Why is it so hard for many people to be on time ?

When I travel by train throughout France or other EU countries I always see too many people running for their trains or being too late and arriving when the train station staffs closes boarding and they don't let the late travellers in the train.

Me on other hand, I've never missed my trains and even flights because I plan ahead. I go out extra early so I can take my sweet time, walk at a slow pace and still be on time to board a train.

If I live far away from the station, I go out extra early instead of waiting and procrastinating and saying to myself "we've got time". If I have a train at 10:40 AM for example, I am already at the train station by 9 AM.

I've missed trains and flights in the pass but it's only when I travel with family members. Ever since I started to travel solo I never missed any flights, trains or coach buses.

I always get my family riled up when I say " or you had to do is leave your house earlier".

Why is it hard for people to be on time and plan ahead when they travel ?

When I am at a train or coach bus station, I see way too many people running to catch their trains. Some of them make it, others don't if the station staffs doesn't let them on and I always assume it's their own fault and never feel bad for them. If they are travelling with a small kid I only feel bad for the kids. One time i saw a father with his small daughter who got denied boarding when they were trying to catch their Ouigo train because they arrived too late and the kid was crying.

we were almost always late to church. Because this was the way it was at our house. My dad got himself ready. My mom got herself ready and the two of us (me and my sister) ready and it took her more time. So by the time she did that, my dad had gotten bored waiting and wandered off to his study and gotten involved in something and had to be retrieved. And by that time we were late.

When all there is to get ready is one person, you can do as you like and be early or on time. When there is more than one person, there's always the chance of something happening to make you late.

Once we left really early to catch a plane from DCA (Washington DC) to Denver. We would have been 2 or 3 hours early. But when we were at the drawbridge on the Washington Beltway, the bridge went up. We were literally 2 cars away from being across to the other side, and they couldn't get it back down again. It took them an hour to fix it. So we were running through the airport like OJ Simpson, and while we made the plane we were still standing in the aisles when the plane pulled away from the gate. (This was in 1985 so before 9-11).

Some people (my mother was one) always try to fit more into the time then they can. They chronically try to do more than anyone possibly could in the time allowed. This is an example of her being almost too late: Boarding the Staatendam

Some people (like my husband) if you tell them that you need to leave by 10:30 will arrive ready to leave at 9:30. Those people you know that when you tell them 10:30, that you have to be ready to go at 9:30 and if you actually wanted to leave at 10:30, you'd tell them that you wanted to leave at 11 and be prepared at 10.

I don't believe that there are 'many' people who aren't on time simply due to their own lack of planning. This is particularly true when it comes to travel, and even more true when that travel involves connections or multiple modes of travel. All it takes is a last-minute flight delay to raise havoc with the next connection, even if you've give than connection plenty of time, and affect a significant number of passengers, many of whom you might see running for their next gate.

That delay may also affect the ability to make the trains people pre-purchased non-refundable tickets for, and it's not impossible for trains to miss their arrival by due to any number of events, thus passengers being late for a connection.

Case in point: a flight from our city (Minneapolis) to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Plane fully loaded, doors closed and pulling out of the gate when a passenger experienced a serious medical issue. Plane had to return to the gate, emergency personal located and boarded, passenger attended to for quite some time, passenger finally removed via gurney, and another very long delay for the appropriate personnel responsible for replacing the oxygen to be located and tanks resupplied.

Then another long wait for the (rescheduled) take-off line. Upon arrival in Denver, we (and others) sprinted to our appointed gates in the outside chance that our connections might also be late for departure. Our plane was there but doors closed and we were denied boarding. It was also the LAST flight to our final destination that day, and our LUGGAGE made it on even if we didn't. Go figure. Ended up having to fly Albuquerque and taking a shuttle to SF where we very barely made the car-rental pickup office before it closed, and to the little SF airport to get our bags before it closed for the day.

Trains can be delayed due to accidents on the tracks or mechanical issues. Planes can be delayed due to mechanical issues (been there; done that) or system meltdowns (we were caught in the Jan. 2023 F.A.A. outage; another missed connection) and many thousands of travelers worldwide just experienced air travel h*ll - some of them for days - in the recent CrowdStrike system failure. An unscheduled strike, a severe traffic backup due to a bad accident, etc. etc. Any number of things could cause even the most conscientious of planners to have to hotfoot it to a connection or rescheduled flight. It's not as rare a situation you might think.

