From Mumbai Local to MAX Light Rail: Transit Etiquette Across Oceans
On my first ride on Portland’s MAX light rail, I instinctively widened my stance and gripped the pole a little tighter. Old habits from years of Mumbai local trains do not fade overnight. Then I realized there was plenty of space to sit, no one was hanging off the doors and the announcements were calm recordings instead of humans shouting, “Move ahead a bit!”
💡 QUICK INTEL
India Transit: Crowded, improvisational etiquette, physical survival skills
PNW Transit: Timetables, signage, more silence and personal space
Key Skill: Reading unwritten rules in each system
Bonus: How West Coast Indians switch modes when they visit home
The choreography of Indian trains and buses
Indian transit, especially in big cities, is a whole-body experience. You learn to board moving trains, wedge into impossibly small spaces, pass bus fare from hand to hand and measure a crowd by the thickness of the air. There are ladies-only compartments, senior seats and tight-knit communities of regular commuters who know each other’s stop without asking.
Etiquette is flexible but present. People give up seats to the elderly or pregnant, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes under pressure from other passengers. Vendors walk the aisles selling chai, peanuts and combs. You will be bumped, stepped on and occasionally offered a share of someone’s homemade snack.
What surprises Indian travelers on West Coast transit
On systems like Portland’s MAX or Seattle’s Link, the contrast is sharp. Trains mostly arrive near their scheduled time. Boarding is calm. Doors will not shut on your arm unless you truly push your luck. People leave a seat empty between themselves and a stranger when possible. Conversations are quiet or replaced entirely by headphones.
For travelers used to constant interaction, this can feel sterile, but also safe. The predictability itself becomes a luxury. You get off the train without feeling wrung out.
How diasporic riders carry both rulebooks
West Coast Indians hold two sets of transit instincts. In Portland, they tap cards, step aside to let others off first and apologize if they brush a shoulder. In Mumbai, they remember how to angle their bodies to slide into a moving crowd, how to stand in the doorway to catch a breeze without getting yelled at and how to tell whether a women’s compartment will feel safe at a certain time of day.
Both experiences shape their sense of public space. Indian transit teaches resilience, improvisation and collective negotiation. West Coast transit teaches expectations around safety, accessibility and institutional responsibility. Together, they produce travelers who are skeptical of official promises but deeply appreciative when trains simply show up on time.
“India taught me to treat every commute as a small adventure. The Pacific Northwest taught me that sometimes the most radical thing a train can be is boring.”
— Priya
The Verdict: There is no need to romanticize overcrowded trains or to turn silent ones into moral ideals. Each reflects what a city values and can afford. If you learn the unwritten rules of both, public transit becomes one of the quickest ways to read a culture’s pulse.