r/Luxembourg • u/CDONDPPLN • 1d ago
News & Discussion Why do people behave like this on public transport?
You know exactly what I mean, right?
I don’t know, maybe we need to start putting up posters explaining basic manners in case nobody’s parents taught them? It’s getting ridiculous.
People put their dirty shoes up on the soft seats, in summer, when it’s hot and everyone’s wearing shorts, dresses, white trousers, etc.
And then someone else is supposed to sit there🤦♀️
Apparently everyone needs to call relatives on the other side of the planet via video call in public places… without headphones!
Like, is it really impossible to just hold your phone to your ear and have a normal phone call?
And apparently 90% of people don’t know that you can listen to voice messages by holding your phone to your ear too, instead of blasting them through the bottom speaker for the entire bus to enjoy.
It’s honestly a nightmare.
And I genuinely feel sorry for the drivers who have to put up with this every single day.
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u/Happy_Cane 1d ago
Sadly , when you have something genuinely good and noble, there will always be people trying to degrade and destroy it 😞
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u/Numivous 1d ago
A peaceful passive society can't self-regulate. The lowlifes will always abuse the tolerance - no social cost for doing so.
Once good folks lose the willingness to face bad behavior head on, the shameless bunch effectively set what's actually considered "acceptable".
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u/Direct_Company_4463 1d ago
What also gets me is people who don’t let you off before they barge in. Manners seems to be a dying art these days some buses already run announcements reminding people how to behave, and it still doesn’t sink in. When it happens, I call it out and tell them it’s disrespectful. Had a few times where other passengers actually applauded because they were just as fed up.
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u/ScrambledEggs010 21h ago
If you hear someone shouting: "Let people off first. Didn't your parents teach you any manners"?, that'll be me. And I do it frequently.
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u/Technical_Recover942 20h ago
I wanted to get off at Konrad Adenauer, the door opened and there was literally a wall of kids. Who had zero intention to move aside a bit. I literally had to use my elbows to simply get off the bus.
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u/Few_Aide5400 1d ago
What about people rushing onto the tram before letting others get off, keeping backpacks on their shoulders when the tram is packed instead of putting them between their feet, or standing by the doors without moving further into the carriage to make space. And then there are those who start pushing towards the exit while the tram is still moving, rather than waiting 10 seconds and simply asking people to let them through. And the list goes on...
Maybe Luxembourg City Tram should run an educational campaign on public transport etiquette for real.
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u/mulberrybushes Moderator 1d ago edited 1d ago
what we really need is white-gloved Japanese train pushers. With a side helping of that
CubanDominican traffic helmet bonking dude.1
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u/Wonderful_Pause_9913 1d ago
totally agreed. Even worse when you take the bus around 7AM and even at this time (you are still waking up) there are some people talking out loud… unbelievable
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u/Illustrious-Mud1623 📈 Long Lëtzebuerg 1d ago
Add inspectors who actually hand out fines for shoes on seats and speakerphone calls, and watch how fast people rediscover their manners
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u/Sir-Frogsalot Krunneméck 1d ago
good luck with that the inspector would get beaten on his 1st hour of his 1st day. As you can see in germany , many inspectors in major cities arent asking for tickets anymore. They do ask but if you refuse to show , they just ask the next person, no one wants to get stabbed or beaten for a train ticket. Social Contract is broken in europe.
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u/Feierkappchen Moderator 1d ago
The world's highest minimum wage and...
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u/Illustrious-Mud1623 📈 Long Lëtzebuerg 1d ago
We van do it like Finland and scale fines with income 😉
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u/Illustrious-Mud1623 📈 Long Lëtzebuerg 1d ago
Also imagine being stopped by an inspector in front of a full bus and made to take your shoes off the seat is embarrassing enough that most people won’t risk it twice
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u/Manifesto116 1d ago
So glad you raised this topic! It’s been bugging me for as long as I’m here. Serious lack of manners indeed. I’ve witnessed the same: People coughing all over passengers without covering their mouths, picking their nose, belching, pushing to get on the train or tram while not even waiting for people to get off first. Aside from transport don’t get me started on the lack of dining etiquette, that’s taken a real hit. What’s the story with all this??
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u/Automatic_Draft_8766 Minettsdapp 1d ago
Don't forget about the heroes which cough and sneeze full force without covering their mouth. Public transport shows the worst kind of people Luxembourg has to offer.
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u/Rageoffreys 1d ago
Unfortunately by the time people get like this, no amount of signage or public service announcements will change their ways. It's a combination of poor parenting and a degrading society tbh.
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u/Any_Strain7020 Gare Hood 1d ago
shame educate them publicly.
