Ducks in a row.

For a city of about 3.5 million, about 1/3 of which use public transit, one would expect something along the lines of pandemonium in their morning commute. I did. I was expecting elbows and personal space invasions - I got that, but not quite at the extent I was thinking. So instead of complaining about squeezing into the metro (subway) system with about 100 other people at 8:50am, I'm going to applaud what I've seen so far in Montreal: Organized Chaos. People wait, a respectful ATM line-up distance from eachother, they say excuse me AND they once in a while let others embark before them (*gasp!* I must clarify this is only if they know they'll make it onto that train or bus. Otherwise it's no holds barred.) Bus line-ups going for about 1/2 km are calm and somewhat patient and people wait their turn to get up into the bus. I was shocked. Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Uruguay were not like that... move it fast or miss your bus are the mottos they live by. So elbows are in full swing all over the place and people are pushing through.
I'm impressed Montreal. The civility you display make public transit "agréable". Merci!!