Attention MBTA Passengers: Pants Are Optional

Riding the T is like commuting in a giant petri dish. We know this because everyone we sit next to on our ride to work is coughing all over us. We’re normally not so phobic about germs, but we can almost see those little viruses circulating through the stale air during cold and flu season.

We mention this because a group of people are going to ride the T without pants on Saturday evening.

It sounds like a great way to pick up some kind of horrible flesh-eating disease.

Organizer Adam Sablich said it’s a “large-scale improv event,” and that 400 to 500 people have expressed interest in participating through Internet social networking sights.

[He] said nobody would do anything illegal and that participants could wear coats over their boxers or underwear.

Now we can understand railing against the tyranny of pants. If we didn’t have to, we probably wouldn’t wear pants most of the time. But we would make an exception for times when we’re sitting on a seat that’s been used by hundreds of people before us. That thin layer of cotton just doesn’t leave us feeling protected against the funk from other people’s asses.

The MBTA is surprisingly cool with the whole thing.

Paul MacMillan, chief of the MBTA Transit Police, said just wearing underwear isn’t illegal.

“We don’t have a problem with this as long as the participants pay their fare and ride in an orderly fashion and don’t do anything inappropriate or illegal,” he said.

Hear that, everybody? As long as you’re cool with baring your cheeks to your fellow commuters, the T is a pants-optional organization. Save us.