You obviously didn’t ride with me and my friends back in my student days (well, obviously you didn’t because you’ve never met me or my friends, but you know…). The most humiliating position then was either lying across the knees of the back seat passangers, or inside the boot (that’s ‘trunk’ to you Merkins).
Yeah, we were a safety-conscious bunch.
Been there. It sucks.
Been there. It sucks.
There’s also a staff report on the term What’s the origin of “riding shotgun”?
No way. The driver always controls the radio.
If we only have 3 people going to lunch, say, whoever has shotgun sits in the back automatically coming back. If there are 4 people, however, the original shotgun may call shotgun when leaving the restaurant.
For laughs: whenever someone calls shotgun, I quickly say, “shotgun’s lap”. I think this is real funny. Every single time. Can’t remember where I first heard it.
OK, I can’t let this stand. The rules, as linked to, are ridiculous. I’m talking about section 1, point 4, of course. One can call shotgun as soon as HE OR SHE leaves indoors. If the rules were to be followed as stated, there would be an advantage to being the last one out, so you could theoretically call shotgun at the moment you breached the threshold to the out of doors. Naturally, there will already be a group outside waiting on the last person to breach said threshold, resulting in all the car’s occupants, sans driver, to call shotgun at THE SAME TIME.
This is utter chaos, and has no place in modern society.
Furthermore, my method provides an incentive to get off your ass and start heading for the car instead of a disincentive to do so.
I have no particular desire to ride shotgun. I am a fairly nervous passenger, prone to stomping on the phantom brake pedal and placing my hands on the dash, when I sit in the shotgun seat. Not only do I not call it, I decline when it is offered, and choose to sit in back. Am I alone? (Obviously, if it’s just the driver and me, I sit up front, and grit my teeth.)
Also, apropos of nothing:
That’s why he shoulda said “Injun.” 
And “shotgun”, meaning “to travel in a vehicle as an armed guard”, only dates to the 1950s.
Hmm…maybe Random House should hire you guys.
leans over, fiddles with the bass, switches the song to a good Hi-nrg tune, leans back, sticks out tongue at BiblioCat
There is an aviation variant of this where the shotgun rider works the radio stack as well as navigation duties. Also responsible for yelling “were gonna die” when the wrong fuel tank is selected.
If you’re going on a long trip you can cheat your way past shotgun by bringing a GPS along. Navigation is looked highly upon by most drivers. It does, however, make you liable for a beer round if you miss an exit.
::: smacks LunaV’s hand, switches back to classic rock, resets bass :::
What you refer to as ‘radio’ would have been called ‘bitch’ in my neighborhood. A coveted position for female passengers under any circumstances, but highly ignoble for male passengers unless both the driver and shotgun were female.
I don’t know that we had a term for males sitting three abreast in the front of a car with an empty back, but I guarantee there would have been a half hour or more of very un-PC razzing of the trio.
Just for laughs: Straight Dope Staff Report: What’s the origin of “riding shotgun”?