# Public Transportation Horror Stories! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 3, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091 "2010-03-03T05:27:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/41 "2010-03-04T12:54:38Z")
I think this counts, as it’s a getting to the train story. In order to get down to the NJ Transit tracks from Penn Station (NYC), you have to squeeze through narrow double-doors and then onto an even narrower escalator. A few months ago someone near the bottom of the escalator tripped and fell back on people behind her. This caused a huge and potentially injurious clog, and someone decided that screaming “he’s got a gun! Run back!” would be a good way to get people ascending to go back up the escalator. No one was hurt in the stampede back up, but it was a tense 30 seconds of wondering if I was going to get shot in the back. Two freaking idiots here: the ass who screamed about a fictional gun and NJ Transit for smashing people into inescapable spaces. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/42 "2010-03-04T13:08:48Z")
A collection of random wierdnesses and bad experiences… I was on the train to theatre club, and on the way I was busy altering my costume for an upcoming performance. The lady across from me leans over and says very seriously “Did you know that sewing is against the will of the Lord?” No, I never did find out why… Another more amusing one - this is a conversation between me (aged about 15) and a guy (probably late teens) one Saturday afternoon. I’d never seen this bloke before, and I was the only one in the carriage before he got on. For about five minutes, nobody says anything. The train rattles on (ka chug ka choooo…ka chug ka choooo). Then… Him: You got the time? Me: About 3:30 ka chug ka choo…ka chug ka choo…ka chug ka choo… Him: Thanks. Me: … ka chug ka choo…ka chug ka choo…ka chug ka choo… Him: Um - would you be interested in getting off with me? Me: No. ka chug ka choo…ka chug ka choo…ka chug ka choo… Him: Oh, ok. guy gets up, goes through to the next carriage. … I guess it’s possible he found someone willing, somewhere on that train. Just _barely_ possible… ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/43 "2010-03-04T13:47:44Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > But really, that was it. And once, I felt really ill on a subway car and had to squat down, and strangers were asking me if I was okay. New Yorkers can surprise you. (Although they may have just wanted some advance warning that I was going to puke on their shoes.) I know somebody who, as a tourist, suddenly felt dizzy and passed out on a New York subway platform. With her thousand dollar professional camera and everything. She came to five minutes later and found that five or six people had gone out of their way, missing trains, to help her, and nobody had touched her camera. Somebody actually caught her on the way down. I mean, I expect that here, but in New York I didn’t think people made enough eye contact with you to even notice you fainting. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/44 "2010-03-04T15:35:54Z")
There’s a guy who rides the DC Metro from time to time who sings hymns, loudly, and in a heavy Korean accent. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/45 "2010-03-04T16:04:44Z")
Mostly good or neutral experiences riding the Washington DC Metro. A few noteworthy bad ones: 1. Shortly after Obama’s inauguration, afternoon, some teenagers were acting up and being deliberately loud. They started loudly saying provocative things, clearly hoping someone would take issue with them and they could then harass said person. This sort of thing happens every once in a while. In this case, they were black and male, but I’ve seen various combinations of race and gender do this; the common denominator seems to be age. An elderly black woman rose from her seat and spoke calmly. I can’t recall what she said verbatim, but she old them not to act like that because “we have a _black man_ in the White House now” and they should be improving themselves. They shut up in a hurry. So it turned into a _good_ experience, I guess. 1. A nervous-looking young man got onto the car, opened a bible, and began loudly and mechanically droning his way through bible verses. It was clearly an act of “witnessing” to a trapped audience of strangers. He looked more uncomfortable than we were, so I’m sure he was fulfilling some requirement and it wasn’t something he’d thought to do on his own. A bearded man using a cane for support began whanging his cane loudly against the aluminum pole in the aisle and bellowing “NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR THAT!” He wasn’t old, and seemed fairly vigorous in upper body strength, so he was completely drowning out the proselytizer with his violent banging and yelling. His fury was actually much scarier than the poor bible dunce’s weirdly halting behavior; it grew and grew when he realized the proselytizer would not, in fact, shut up. I thought Cane Guy was going to start beating Bible Dunce physically and maybe kill him. To my intense disgust, they both kept it up full bore for two stops, until Bible Dunce ran out of text and exited the train. I didn’t want to be proselytized, but Cane Guy made his side look even worse. 1. Once I was standing on a train because all the seats were full. This time the aisle wasn’t very full; there was lots of room to stand. I have a habit of planting my feet and moving them as little as possible; it keeps me from infringing on my fellow passengers and when they do whack into me, I can feel confident that it wasn’t my own negligence (because I know I haven’t shifted position). So I’m standing there with lots of empty room around me and suddenly something _leans_ against me quite hard. I turn around and look over my shoulder – it’s a tall man wearing a backpack. He’s standing with his back to me in the middle of an open area, _leaning back on ME_ for support. (I’m a male but not very tall). I don’t _think_ it’s sexual or anything like that, because it’s a (very full) backpack touching me, not any part of his body. The only things to lean on in the car are metal or Plexiglas, and they have no “give” at all, so if one ever pushes against something that sways, one KNOWS it’s a person. This guy has to have