The Commuter Uniform

While you find hundreds of people with hundreds of unique personality traits commuting out of one lot, you will find some predictable commonalities. Most of us wear the "commuter uniform."

On a typical, cold day at the sluglot, you will find most women wearing their heavy coats and shoes that don't quite work with their outfits. We all wear our commuter shoes because, hey, let's face it, high heels are hard on your feet and easily ruined. So you see most women standing in line with expensive suits or dresses and chunky sneakers or Crocs (ick) or some sort of comfy slip-on. I personally have several options depending on the season. If the weather is wet and icky, I wear Uggs. If it's cold but dry, I wear slip-on, lined clogs. If it's hot, I wear flip-flops. I'm a beach girl after all! Men, you have it too good. Most men just wear their neat little tie-up business shoes without a second thought.

Beyond shoes, we all, men and women, seem to carry a plethora of bags. Women have their purses of course, but it seems we all go a step further on that one. I personally carry a purse (very large), an extra bag for shoes, books, hat, scarf, gloves, etc etc, a lunch box that won't fit in either of the other 2 bags, and on occasion I carry a laptop bag. Most of my fellow commuters share the same burden. Even the men seem to be carrying backpacks, laptop bags, lunch boxes, and man-bags. We all stand in line leaning this way or that and banging into each other with our bag collections.

On top of the commuter shoes and bags, nearly all of us share one other thing in common. We are all heading into DC, and one of the most common, easily identifiable characteristics of a DC worker is the badge lanyard. If you work in Washington DC, chances are you have to carry at least 1 ID badge that swipes you in and out of your building and keeps you from being thrown into a detainee prison. I personally carry 3, but that's on the light end of what most people must carry. We all walk around with our badges swinging left and right, and we all ignore them.

We all coexist and commute with our commuter uniforms, and everything works out just fine. It's when someone is not wearing the commuter uniform that we all sort of stand on edge.

Today, a man in his mid to late thirties was standing in line and everyone was keeping a distance. He stood there, innocently enough, but it was his lack of a commuter uniform of any kind that made us all suspicious. He was wearing sort of dirty jeans, a tee shirt and light jacket, a baseball hat, and very well-worn sneakers. He wasn't carrying a bag. He wasn't wearing a badge of any kind. He was just a guy waiting for a ride.

If you stop and think about it, so what? There are no rules that state that only DC professionals are allowed to slug. There are no laws that say you can't slug unless you wear a badge. But it's what we are all used to, and we get suspicious if someone doesn't fit the bill. We stereotype for a reason. It helps us categorize hundreds of strangers to determine who is and is not a threat. We can't know someone's soul based on their appearance, and we all know that a suit does not make you any less a criminal. But we all stand in judgment when someone stands out like a blinking red "danger" sign. I may joke about the possibility of commuter homicide when riding with strangers, but let's face it, it's a very real possibility.

If I was driving, and this man would have gotten into my car, I would admittedly be freaking out the whole way to work. In the area where I work, there are not a lot of people who would have cause to be down there unless they work for the government in some capacity. What protections do we have if someone is not wearing the uniform?

Remember that the whole slug concept was started by military servicemembers commuting to the Pentagon. They all wear recognizable uniforms and badges, and even out of uniform they all seem to be easily identifiable.

So, now I'm trying to prepare myself for what I would do if someone like that gets into my car OR is going to the same destination as me and ends up sharing a ride. With all the craziness in the world, I'm thinking I might need to add mace to my commuter uniform.