My favorite mnemonic: "We have some red port left"
Left if you are facing direction of travel = port = the red light
this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
-6 points (44.4% liked)
Showerthoughts
34935 readers
1029 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Thats a good one. Do you have horizontal traffic lights, or what is the connection to the red light?
Oh, of course. Forgot about those. I only did some rowing on a canal for a year while studying. Sadly other than that, there is not much water nearby
Good point, the lights on a boat or airplane (probably not a train) are red on the left and green on the right. Not sure how international that is.
Think it's referring to the red & green wing lights on planes
I suspect most people think port and starboard are just synonyms for left and right. I did for a very long time. And you also have to consider non-native speakers who might not know the nautical terms at all.
The trains where I live say "on my right" and "on my left". It sounds a little weird hearing an automated voice speaking in the first person, but it's concise and gets the message across to people who won't know nautical terms.
I'm an enthusiast sailor and this is a terrible idea.
That's not a terminology that most people understand, and would only confuse everyone more, matey. 🏴☠️
You don't pull up to a port in a train, you pull up to a station. Stationboard doesnt work as well and wont be widely known.
I mean it's not like ships pull up to a star, unless they are spaceships that is.
It can be simply starboard and larboard.
True. That's a flaw with the english words.
Yet the exit would always be on the stationboard side (left or right). So you would never know which side of the train to exit.
Sure that would be technically more correct, more tasteful, and less confusing. But some people may not know the words "port" and "starboard." Frequent train users would become accustomed to it soon enough but you'll always have some people from out of town whose first language is not English, and their limited vocabulary is more likely to include "left" and "right." On a utilitarian basis we must weigh their needs in the equation when considering this problem. Then again there are also some people who can't tell left from right either. We could paint one side of the train green and the other red, but then we might have a problem with the colourblind train users' lobby. What's really needed is 15 million dollars and a six-month user experience design study to decide on the best approach.
Why?
Because it's a (barely) established abbreviation for exactly those directions.
I think it would limit accessibility for people with limited knowledge about that, while you'd want to make the train as accessible as possible
"you are absolutely right."
*you are absolutely starboard.
Fify
If you want to include logic in the matter, then yes; you are absolutely right.
But i do like nautical terms.
Fair haha
How do you define abbreviation?
Maybe its the wrong english word but portside is shorter than "left in the direction of travel".
Even more in my language.
I don't doubt they exist but I've never heard a train announcement use the "in the direction of travel" part. The ones I've been on either say left/right or even not say a direction but simply open the doors with lights flashing above it
Where I’m from, nothing announces the exits. There’s just a pair of doors opposite each other and you go out whatever one opens. I’ve never even thought about it before. Is there a reason it needs to be clarified on your trains?
In my city people often stand with bikes out strollers in the door area. Out sometimes it's just really packed. When the opening side is announced, those that stand in the way can already make way (if they are considerate to their fellows) or know that they can relax and don't need to move.
I'm not sure. It has always been done like this here.
I think it's just a convenience thing. Might be useful in crowded trains, so people know which doors they should not stand in front of.
It’s super important in Japan where jam packed trains are common during rush hours. They typically announce in Japanese and English, and may even have a visual displayed.