public transportation barefoot

has anyone ever ridden, a bus or subway barefoot?

 

A guy I know on another barefoot site was riding the bus barefoot. A young woman boarded the bus and was barefoot too. As she went past him, she noticed his feet and stopped and tapped the top of his foot with her toes and smiled as a sign of barefoot friendliness. I thought that was cute.

 

I never tried going on the bus barefoot because the rules say you gotta have shoes and shirt on while riding the bus but they dont mind people wearing sandals *flip flops* or having shirts on that are open. I really think its stupid anyways because their rule makes no sense, they dont enforce it and they are not consistant with it, different drivers on different routes treat the rules differently and ya never know whos gonna let ya on barefoot or shirtless and who wont. They also dont post the rules clearly enough, I had to find out the hard way by gettin in trouble with a driver just to know there even was a fricken rule. Ive seen shirtless people in the bus before and ive seen barefoot people a couple times and every time ive seen it, nobody cared, except one time when a driver wouldnt let a shirtless guy on. I think the routs that go to and from the beach are more shirtless friendly than the ones going the other ways.

 

I also dont know what the rules are of the trains, subway, and other bus systems are in the surrounding area and cities so my experience is just on the local city bus.

 

What I would like to know is that since buses and subways are public property, can they legally require you to wear shoes? Isn't it the same as walking through a park? I thought public property is public property.

Peace, Alex

 

Not that I can recall. I don't have much use for public transportation.

Numerous people on the Society for Barefoot Living mailing list report occasional difficulties trying to board buses and subways barefoot, from misguided people who mistakenly believe that there are laws against it.

-Jeffrey

 

so far i haven't had a problem boarding the local busses barefoot, but i'm usually wearing long bellbottoms & barefoot sandals. i've also been barefoot on a greyhound.

i did attempt to go barefoot in a taxi once...you know, i've walked barefoot through stagnant smelly mud, filthy glass-strewn city sidewalks, and unkempt public bathrooms, but the floor of that cab was just too much for me to bear. i put my flip-flops on about 2 minutes into the ride. *shudder*

 

I think since buses are "public transportation" and since most vehicles that dont have coverings on the windows are not considered private property, I would think that theyd have no right to force people to wear shirts or shoes on the bus. Besides I think they are public because they seem to be supported by the city and or the local transportation organization, either way I dont think they could enforce such rules.

 

I've been observed riding the subay barefoot on humid summer nights. For the record, the subway is one of the best places for getting black soles. Just be careful for the t police, they usually want to know why you're not wearing shoes!

I took the subway into the city barefoot on Tuesday. Unfortunately, upon arrival to the city, I was greetet by heavy rains which pretty much whiped out any hopes I had for getting black soles. I decided to make the most of it anyways and attempted to walk barefoot through a mall while I was there. Unfortunately, I got cold feet when I saw security and promptly reached for my flip-flops.

 

I tried walking into a mall with an unbuttoned shirt today and figured itd be ok because their rule only requires that you have a shirt ON and I did but when I saw the security person walking by, I buttoned up my shirt. I unbuttoned it in the movie theater but buttoned it up when some people came up to sit in front of me. Anyways I dont ever go anywhere barefoot because I live with my parents and theyd think itd be really stupid.

 

Public transportaion? Find out where the money comes from and you will know how public it is. The golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules. In the city I am a sandal man. Sorry don't won't my bare feet on nasty chemical streets. Bare foot on grass and woods.

 

I left florida in october to meet my friends in syracuse NY to go on string cheese tour, on a greyhound bus barefoot with a pair of sandals in my luggage, when i got to syracuse it was midnight and there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground. so i had to stay at the greyhound terminal til 8 am when the mall opened and i bought a cheap pear of boots. that was in 0ct 28th 01

 

All the time -trains five times/week from March-October, and some in winter too (season job, don't have to go out as often then )
I rarely take a bus, tram or metro but when I do I'm barefoot too.
But this is in the Netherlands, where bare feet are extremely rare but there also aren't any rules against it. The railways have 'no feet on the seats' posted among their rules but no rules about footwear, and sometimes the ticket taker even tells someone who has their (shod) feet on the seat to either take his feet down or his shoes off... although I don't fully agree with *that* suggestion, for while bare feet are okay, often 'just-out-of-closed-shoes' feet are not! I'm sure you know what I mean!

