You’ve somehow managed to get a seat on your Circle line train and settle in for the gruelling journey into the office.*Sigh*
The person next to you pulls out their phone and starts listening to music. You know this, because you can hear it. Every. Single. Note.
They don’t have headphones in, that would be way too considerate at 7am in the morning.
Across from you someone answers their phone on speaker, broadcasting both sides of their very loud and obnoxious conversation to the entire carriage.
This enraging behaviour isn’t new, but now there’s a name for it: ‘bare beating’.
Don’t raise those eyebrows – it’s a perfectly innocent term coined by Metro, to describe the act of letting the beats of your music or phone conversation ricochet throughout the carriage, rather than using earphones.
These bare beaters seem to be the most despised commuters of all – appearing on tubes, trains and buses – and there’s no shortage of people who take issue with them.
One very frustrated commuter took to Reddit and said: ‘If you play music out loud on public transit, you’re a d**k.
‘This is in regards to anyone on a [tube] or bus who is playing their music out loud on full volume. Why would you think this is acceptable?
‘You’re now forcing other people to listen to whatever music you want. In my experience, it’s too loud for me to enjoy what I’m listening to because it’s competing with both you and the noise of traffic.’
They added: ‘If everyone did what you’re doing, there would be a cacophony of noise that no one could enjoy. If you’re doing something for your own benefit, but can only do it because no one else is doing it, isn’t that being self-centred?
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‘What possible excuse can there be for this sort of behaviour? I’ve never heard anyone compliment these people. It’s not complimentary to the situation, like someone playing soft music at the beach. It’s playing loud music in an already annoyingly-loud environment.’
What do other commuters say?
We actually couldn’t find a single person who supports bare beaters and their questionable behaviour.
‘I really think playing music out loud on public transport should get you fined,’ another Redditor said. ‘Talking is okay, but blaring music is needlessly disruptive and rude. Far too many of my commutes are disturbed by these rabble. It’s always TERRIBLE music too.’
Redditor @LaviniaBeddard added: ‘Doubtless the morons who do this believe that everyone is looking at them and thinking “oooh, they’re so cool/hard/different/edgy” or whatever – just like people who drive around playing music loud in their car, window down, elbow out, shades on – when, in fact, 100% of people look at them and think “T**T”.’
Others called for it to be banned, while some claimed people do it for attention.
‘At least in my experience, people do it because they know others don’t want to hear it, and it’s their way of manufacturing a confrontation with someone,’ added @AmarettoCoke.
‘People generally would rather tut and look annoyed rather than explicitly come out and tell them to turn it off, so it’s a little power trip for the offender, feeling like nobody has the guts to challenge them.’
‘Barebackers’ are plaguing the London tube network
There’s another subset of London Underground passengers who have been labelled the worst of them all: the ‘barebackers’.
Get your mind out of the gutter – it’s a perfectly innocent term coined by Curtis Morton, co-host of the Behind the Screens podcast, in a TikTok that’s racked up nearly 100,000 views.
Essentially, barebackers – also known as rawdoggers – are people who sit without any form of entertainment and people-watch, staring at other passengers to pass the time.
‘Barebackers are number one,’ Curtis says in the clip ranking the most annoying train travel habits.
‘You’ve commuted enough times – why are you sitting there without a phone, without a book, just looking at me, looking at what’s going on? Keep yourself to yourself. Read a book – just do something.’
Feel called out? Read more about your barebacking behaviour here.
Another added: ‘I’m convinced they’re all Soundcloud rappers praying to god every day that someone comes up and says, “Hey, this track is fire!!! Who is this modern-day Beethoven of the rap game?” wrote one. ‘They’re still waiting…’
Despite these feelings those in the comments felt they couldn’t approach the bare beater in question because they were afraid of confrontation. But one thing’s certain, nothing gets commuters’ blood boiling more.
Double Bagging on the tube
It’s not the only terrible behaviour on the tube though. Our Metro readers had a lot to say about the ‘double bagging’ trend too.
The term describes the act of taking up two seats on public transport; one for their bag; one for themselves.
People on Reddit were quick to express their distaste for people who do this with one writing: ‘Sorry, your bag didn’t pay for a ticket.’
It’s not just a London problem either, one user from Seattle even shared the measures their city was taking to try and stop double baggers.
‘I hate when people do this on a full train. In my city there are signs everywhere saying “bags don’t have butts”, telling people to leave the seats for actual humans, but it doesn’t do much good,’ they said.
Others were simply floored at the lack of manners people have nowadays, saying they ‘dispise’ people like this.
‘I take the train for work and the level of entitlement I see daily is wild to me,’ wrote @oohh-val.
But the real question is, which behaviour do you hate the most?
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