a bus who asked me if I wanted to buy a bottle of Southern Comfort and wouldn't take no for an answer. She was very drunk and leaned and breathed on me the whole journey.

The woman who as I got off a bus attacked me and tried to push me into the road. Saw her again some months later and she lashed out at me grabbing my arm and digging her filthy fingernails into me. She was in the local newspaper not long after as had been attacking school children.

Too many flashers and molesters to mention both male and in one case female. The latter I lowered my foot gently above hers and then shifted my weight onto it. She stopped with the pawing me immediately.

Idiot children letting off fireworks on the top deck of the local bus home from Uni one day. Bloody terrifying as the fireworks whizzed round madly.

People with kids letting them watch whatever on iPads/phones without headphones. In the quiet coach.

Drunken louts taking the piss when I asked them to use headphones. On the quiet coach.

Two excessively self important businessmen taking separate constant calls, sitting opposite me for 3 hours straight. On the quiet coach.

Bloke and his girlfriend last Christmas, I’d booked 1st class (go me!) knowing there’d be social distancing. They appeared 20 minutes out of Kings X, clearly not booked (they sat in unbooked seats) right next to me. Very fluffy cat in carrier goes on the table. Bloke gets his laptop out, plugs in, starts making calls. We were, of course, in the quiet coach. The conductor took one look at me and suggested I could move to another seat. I practically sprinted.

I was on a plane on the way home from a conference in South Africa. The man who sat next to me asked me what I did. When I told him I was a dr he said ‘but you are female, so really you are just a glorified nurse’. I didnt speak to him for the rest of the flight.

@SisforSarah

I was on a plane on the way home from a conference in South Africa. The man who sat next to me asked me what I did. When I told him I was a dr he said ‘but you are female, so really you are just a glorified nurse’. I didnt speak to him for the rest of the flight.

The man who got on the train in Wick at 6am and proceeded to get horrifically drunk and incredibly offensively sweary on his carry all the way to Inverness, and then appeared on the train to Edinburgh - the guard eventually put him off at Pitlochry. Train was full of people travelling with kids and remonstrating with him but it just made him worse.

Or the drunken young lad in a group of drunken young lads somewhere near Gloucester, who proceeded to vomit epically all over the floor of the train and then to try and fall asleep on my shoulder. I believe I gave them all quite the telling off.

I'm a petite, hypervigilant woman so sniffing, phone noises, drunk people, men getting too close all worry me. But the worst was on a crowded DLR one morning. A mother and two children: the older one stared at me for a bit and then just met methodically started treading on my foot. After a while his younger brother told him to stop (I hadn't said anything, doormat that I am) and the mother told the younger brother off. Older one kept doing it all the way to Bank. I was incredulous (and bruised) but it was too crowded to move away!

Took a bus to wirk one day and a woman got on and sat next to me and clipped her nails. The bits were flying everywhere. It was disgusting,

A women who after finishing her make up proceeded to clip both her finger and toe nails then got all huffy and indignant when told how disgusting it was.

Id add my own stories but no need - they are all already here in various guises.
My No1 hate is people viewing things on screens without headphones, or the endless beep beep of a phone because somehow learning to turn off the beeps/clicks is too hard.
Oh how I wish the selfish types mentioned on this thread would actually read the thread so maybe they would realise how annoying they are!

When I used to commute to uni on the bus, there was a woman who got on every morning 2 stops after me and she would proceed to spend 45 minutes to an hour painting her nails every single day. Honestly the smell was horrible!

A woman and her BF who were either drunk or high having a loud, ongoing argument which culminated in the man declaring he was getting off the train and the women throwing a burger almost the entire length of the carriage at him.

The male communter who wouldn't let me out of my seat at Kensington Olympia when I was hugely pregnant with dd.

I was in the window seat, with him in the aisle seat. I asked to get up just before the stop but instead of letting me, he told me I had enough time and proceeded to slowly roll a cigarette. He let me off right at the last moment.

Two instances.

First on a Vancouver bus. Very drunk person vomited in the aisle. Very hot day. Nowhere to hide.

Second, on the tram that goes along the waterfront in San Francisco. A man who was quite clearly homeless and mentally unwell boarded the crowded tram car. He smelled so bad I could barely contain the urge to retch. It was awful and I felt truly awful he had to live like that.

A lady sitting there spitting continuously onto the floor. There was a big puddle under her seat and as the train jolted it moved towards the handbag of the lady sitting one seat up. When I warned the lady to move her bag and told the spitter to stop she told me to mind my own business.

This is a true story, I swear. Traveling on the Tube with my London born and raised DH. I am a Canadian, mostly small town raised.

As seems to be the rule, I was sitting quietly and steadfastly avoiding eye contact with anyone. The seats were all taken.

A young woman came into the car. To me, she was dressed like a nun or very religious person. She was carrying what I thought was a baby. She was making gestures with her hand that I interpreted as asking for help.

My immediate reaction was to stand up and offer my seat. I instantly felt that anyone carrying a baby should have a seat.

I gestured to her offering my seat several times. She gestured back no several times.

Finally my husband pulled me down. She walked by. The baby was actually a doll and she didn't need a seat, she needed money.

It was an awful feeling.

Man on train recently took his socks and shoes off and put them on the table and then goes on to clip his toe nails. Who takes toe nail clippers on a train and thinks that is an appropriate place to do it?

A couple of years ago there was some kind of train issue from London Liverpool street on a Saturday and there was ONE train out left that day about 8pm. Everyone was shouting at the information guy at the station. No one wanted to get the rail replacement bus so they all bundled onto this one train barging past each other like their life depended on it, the train then sat on the platform for 30 mins in the boiling heat, so many people were drunk and passed out, loads of people had food that absolutely stank. People climbed into luggage racks and everything. Frankly it was terrifying but my real hate was someone who brought a curry on.

My sister and I were on an early train for a 3-hour journey, after a pretty bad night in a youth hostel. We were shattered and just wanted to nap.

10 minutes in a guy came on and sat opposite us. He immediately took out a bottle of wine and started drinking and chatting to us as well as the bewildered woman and daughter across the aisle. He was harmless but wouldn't shut up. Soon he was completely sozzled. He did the biggest burp I've ever heard, so huge it distorted his face. Then proceeded to play the flute and the bagpipe. His final deed was to stand up, lift his kilt and flash his naked arse at the whole carriage. We were oh so glad to get off that train!

When you're in an otherwise empty carriage, and a group of men get on and come and sit with you or the table next to you, then you get the "cheer up" comments, and the continuous attempts to start a discussion, "ohhh she's shy" if you try to smile politely and carry on looking at your phone or whatever. It then gets progressively more aggressive, "what, you too posh to talk to us?" As if they are doing me a favour by talking to me, as opposed to terrifying me.