seen me, unless he walked backwards onto the car and down the aisle. He HAS TO KNOW he’s leaning ON ME, and not part of the car. But maybe he’s preoccupied. I’ll send him a signal. So I lean back, pushing him hard. He stands straight for a moment, just long enough for me to think he’s gotten it. Then he leans back _again_. It’s not a shove; it’s not like he’s mad and is pushing back. It’s exactly like he’s relaxing, taking a load off, _and I’m his hammock._ At this point I can’t believe it, so I shove him back AGAIN. No train parts will shove you, so he’s got to realize I’m a live human being he’s all-but-lying-on-top-of. He stands straight for a few moments, without turning around. Then he leans _back_ into me with a thump. Honest to God. So I turned around to face him and tapped him on the shoulder and said, “HEY.” He looked at me with mild curiousity, as if he can’t imagine what I’m going to say. “Why are you _pushing on me_ with your backpack? You have plenty of room! What on earth are you doing?” “Sorry,” he says, mildly. He straightens up. We ride in silence, back-to-back, not touching, for another three or four stops. Then, as we slow down for the next stop, a gentle pressure starts against my back. He’s leaning back against me again! I turned around, glaring, just as he straightened up again and strode out the door onto the platform. I have no idea what his issue was. That last lean was probably deliberate, but before that, he seemed genuinely (if mildly) surprised when I spoke to him, so I get the impression he didn’t realize the original incidents were a problem. I can’t imagine how _anyone_ could fail to notice they were leaning on a stranger, but he did give that impression. Unless he’s a great actor. This was one of the least explicable encounters I’ve had. 1. One time I was all-but-alone on the station platform – literally at least 50 feet in any direction from a person, on a platform 20 feet wide. A woman suddenly said “excuse me!” in my ear as she collided with me. I checked my pockets, keys, and wallet as she rushed off. All present; as far as I can tell she wasn’t picking my pockets. The weirdest thing was that she had to walk a diagonal to get back to where she was going, and I was not in a straight line between the escalator and her destination, so she’d literally walked out of her way to blunder into the only person on the platform. . ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/46 "2010-03-04T16:12:43Z")
> [@La\_Beldame](#): > > I rolled my eyes, turned my back on him and started walking away, but he _followed_ me–pants puddled around his ankles, johnson bobbing like a metronome, “Hey lady, lookit! Lady, hey laaaaady!” No one on the crowded platform said a word or intervened in any way; we all resolutely minded our own business and eventually he climbed down onto the tracks (pants still around his ankles), crossed over the third rail without incident and climbed up on the other platform. > > And then my train came. I’m hearing him using the Prof. Frink/Jerry Lewis voice. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/47 "2010-03-04T16:23:17Z")
So, did the OP live through his/her encounter with the horrifying public transit system? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/48 "2010-03-04T16:47:05Z")
Bus driver, letting people of in Chicago’s gay neighborhood, warning them not to drop their keys. Coupla teenage boyz, elbowing each other, whisper-giggling, pointing to me knitting on the bus. One of them apparently elected, says to me, indicating the knitting, “Are you gay?” Me: “Why, are you horny?” Kid turns bright red, his buddies guffawing all the way home. Overall the worst thing about riding the bus is talkative drunks or christians. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/49 "2010-03-04T16:48:15Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > So, did the OP live through his/her encounter with the horrifying public transit system? I hear he didn’t have a nickle for the exit fare, so he never got off the train. No he never returned. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/50 "2010-03-04T17:24:37Z")
Well, it went well. Best part was I avoided paying for parking at the convention center. There was one weird guy with rain boots and a white latex glove standing in the corner though. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/51 "2010-03-04T18:30:22Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > That was a bad day to get a complete asshole for a driver. He refused to open the rear door for anyone. He said that everyone who wanted to get off the bus needed to use the front door. This was not well-received by anyone, especially people in the rear of the bus. Just getting to the rear door was struggle enough, nevermind getting all the way to the front. naturally, he got complaints about this, and he got even more insistent. This asshole now works for Allegheny County Port Authority (Pittsburgh’s bus system). There’s one driver on the bus I take home from work who refuses to open the rear doors. > [@](#): > > Somehow one sweet little old lady managed to exit through the rear door. She hobbled along the sidewalk to the front of the bus, and address the sweet young man who was driving. I believe her exact words were “You are an ASSHOLE! You hear me? ASSHOLE! ASSHOLE!” She got a round of applause for that. Do you think that old lady would like a trip to Pittsburgh? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/52 "2010-03-04T18:37:56Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > This asshole now works for Allegheny County Port Authority (Pittsburgh’s bus system). There’s one driver on the bus I take home from work who refuses to open the rear doors. That’s just fucking weird, especially since just about every transit system i’ve ever ridden has signs on the buses telling passengers to exit by the rear doors. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/53 "2010-03-04T19:14:11Z")
Last June I was riding the red line of the DC Metro when, at the Dupont Circle station, the conductor unexpectedly said that the train was going out of service and everyone would have to get off and wait for another train. No big whoop, I thought. Later when I got to my hotel and turned on the news, they were talking about that big wreck on the red line that killed 9 people. So I was on the red line at the exact time as the red line wreck (but fortunately several miles away). ---