[ Edit: Edited on 3 Aug 2024, 14:59 GMT by goodfish ]

We are the kind of people who always come too early!!! And have to wait somewhere "around the corner" to not to come too early for any fiesta. We tried to get it late, but it didn't work, we just were in time.
But we have friends who always are late. At the time they should arrive on any meeting-point, the husband just had decided to have a shower!! I don't understand this, maybe it is only they don't value their friends?

Quoting goodfish

I don't believe that there are 'many' people who aren't on time simply due to their own lack of planning. This is particularly true when it comes to travel, and even more true when that travel involves connections or multiple modes of travel. All it takes is a last-minute flight delay to raise havoc with the next connection, even if you've give than connection plenty of time, and affect a significant number of passengers, many of whom you might see running for their next gate.

That delay may also affect the ability to make the trains people pre-purchased non-refundable tickets for, and it's not impossible for trains to miss their arrival by due to any number of events, thus passengers being late for a connection.

Case in point: a flight from our city (Minneapolis) to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Plane fully loaded, doors closed and pulling out of the gate when a passenger experienced a serious medical issue. Plane had to return to the gate, emergency personal located and boarded, passenger attended to for quite some time, passenger finally removed via gurney, and another very long delay for the appropriate personnel responsible for replacing the oxygen to be located and tanks resupplied.

Then another long wait for the (rescheduled) take-off line. Upon arrival in Denver, we (and others) sprinted to our appointed gates in the outside chance that our connections might also be late for departure. Our plane was there but doors closed and we were denied boarding. It was also the LAST flight to our final destination that day, and our LUGGAGE made it on even if we didn't. Go figure. Ended up having to fly Albuquerque and taking a shuttle to SF where we very barely made the car-rental pickup office before it closed, and to the little SF airport to get our bags before it closed for the day.

Trains can be delayed due to accidents on the tracks or mechanical issues. Planes can be delayed due to mechanical issues (been there; done that) or system meltdowns (we were caught in the Jan. 2023 F.A.A. outage; another missed connection) and many thousands of travelers worldwide just experienced air travel h*ll - some of them for days - in the recent CrowdStrike system failure. An unscheduled strike, a severe traffic backup due to a bad accident, etc. etc. Any number of things could cause even the most conscientious of planners to have to hotfoot it to a connection or rescheduled flight. It's not as rare a situation you might think.

Well I must admit. You made some fair points. I guess I am speaking based of my own personal life experiences when travelling.

Whenever I travelled with my family members as a teenager, we've missed flights and trains as well as buses simply because of poor planning or simply because they would chat away and barely pay attention to their watches and whenever I would call them out, they would always shrug me off and then we end up being in a rush. Sometimes we would make it, sometimes we would not make it.

Even when I travelled solo for the first time, when I was living with my parents and they would take me to the train station or airport, they would dictate at what time we would leave to take me to the airport. If I suggest that I would like to show up extra early, they would give me grief saying there is no need to be that early.

Now that I live by myself, when I travel I take myself to the airport and ever since I moved out and I travel, my trips have been stress free.

And you make good points about connections but to reduce the risk of missing my connecting flights, I buy plane tickets with 3 hour layovers or more. And when I book train tickets, I pick those wth 1 or 2 your layovers.

[ Edit: Edited on 3 Aug 2024, 19:14 GMT by Vintage666 ]

Quoting BeateR

We are the kind of people who always come too early!!! And have to wait somewhere "around the corner" to not to come too early for any fiesta. We tried to get it late, but it didn't work, we just were in time.
But we have friends who always are late. At the time they should arrive on any meeting-point, the husband just had decided to have a shower!! I don't understand this, maybe it is only they don't value their friends?

It's always better to be too early then late.

And you make good points about connections but to reduce the risk of missing my connecting flights, I buy plane tickets with 3 hour layovers or more. '

That isn't always possible when trying to get from A to B. There may not be flights that allow for that sort of layover, especially for small regional airports with limited service. Again, been there, done that.

Even a 3-hour layover at a major airport doesn't guarantee a missed connection due to mechanical or other complication Maybe you've not traveled as much as some of the rest of us who've experienced this sort of thing.

Whenever I travelled with my family members as a teenager, we've missed flights and trains as well as buses simply because of poor planning or simply because they would chat away and barely pay attention to their watches and whenever I would call them out, they would always shrug me off and then we end up being in a rush. Sometimes we would make it, sometimes we would not make it. ...

