My Public Transportation Rant

The BBQ Pit
1

I know that none of what I am about to describe are actually indications that a person is evil, nor is anything so described a huge deal. But I am angry today, and my bus rides pissed me the fuck off.

I take the bus to and from school every day. All well and good.

The ride there:
Today, I got on the bus near my house and the bus was moderately crowded, as in there were people standing, but not many. I went to go sit in the back, and found that someone was sitting on the outside of two seats, the inside being empty. This began to raise my ire. Couldn’t he see that people were standing?

A woman left from a different inside seat, and the woman sitting next to her did not slide over. We now have, count 'em, TWO empty seats being blocked by incosiderate fucks.

Two girls left another two-seat. A man with a briefcase came on, and moved towards the empty seats. He leaned way over… yes! He is going to sit on the inside, I thought. He carefully lay his briefcase down on the inside seat, and sat on the outside. What an ass. I guess his briefcase deserves a seat more than anyone who was standing around him. Where do these people come from?

The ride home:
This ride was much worse. A bit of background first. As one walks onto a bus (one version, anyway) in Montreal, there are two single seats. One is elevated and is therefore not suitable for reduced-mobility people. The other is considered “à priorité”, which means that while able-bodied people can sit there, they should be prepared to give it up immediately if a reduced-mobility person comes on the bus. There is one more “à priorité” seat a couple of feet back in the bus.

When I got on the bus, it was fairly empty. There were a couple of people standing, but that was it. The further-back “à priorité” seat was empty, so I sat down (another thing that pisses me off: people standing and crowding the bus when there are seats empty). There was an elderly woman sitting in the front priority seat, all well and good.

A girl, maybe 18 years old gets on the bus. We’ll call her bitch-girl. I do admit to having a prejudice against oh-so-trendy people, and she was wearing low rise jeans and jewelry that every other girl who wants that look wears too. Anyway, she was chatting away on her cellphone. She gets on the bus, takes an agonizing amount of time searching through her purse for her wallet, and then her wallet for fare. Hello? You didn’t have time when waiting in line to do this? She blithely drops in insufficient fare, and was reminded by the bus-driver before she put in the rest. She stood, as there were no seats, fine.

A couple of stops later, an elderly man who was walking unsteadily got on the bus. I immediately got up as he had priority to my seat. He thanked me. Terrific. Then steps on a man with a broken leg and crutches. Both priority seats are taken by people that need them, and all the other seats are taken. The elderly man who was sitting in my ex-seat offered the crutches guy the seat, and he declined. No one else offered their seat. Here’s a hint: just because you are in a normal seat, does not mean it’s okay to let a man on crutches stand in a bus. There were at least four people who could have easily stood up to let him sit, but they didn’t. Finally, one woman got off the bus and he sat in her seat.

At this point, I’m pissed off. These people are obviously scum. The elderly gentleman who was sitting in my ex-seat got off the bus, and bitch-girl sat down. An older woman with a cane got on the bus, and looked around. Bitch-girl didn’t give up the priority seat! the person on the elevated front seat insisted that the cane-woman take his seat, and she obviously had a hard time getting up there although it was definitely better than nothing.

Now, I’m not going to call these people douchebags, or asshats, or evil syphilitic whatever-suckers. I doubt they were. I also doubt they live in this world. No one who understands the concept of politeness or society would have done the stuff I saw today. How do these people function? Bastards. I really and truly just don’t understand how people can act that way.

2

Once when I was waiting for the bus, a man ambled over to the pay phone. Did he make a phone call? No. He instead dropped his pants and began defecating. I walked to the next stop and waited there.

Last time I was on a bus, I was sitting in between two girls who obviously knew each other. They talked about cellphones for a few minutes. The bus then became rather crowded, and lots of people were standing and all the seats were filled. The two girls then began commenting incredibly loudly (so as to be heard over crying babies) about a particular woman standing right in front of us with a really bad cameltoe. Do people not realize that lots of people know what cameltoe means? (If you don’t know, google – it’s one word not two).

3

I take two trains to and from work every day. Invariably, someone has their briefcase, coat or angled leg taking up an empty seat. Just as invariably, that is the seat I zoom in on, out of sheer orneryness. I do a freezingly polite “excuse me,” and if they don’t excuse me, I excuse myself and plunk down anyway.

I don’t know who annoys me more: the people who take up two seats when others are standing; or the bovine standees who don’t have the gumption to ask for the extra seat.

4

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a person sitting on the outside seat when other people are standing. You want that seat, ask for it. I’ve never had anyone refuse to let me in, and I am happy since I prefer the window seat anyway.

5

I don’t like it when people sit on the outside seat. And especially when they sit in the middle of a bench-type seat that can hold two people.

But my ire is really saved for the people like those in the OP who don’t give up their seats for people with low mobility. Even if you’re not actually sitting in a “designated” seat, it’s incredibly rude to not at least offer them the seat.

There’s also some “low-floor” buses in my city that have ramps that fold out to allow wheelchairs/scooters/strollers onto the bus, and the first set of seats are a “bench” that flips up to make extra room so they aren’t in the middle of the aisle. I detest it when a few people in the front seats WON’T get out of the seats to allow the stroller/scooter into that space. They’re usually pretty good about wheelchairs. But strollers are no different. If you don’t make room for them, they’ll take up the whole aisle at the front of the bus. And that is damn annoying. Even small-normal size strollers take up a fair amount of space.

But don’t get me started on those humungous giagantic everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-and-maybe-even-that strollers that some people use now. I understand they must be very useful. Yes. But taking them on a jam-packed bus during rush hour is not the best thing.

6

I tend to get comfy on pubtrans and take two seats for my self when the bus/train is empty!!. If there are people standing or even if people have to take a minute to see if there are any seats you move over and let them sit. If you don’t you are a complete fucktard.

7

nah, what about the people who are fucking oblivious to their surroundings?

in the TTC (or Toronto Transit Commission), I saw this rather young guy (late teens to early twenties) chat away on his cellphone. He had 3 children sitting directly beside him. and get this. Every other word in his conversation to his friend was fuck this and fuck that, damn I was gonna fuck him up, but my stop was the next one after he made his fucked up call.

This is the fucking damn public transit, there are people who get offending with cursing whether it be casual or used to “dis” someone. Do people have some kind of social behaviour problems? Are they kings among men that etiquette and manners don’t apply to them? I doubt they’ll ever learn proper behaviour and public transit etiquette.

Oh well, at least the enlightened are few and we can be proud that we live by higher standards…

8

One time I got on a bus where all the seats were taken. One woman had two little children on the seat beside her, and the stroller, blankets, etc. on the two seats behind them. I pushed all the items to one seat and sat down. She starts screaming at me “Don’t you touch my stuff. Keep your hands off my stuff.”

I wasn’t going to put up with that. I replied in a very cold tone “Look, I paid for a seat on this bus. Unless you paid for these four seats, I’m sitting here.” Then the bus driver told her to “let the lady sit down.” I spent the rest of the trip muttering about how “people pay for one ticket and want four seats. How ridiculous is that?”

9

Yup, that’s what I would have done too. When I rode public transit to work, occasionally there would be folks who would sit in the outside seat and leave the inside one open. No problem, buddy, I’ll just climb over you and sit on the inside seat.

Me, I don’t like folks climbing over me, so I would always leave the outside seat open.

And a couple of times, when I was on crutches, I was always pathetically grateful if ANYONE would give me a seat. It didn’t happen that often though.