ABSTRACT
If you live in a city you will be aware of the need to comply with social conventions. Such conventions are a necessary form of democratic control, developed for the good of the community, and a necessary part of modern city life. As cities become larger, develop greater urban density and become more congested, the inhabitants of these ‘monstrous ant hills’ seem to be forever destined to give up more of their personal space and privacy to service the good of the community.1 A good example of these conventions in action may be found in the etiquette of travel and transportation. Transport systems are the arteries of a modern city: to live, cities must transport large numbers of people from one area of the city to another every day. To realise this, modern cities use complex co-ordinated transport strategies, which in most cities are a combination of rail, road and light rail systems, such as trams and underground railways. The success or failure of a cities’ transport strategy may seem to rest with the city planners and with the transport providers, but in fact a considerably more complex relationship is at the heart of modern intra-city transport systems – a key component which is the application of widely accepted social conventions.
