It's OK to take a little nap, but avoid snoring in someone's ear.

Holding hands is fine, but a prolonged make-out session is not.

If you're going to talk on your cell phone, do it quietly and don't use profanity.

And please, wear deodorant.

Metro officials expect the shutdown of Highway 40 (Interstate 64) to persuade some commuters to give public transit a chance. Transportation officials don't know how many new riders will join the roughly 50,000 people who take light rail or the bus on a typical weekday. They just know some will.

On Jan. 2, the Missouri Department of Transportation will close a five-mile stretch of Highway 40 from Ballas Road to Interstate 170 for one year while the roads and bridges are rebuilt, forcing thousands of commuters to find other ways to get to work and school.

For those who haven't tried public transit in a while, correct change still works best, and you should check Metro maps to confirm your routes and pickup times. And once you're on the bus or train, here are few etiquette tips from the best sources out there — the daily riders.

While Metro forbids eating and drinking, most riders say you can get away with it as long you don't make a mess, which is a major faux pas.

"I sat in wet seat this morning on MetroLink," said Tom Shrout, executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit, a local public advocacy group.

In the coming months, regular riders accustomed to finding an empty seat may have to stand up to make room for all the newbies, said Dianne Williams, a spokeswoman for Metro.

"It's going to look different," she said.

Here's how it looks now:

Ishmael Shah, 33, of East St. Louis, was nodding off Thursday on his daily trip on MetroLink to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. He said he likes getting in a quick nap during his commute. But he doesn't like watching guys trying to pick up girls, or public displays of affection that get a little too frisky.

"They should really keep that to themselves," he said.

Shah also advises new riders not to yell into their cell phone, like the guy in an orange vest that just passed by him.

"Case in point," said Shah, who works as a baggage handler.

Barbara Nelson, 18, clutched a bag of a Doritos while riding MetroLink to work at an airport restaurant. She was chatting with her co-worker, Pamela Wilson, 19, who held a pink bottle of soda.

Sure, they said, it was perfectly acceptable to eat and drink on the train. (Despite posted signs to the contrary.) But Nelson said she doesn't like it when people sleep next to her.

"I had a guy who was snoring in my ear," she said. (It wasn't Shah.)

Wilson said body odor is a definite problem on the train. "All the time, there's a lot of that," she said, adding that one security guard, "a big dude," is a particularly bad offender.

Meanwhile, a group of teenagers behind Jeannie Hedgecorth laughed loudly as they pinched their girlfriends' behinds. Hedgecorth, an employee of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, was trying to read.

The worst example of bad manners usually comes from young people who refuse to give up their seats for older women, she said. "A lot of times you'll see the kids on here just look at them."

Throughout much of the day, it was clear a few people viewed the train as a place of employment rather than a means to get to it.

One young man was selling CDs. Another was trying to register people to vote. An elderly man invited riders to gamble on his shell game for $20 a pop.

Metro forbids solicitation, and if you're approached, "Your answer is, 'No, thank you,'" Williams said.

She also noted that each car on MetroLink has a security button that riders can push to alert the operator, should you feel threatened.

Corwin Macklin, 43, of Webster Groves, a salesman, was taking MetroLink downtown Thursday and offered up his take on Metro manners.

A man should always give up his seat for a woman because "chivalry is not dead."

Sleeping on the train was fine "as long as you've paid." And regarding public affection, he said, the train needs more of it, not less. After all, he said, people should "spread the love."

sdeere@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8116