I HATE! People Trying to Board a Train Before You Can Exit

Ok - this may very well be my number one most HATED pet peeve.

It's common sense: let the people who are on the train off before you try to get on - seems sensible, right? But it amazes me, everytime I am trying to exit a subway car, people try to board before I can even get entirely out the door.

Logistically, it would make sense to let those who are trying to exit the train get out before you try to board - when people leave the train car you're want to get into, there will be more room for you. You won't be forced to wiggle your way into that tiny little space between the business man with the beer belly and the sweaty construction woker. Right?

Apparently this logic has not yet occurred to many New Yorkers. I get it - maybe people disregard common courtesy and common sense because everyone is clamoring to grab one of the inevitably few available seats on the rush hour trains. (I can't help but be reminded of kids scrambling to pick up the candy spewed all over the ground from a recently broken pinata.) Or maybe this phenomenon occurs simply because New Yorkers are impatient and rude - something everyone in the world already assumes anyway.

Either way, it makes no sense to me. Let people off FIRST; there will be more room for you when you do finally board the train and it is common courtesy. I think I've established the logic in this sequence of events. Because really, how much satisifaction are you going to get when force your way onto the train like a fish swimming against the current, manage to snag a seat, but slam into and practically knock over the little old lady with the walker trying to get off the train?

Additionally, if it's rush hour and the train is horribly crowded, you can't get on until I get off ANYWAY (unless you want the aforementioned standing room between the beer belly and the sweaty guy) - so why can't you wait a few extra moments? It's like these people will spontaneously combust if they are kept waiting another 7 seconds. You probably just waited 15 minutes for the train! Chill out a few moments more!

If it wasn't already apparent, this is a sitaution that I encounter pretty much every day - and so, I've developed an interesting approach to dealing with this. If I am on the train and we pull into a station and I see that people are standing in front of the door that I will be trying to exit through, blocking my exit path as they ALWAYS do, I purposely, and with as much force as possible without seeming like an aspiring linebacker, walk right into them. If you are going to bumrush and practically trample me trying to get an open seat on the train, I am damn well going to give you a run for your money (and a shoulder to the chest!).