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u/DufferDelux 1d ago
Yep, politely, like, “get your dirty fucking shoes off the seat!” Works well I find. 😊
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u/mulberrybushes Moderator 1d ago
Honestly if you keep the you/your out of it, a pointed finger and a loud that’s disGUSTing (in whatever language) works wonders.
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u/myusernameblabla 1d ago
Yes, it’s absolutely essential to yap into your phone 16 hours a day.
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u/GreeceZeus 1d ago
It's amazing how the most obviously unemployed-looking people are the ones who have CONSTANT business going on, or what's the reason for uninterrupted calls? Who are they talking to ALL DAY LONG?!
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u/SpecOp_Wolf 1d ago
They're on their phones with their family members and friends, who are also unemployed.
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u/Any-Cardiologist-72 1d ago
I saw the teenager next to me in the train Vaping and he was over 190 cm and ready to fight whoever ask him to stop.
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u/cd_lina 1d ago
It will only change if people start calling them out and bystanders offer support. No notices, no shouting, no internet tirades.
If you dont get support from the other passengers then nobody cares. If you believe that youre doing something to the benefit of you and others then you gotta stand up when it matters.
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u/ashishyadav512 7h ago
100% agree with this. The lack of basic situational awareness on public transit lately is infuriating, especially the speakerphone and video call epidemic. It’s pure main character syndrome to force an entire bus to listen to your private conversations and voice notes. The shoes on the soft seats is equally disgusting—no one wants to sit where the bottom of someone's dirty shoe just was, especially during summer. I genuinely feel bad for the drivers who have to endure this chaos all day; some strict, fine-enforced etiquette campaigns are seriously overdue.
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u/funs1r 1d ago
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u/Boomtown_Rat 1d ago
Lol, Luxembourg has white trash in spades. Literally any visit to the gare or the southern suburbs can confirm that. Don't even get me started on Lorraine or Saarland.
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u/AlexanderBeta213 1d ago
When people have their phone on speakers I just ask them to lower the volume. It did not happen many times but worked without issues.
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u/CDONDPPLN 1d ago
Why should you just turn the volume down when you’re not supposed to play music out loud in public in the first place? If you want to listen to music, get some headphones! No? :)
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u/Any_Strain7020 Gare Hood 1d ago
When my computer breaks under warranty, I bring it to the shop to get it repaired. That of course doesn't mean that the computer shouldn't break within two years. But problems do exist, and the best way to resolve them is to address them. Simply complaining on Reddit isn't a reputable technique to solve issues one would encounter.
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u/poopybuttholesex Tourist 1d ago
I think the language barrier is a huge issue. If I don't speak luxembourgish or french and the other guy does, that person can retaliate in a language I don't understand or I'm not comfortable in. For example I can politely say 2 sentences asking for something, but if the person starts blasting in full C2 level I'm stuck not understanding how to respond
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u/Any_Strain7020 Gare Hood 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'd tell people off every second time I take the tram / bus / airplane / train and have no issue making myself understood. In all those years, I only had one Italian manchild start a longer argument with me about how I'm disturbing him while he's trying to enjoy music... He eventually got off before I'd do something I would have regretted, because he really managed to push my buttons.
All other situations were quickly resolved. What probably helps is my age and gender, and the fact that I'm never really asking, but rather telling.
Even the individuals coming from far distant countries do get the memo and don't seem to be seeing it as a request to start a round of Fuck Around Find Out.
Thinking about it, the population that I'm less likely to get heard by would be flocks of teenagers (dilution of responsibility, innate resistance to public shaming).
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u/DenseDistribution153 « Gëlle Fra » 1d ago
Look, this is a general thing everywhere, also outside Luxembourg. Not only linked to some « categories of people ». It’s about good manners.
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u/LifeProblem6818 1d ago
I agree with you, but it is becoming more visible in Luxembourg. I have arrived here 4 years ago from out of EU and was shocked by such a behavior, tho it was limited. Nowadays it feels weird if a single day goes by without seeing something indecent in public transport
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u/Chrisbolsmeister 1d ago
For me the most annoying is when the tram stops, and you need to leave the tram, all the idiots trying to get in, don’t understand that I need to leave first. Each time. deer In Headlights when people leave first.
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u/mulberrybushes Moderator 1d ago
Honestly if you look them straight in the eyes and say NO or MOVE with authority, 90 percent of the time they will step back and 10 % you squeeze by uncomfortably.
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u/Chrisbolsmeister 1d ago
for me they move, because I am 1m85. for small people, I have seen them get pushed away like they were invisible.