And you make good points about connections but to reduce the risk of missing my connecting flights, I buy plane tickets with 3 hour layovers or more. And when I book train tickets, I pick those wth 1 or 2 your layovers.

Some people have no sense of time. It would drive me crazy when my children would forget to allow for mealtimes. They would start off for some event with their kids (my grandchildren) and take no account of the fact that it would be getting toward dinner hour and then when the children got cranky because they were hungry it would take them half an hour to decide where to go. Not thinking ahead at all. Whereas I would have thought about where we might want to go in advance. (And couldn't in that case because I was visiting them and didn't know what was available locally).

I don't know if this has anything to do with the two types of people - those people who plan things out in advance and those who don't. My husband and my son seem perfectly happy to let me or my daughter-in-law plan the vacations and they just go along with it.

I always get to the airport early because I have a scooter with a lithium ion battery and it seems to make people crazy, so I allow time for that.

I do agree wit goodfish about connections. If your flight is delayed by 4 hours because of thunderstorms, even a 3 hour layover will not work.

Also just recently airlines are changing flight plans last minutes. I had a trip from Baltimore to Houston to LA planned. I was flying Southwest from Baltimore to Houston and had a short non-stop fight booked, and it was changed to a flight that went Baltimore to NYC to Houston changing the flight to five hours. I was able to switch it to a flight that went from Baltimore to Atlanta to Houston which was shorter and at least I was going in the same direction.

A few days later, I had a non-stop flight booked from Houston to LA. It was changed to a flight from Houston to DFW with a fairly short connection time to the flight to LA. Fortunately the flight to DFW was an early flight so if we missed the connection there would be other flights to LA - we didn't miss the connection even though it was short and we had to change terminals, because fortunately I am handicapped and had a wheelchair to get from one terminal to another and the wheelchair person knew how to do it. Otherwise we would not have had a shot.

Quoting greatgrandmaR

Whenever I travelled with my family members as a teenager, we've missed flights and trains as well as buses simply because of poor planning or simply because they would chat away and barely pay attention to their watches and whenever I would call them out, they would always shrug me off and then we end up being in a rush. Sometimes we would make it, sometimes we would not make it. ...

And you make good points about connections but to reduce the risk of missing my connecting flights, I buy plane tickets with 3 hour layovers or more. And when I book train tickets, I pick those wth 1 or 2 your layovers.

Some people have no sense of time. It would drive me crazy when my children would forget to allow for mealtimes. They would start off for some event with their kids (my grandchildren) and take no account of the fact that it would be getting toward dinner hour and then when the children got cranky because they were hungry it would take them half an hour to decide where to go. Not thinking ahead at all. Whereas I would have thought about where we might want to go in advance. (And couldn't in that case because I was visiting them and didn't know what was available locally).

I don't know if this has anything to do with the two types of people - those people who plan things out in advance and those who don't. My husband and my son seem perfectly happy to let me or my daughter-in-law plan the vacations and they just go along with it.

I always get to the airport early because I have a scooter with a lithium ion battery and it seems to make people crazy, so I allow time for that.

I do agree wit goodfish about connections. If your flight is delayed by 4 hours because of thunderstorms, even a 3 hour layover will not work.

Also just recently airlines are changing flight plans last minutes. I had a trip from Baltimore to Houston to LA planned. I was flying Southwest from Baltimore to Houston and had a short non-stop fight booked, and it was changed to a flight that went Baltimore to NYC to Houston changing the flight to five hours. I was able to switch it to a flight that went from Baltimore to Atlanta to Houston which was shorter and at least I was going in the same direction.

A few days later, I had a non-stop flight booked from Houston to LA. It was changed to a flight from Houston to DFW with a fairly short connection time to the flight to LA. Fortunately the flight to DFW was an early flight so if we missed the connection there would be other flights to LA - we didn't miss the connection even though it was short and we had to change terminals, because fortunately I am handicapped and had a wheelchair to get from one terminal to another and the wheelchair person knew how to do it. Otherwise we would not have had a shot.

I understand people can miss their connecting flights or trains but many people miss or almost miss their first flights or scheduled trains and a lot of times, it's their own faults.

I don't think you can know that about anyone else. It may be their fault or it may be the fault of someone else. You say that you would almost miss a train because your relatives would not leave in time, so was that your fault? Is it important whose fault it was?