Public Transportation: An Analysis of Rider Classification
This four-page undergraduate paper examines the observations made by the author during a morning and afternoon commute on the CTA. The author divided the riders observed into four categories, white collar office or banking professionals who isolated themselves from their surroundings by reading newspapers, staring out the window, or sleeping; white collar office or banking professionals who took an active interest in their surroundings by engaging in polite conversation; blue collar commuters who isolated themselves from the people around them by listening to Sony Walkmans; and CTA riders in their teens or early twenties who displayed a certain degree of subtle hostility or resentment at being confined in a commuter train with adults who are obviously far less intelligent and sophisticated than they are.