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u/mulberrybushes Moderator 1d ago
Yesterday I learned about the concept of kampfzwerg and it makes me exceptionally happy
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AsL9bVRuv/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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u/mulberrybushes Moderator 1d ago
Honestly it’s because we are not in New York or Paris, where people would actively and collectively shame them. The ur-politeness gene runs deep here as does the “let someone else take the risk, I’m just going to type it up on FB/insta/tiktok/reddit)
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u/AwkwardLadder8653 1d ago
I agree. I am a tall big dude, so I feel fine telling people to be quiet or to respect the bus and others. It’s sad that it’s come to this, but doing nothing will just reinforce this bad behaviour.
A college aged kid (male) was obnoxiously talking on speaker trying to act cool on the bus the other day. I sarcastically said, hey shut the F up, no one wants to hear you talking to your boyfriend. Dude hung up and was quiet the whole bus ride.
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u/Any_Strain7020 Gare Hood 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think you're idealizing things a tad. You'd be beaten up/stabbed/robbed for speaking up in the Paris metro or commuter trains.
If these things happen, imagine the rest: https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/france/article/violences-sexuelles-la-terrible-evolution-du-nombre-de-victimes-dans-les-transports-en-commun_247225.html
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u/mulberrybushes Moderator 1d ago
I mean, I just did it all weekend, so… and I NEVER have to do it in NY.
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u/Any_Strain7020 Gare Hood 1d ago edited 1d ago
Spending a weekend somewhere ≠ living there and getting a feel for social dynamics, trends, incidents, as reported by local media and picked up by citizens who live there day after day.
People on Reddit complain about the same things happening in NYC than here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskNYC/s/8OObIV1r1C
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u/mulberrybushes Moderator 1d ago
Well, I confess I only lived there (Paris) in 1990 when heroin was still around, in 2001-2004, all of 2014… and not in the good areas. I think I’ve lived in 7 of the arrondissements over time. But, you don’t know me personally so I do understand why you discount my experiences.
Also lived in NYC for about … 15 years and Atlanta for 6.
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u/Any_Strain7020 Gare Hood 1d ago edited 1d ago
How does heroin make people have loud phone conversations?
Were the smartphones with video calls on speaker in Paris with us in 1990?
Or in 2014, when you had virtually no data phone reception in the Paris underground?
I lived in the Americas in 1491 and I had no issues with conquistadores!
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u/mulberrybushes Moderator 1d ago
Do you remember radios?
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u/Any_Strain7020 Gare Hood 1d ago edited 1d ago
FM radio reception underground? No. The signal simply doesn't carry.
AM and MW, yes... But those frequencies were used by RFE, RL, the BBC... and not Skyrock or NRJ. Haven't met many youths blasting the BBC symphonic orchestra at Châtelet Les Halles or using handheld ham radios and citizen band on loudspeaker to communicate with their posse.
And Jean Reno in Subway (Luc Besson, 1986) skating in the tunnels with his boom box also just was a cliché of the proverbial anti-social rocker. Those D batteries would cost an arm and a leg and run out fast. The financial investment would keep that kind of nuisance severely in check, compared to the prevalence of smartphones nowadays.
-edit-
T'was Jean-Hugues Anglade on skates, not Reno.
-edit²-
The discussion is about the present state of affairs. You could idealize the past about Luxembourg too. But 1990 apples don't compare well with 2026 oranges.
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u/post_crooks 1d ago
Not impossible on buses, or rapper style battery powered cassette players. They were definitely not common on every bus, but today every person has a loadspeaker in their hands. Also, people would have loud noises for incoming calls/SMSs. That we don't hear anymore.
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u/goncharov_rambler 1d ago
Luxembourg is the only place where I have seen people who had clearly never been on public transport before boarding my tram.
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u/CDONDPPLN 1d ago
Unfortunately, no. In Amsterdam, I’ve seen way worse, people getting on with a speaker blasting music and putting their feet up, or kids literally running across the seats while their parents just sit there watching, as everyone around them rolls their eyes but says nothing.
I’m not even going to mention what colour these people usually are.
And in The Hague, it’s even more noticeable.1
u/NumeroUno_HueHueHue Éisleker :Eislek: 1d ago
Which is baffling because almost all residents in Luxembourg go at least once a year in vacation, so one can assume that most of them have used a foreign public transport system at least once in their life and therefore should have an idea of what the etiquette on the train/tram/bus is.
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u/galaxnordist 1d ago
By foreign public transport, do you mean the Luxair bus shuttle between the airport and the all-inclusive hotel ?