 

I don't know what your situation with your parents is, but I would certainly object if they were to be so judgmental as to think going out barefoot is "really stupid." It's not. It's simply a personal choice. Okay, maybe it's fine if they don't agree with it -- I personally think it's "really stupid" that women go out in uncomfortable high heeled shoes that do actual harm to their feet -- but if they tried to intervene and prevent you from doing it, or from feeling you're okay if you do decide to do it, then that would be wrong.

It's funny, because your parents, whom you think would view going barefoot as stupid, probably have never thought twice about the supposed wisdom of women wearing harmful "fashion" shoes.

I don't quite understand why you buttoned your shirt when others came into the theater while you were there. Are you concerned that they might voice disapproval? Another question I have for you is, if they did indeed voice disapproval, but you had no reason to feel they would or could attempt to get you in trouble with management (if indeed management would even make an issue of it) would you still leave the shirt unbuttoned?

Are you stuck at a point where you wish to be "semi-nude" (I have no better term for having a shirt unbuttoned, I apologize) but feel that you can be that way in public only as long as other members of the public won't or can't cause you a hassle?

-Jeffrey
-Jeffrey

 

I regularly travel barefoot on public transport in London. Tram, train, bus and especially the tube (subway).

I have to say that I absolutely love it. It feels great (the slightly dusty floors on trains and buses are a particularly favourite surface), gets your soles as black as anything and the looks you often get are hilarious.

You also experience the phenomenon where people seem to think that bare feet render you deaf as, often while standing within a metre of you, they comment loudly to a friend "That guy's got no shoes on !" or similar.

I've never had any problems with refusal though. I guess it is a similar situation to that which Myranya mentions in an earlier post about The Netherlands. Barefoot travellers are so rare that nobody thought to make a rule against it.

Long may that continue !

 

I've been on buses barefoot quite a few times, and it hasn't been a problem. Except for obnoxious school kids asking me loads of questions about why I don't wear shoes and making irritating comments, the bastards.

 

Like you i've done lots of london barefooting and never been kicked out or told off. Often get a friendly smile from the amused Suit actually. Also in Croydon i get a wonderfully mixed response. Brighton where i now live isnt too bad im not barefoot as its too comld at the moment but in the summer when i visited i had no problems.
I used to travel to college everytday without shoes (flip flops in my bag) and general traveling everywhere as public =transport is basically your way of getting anywhere in london.
Longest barefoot journey on public transport was when id left my trainers in Cambridge and was heading up there ot meet Jaycee, i figured no need to take shoes as i had a pair there, so i did bus to station, from staines to london on train, through london on tube, back onto another train to cambridge.

 

guess, your feet, must have been, filthy. cool.

 

I just worried that it might be the management and or the people in there might see me and dissaprove or call the management. The mall *where the theater is* has a rule about wearing shirts and I know for a fact that another mall goes further and requires that people keep their shirts buttoned up *if they have buttons* as well so I just thought that I might get in trouble for having my shirt unbuttoned even though I had it on.

If I thought that there wasnt a chance id get in trouble with management then sure id leave my shirt unbuttoned. I dont really care what the customers there think, only thing id be worried about is the management. Ive heard that some places they have night vision cameras that can see what people are doing in some theaters *to find people who are video-taping the movies* and I figured they "might" have that feature there and theyd send someone in to tell me to button up my shirt. ive had management walk up to my row unexpectantly sometimes during the movie to ask if I had tickets or because of other reasons and it can happen quite suddenly and I just would be worried it get caught and thrown out.

I generally only go shirtless or with a shirt unbuttoned when I think I can get away with it without getting in trouble with people who are in charge of a certain area. It makes it easier to do so when people around me are either shirtless/unbuttoned shirts or dont mind me being shirtless or give positive comments. Ive gone shirtless around rude people who dissapprove but its harder for me and I constantly am nervous and worry about getting in trobule with those who could infringe on me conducting my business wherever im at.

 

I'm like Fleassy in that when I went to college, I pretty much kept up my high school tradition of never wearing shoes. If I had to walk the mile from my classes then of course, but I rode many a shuttle barefoot. Many times I did have a few people participating, but it was never frequent. Weird thing was that the classes that I went barefoot to, I got better grades.

I worked in San Francisco for a while and did make sure I walked barefoot from Union Square downtown, to the subway, rode the BART to Oakland, then jumped on the airport shuttle, then walked into Oakland Airport, screened, waited and walked onto the plane barefoot. So much fun! Thanks TSA for making it easier to go barefoot at an airport. And the reward was the cute girl who sat next to me, sat down and lost her shoes for the rest of the flight.