Today's rant - stupidity. Watching the news tonight and the big story is the danger of strollers on the trains. Now in Tokyo, there is a nice warning bell after which you have about 5 seconds to get onto the train. Despite the fact that many trains come once every three minutes, this bell is a signal to run like mad from halfway down the stairs to the platform and leap onto the train between the closing doors. Enter women with strollers. Bell rings. Mothers run, pushing stollers, rushing to get on the train. Doors close on strollers. Train pulls away taking baby with it. HELLOOOOOOO???????? I mean how stupid can you be. I certainly wouldn't risk having doors close on my child. Are these people brainless?

So, JR (the railway company) has done test and determined that the warning system that prevents the train from running doesn't work for strollers. It will stop the train only if something greater than 2 or 3 cm is caught in the doors. The frame of a stroller (the stroller gets caught with one wheel inside and the rest outside) is less than 2 cm in many cases. JR is now inserting hard rubber pieces into the lower portion of the door so that the sensors will detect something less than 2 or 3 cm. They have to alter like 8000 trains... all of which have 11 or more cars... which have 6 doors each.

I think it is great that JR is doing something to prevent this. Smacking these women upside the head might also be useful. Geesh.