If you’re a public transportation user, then you know the struggle of getting on a crowded train after a long day of work and not being able to sit down and having to hold your backpack between your knees and trying not to bump into other commuters and generally feeling terrible. It’s a common experience. But at least, we think to ourselves, at least we’re not those chumps stuck behind the wheel of a car, sitting in traffic for two hours just so we can turn around and do it again the next morning. At least we’re helping save the environment, we think, as our ears ring from the squeak of the train. At least we’re getting some exercise, we say as we mount the endless staircases during our transfer.

And we’d be right. Commuting by public transit makes you feel like you’re part of something. You’re not the only one spending those miserable mornings on the way to clocking in.