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MORE LETTERS FROM LIRR RIDERS

August 9, 2006

As part of its coverage of the LIRR Commuter's Council project on bad behavior on the trains, Newsday is asking readers to send suggestions on how to correct the behavior problems. Here are some ideas:

My biggest complaint is LIRR riders using the floor of the train as their personal wastebaskets.

A while ago I sat next to a man on the train during a commute from Merrick to Manhattan. He was cleaning out his briefcase and, just as we pulled into Penn Station, he took all his "trash" and dumped it onto the floor at his feet, then stood up and left the train. When I tried to leave, I slipped on the papers and fell back into my seat, so I picked all his papers up and carried them with me to my office. I shuffled through the stuff and found personal mail, including credit card statements with his home address and phone number, paperwork with his and his wife's Social Security numbers, and various bank statements. The only thing missing was a key to his front door.

If I were a criminal, I could have had a field day with all that information. Instead, I wrote him a nasty note about his being inconsiderate in leaving his garbage on the floor, the safety issue concerning my slipping on the papers, and about all the personal information he conveniently left behind, shoved it all into a big envelope, and sent it to his home.

Oddly, I never heard from him. Roberta

I recall sitting in the waiting room in Massa- pequa Park when a guy in a suit sat down next to an elderly woman and began talking very loudly on his cell. The woman picked up her paper and started reading arbitrary stories even louder.

Finally, the guy said, "Excuse me, do you mind? I'm on the phone." She replied, "Yes, I DO mind. Now you know how annoying you are being to me." Michael

E-mail mae.cheng@news day.com to contribute your ideas, and visit newsday .com/li for more ideas and tales of bad behavior.