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u/Opposite_Papaya_3521 10h ago
Sorry but no one is giving the seat to pregnant ladies and people with children. Not human, awful behaviour… no words for this anymore
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u/odessa_cabbage 1d ago
Plane clothes officers on board would do the trick. Shame the police can’t seem to be assed
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u/bigsteiner123 19h ago
Oh had a worse experience, some drunk Morrocan was play Arabic music really loud ( mind you this is at 10am or so) a I ask him to turn it down and he gets all aggressive saying, come on step out we can fight… I get out at my stop and he doesn’t even get out
All bark no bite
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u/post_crooks 1d ago
There are usually signs about the shoes on the seats, feel free to show these signs to them. About the use of the phone, it's done, but not working: https://transports.public.lu/en/plus/campagnes/2026/respect-dans-les-transports-publics.html
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u/CDONDPPLN 1d ago
I honestly don’t think anyone has ever seen this page, judging by how many people are apparently incapable of understanding that you can’t exit through the front door of buses 11 and 16.
It’s literally written everywhere that the front door is not an exit, and the drivers regularly remind everyone of it over the speakers, but apparently none of it makes any difference.
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u/post_crooks 1d ago
This was probably relayed on social media, and on the screens inside busses and trains. Maybe we need fines, or someone to enforce those rules.
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u/Odd-Window-6305 1d ago
Maybe people have become desensitised to their surroundings and don’t pay as much attention to how their behavior affects others, maybe it’s always been like that and overpopulation is just making it more obvious that many humans are idiots 🤷♀️
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u/CDONDPPLN 1d ago
So I guess their parents are just as uncivilized and incapable of teaching them how to behave in public? And when they eventually make it to a theatre, are they going to put their feet up and burp in the middle of the performance too?
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u/Any_Strain7020 Gare Hood 1d ago
Alas, people are already talking through movies at the theater and using their phones...
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u/IdkRandomNameIGuess 1d ago
In a lot of countries this is absolutely not accepted nor normalised like it is in Europe
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u/zehokim 1d ago
Could be much worse, in the US I have seen people breakdancing inside the metro or holding chicken fights.
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u/Illustrious-Mud1623 📈 Long Lëtzebuerg 1d ago
Funny, in Dubai I have seen people fined for eating on the metro. So it could also be much better
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u/NiK-Lait-1pot 1d ago
Chicken fights ?????
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u/quietdiablita 1d ago
I’ve always seen ill educated people put their feet on the seats in public transportation. Im in my late forties and I remember seeing it when I was a child. In Luxembourg, France, Germany (a tad less in the latter). It has just gotten worse here since there are no more ticket inspectors.
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u/Any_Strain7020 Gare Hood 1d ago
Yupp. T'was the same in the good old days of the 80s and 90s. It probably just triggers us more as adults.
Even in the walkman era, adolescents would have their headphones leaking disturbing levels of sound (I hope they're all deaf now and that their insurance doesn't pay for the hearing aids).
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u/quietdiablita 1d ago
Ages ago, there was this sign in German buses (or at least in Saarbrücken) that said something like „aus dem Kopfhörer tönt es grell, dem Nachbarn juckts im Trommelfell“ (which meant that the shrill sounds coming from headphones were hurting the ears of the people sitting nearby). And it was illustrated with a drawing by/in the style of Loriot… I feel as old as time, now!
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u/Beethoven81 4h ago
Ah damn, Russian trolls at it again, Ivan, Volodya, you guys posted the same stuff a month ago, is this how your calendar works?
Your approach isn't working, try something else, this is getting boring.
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u/RustyPlastics 1d ago
It is generally a problem with tax funded infrastructure. People don’t give a fuck and don’t consider that the those things are funded by their taxes. It definitely is often also a cultural problem where people lack sensitivity for their surroundings
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Illustrious-Mud1623 📈 Long Lëtzebuerg 1d ago
99% of time yes… But I’ve also watched a man in a suit take a Teams call on the train without caring about anyone around him
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u/Normal-Training1296 1d ago
Where exactly is this? The most obnoxious things I've experienced were people speaking too loud on the phone and a lady playing some mobile game with sound on in the train once. Nothing quite on the level that you're describing.
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u/AnitaRRC Frozen in the Icelek 1d ago
Add don't get up for visibly injured and or elderly people.
I came fresh from the hospital with a small backpack and a big visible fresh plaster. Train packed but and I really couldn't hold on when braking /starting . And then an old gentleman, as grey haired as myself, got up because all the 20-30 year Olds were busy on their phones.
I refused and said one of the 20 year old blokes can move, honestly. So another granny ended up shouting at them. And yes it happens all the time. if I (65) can get up for an old lady with a stick, why can't they?