**Author:** ![JerseyFrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@JerseyFrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyFrank)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/54 "2010-03-04T19:52:07Z")
I take a train from Philadelphia to southern NJ. Aside from weirdos, the worst experience I’ve had is the train stopping service due to a minor fire in an underground station. I made the poor choice of walking the 7 miles to the station where my car was parked. Walking 7 miles in and of itself isn’t _that_ bad. Walking 7 miles through Camden, NJ was. Camden was ranked as the most dangerous city in America at the time I did this. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/55 "2010-03-04T20:42:51Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > Well, it went well. Best part was I avoided paying for parking at the convention center. There was one weird guy with rain boots and a white latex glove standing in the corner though. Ah, that’s nothing. Guy’s obviously an amateur at the game of “dress up to freak people out” compared to the guy I saw on the L in Chicago years ago (reposting from [a really old thread, do not bump!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2935351&postcount=47)): > [@Ferret Herder](#): > > Now’s probably the time to state that I’ve never done anything stronger than alcohol or caffeine in my life, and I was on neither at the time I saw this event. I was also not sleep-deprived, hallucinating, or dreaming. (I think. I hope.) > > I’ve worked in downtown Chicago for several years now, and have taken the L (elevated train/subway) enough while working there, usually when I don’t have a ticket for the shuttle bus to my workplace. I’d never seen anything truly weird on it though, or if I had it pales in comparison to this. > > It’s about 6:00 on a weeknight, and I’m on the L on the way to the train station. There are a few other people in my car. We stop, doors open, I hear one person get on but don’t really look. I hear the newcomer start to preach quietly, but it doesn’t sound all hateful or anything, so I just glance over. I blink. I glance again. Then I try to do the looking-out-of-the-corner-of-my-eye thing so as to try to scope this situation out without just staring. Fortunately for my sanity at this point, I see other people in the car doing the same thing. > > The guy is slim, tall, and has some kind of very worn cloth padding on all over his body, over a sweatshirt and jeans. He has on high boots, shin guards, some kind of chest padding that laces up the back (and I notice is carefully laced up), forearm guards, some kind of gloves. He has with him one of those handcarts like they use in grocery stores or warehouses, the upright kind that you put a few boxes on. On it are a couple of those milk crates with something in them, and a large, oversized ball of some kind (basket or football, brown, large hole as if a lid had popped off - obviously a novelty thing and not a real ball) on top of the whole lot. > > But here’s the **really** weird part. On his face he had some kind of silver mask, or else the best silver makeup job I’ve ever seen - because I swear the mouth on the mask moved properly as he spoke. Mind you, I didn’t look really closely because I was trying to not make eye contact, but it looked very smooth and seamless. It was a definite contrast to the extremely worn padding that he had on. > > My little brain was still trying to deal with the cognitive dissonance while trying to take in as much information as possible to figure the whole thing (I noticed as he got close - he was slowly walking back and forth in the car, preaching calmly about how the end time was near - that he didn’t smell bad or anything, so I’m not sure he was homeless), and then the car pulled up to my stop. I got out and felt almost dazed. > > Blue Man Group reject? Superhero wannabe? I temporarily slipped into an issue of the _Sandman_ or _Hellblazer_ comic books? I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![luv2draw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@luv2draw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luv2draw)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/56 "2010-03-04T20:55:07Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > Eeewwww. > > My most recent crappy subway experience - I was taking the subway home from work and for some reason it was unusually packed that day. So packed that you were squished up against everyone else with barely room to turn your head. When the train lurched there wasn’t even room for anyone to stumble. > > Anyway so I was standing there praying that my stop would come soon, when I realized that my skirt had somehow inched it’s way up my thighs. I squirmed around and pulled it back down, but then I FELT SOMEONE’S HAND trying to tug it back up. I tugged it back down, he tried to pull it back up. Repeat until I could finally get off at my stop. > > For those of you who are wondering - it’s almost impossible to figure out who is feeling you up when the subway is that crowded, and I didn’t feel like accusing everyone around me of trying to grab my thighs. > > That’s the Korean subway for you though. When I took the #1 line in college I used to get groped on a weekly basis. Same situation years ago in the NYC subway. I’m with a friend of mine. It’s crowded. We’re both standing facing each other holding onto a pole that runs from the ceiling to the floor with other people next to us and behind us holding onto the same pole at various heights. She’s wearing a skirt and feels a hand between her thighs from someone behind her that she can’t see. I can tell from her face that something is going on but I don’t know what. I only find out later… She reaches between her legs, grabs a finger and bends it all the way back until she feels a pop. Everyone hears the scream… A bunch of people get off at the next stop. Never did see who it was but I’ll bet that guy kept his hands to himself after that… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/57 "2010-03-04T21:15:53Z")
Crowded city bus, after dark, middle of winter. I’m about to get off the bus, waiting for others to get off first. A woman behind me shoved past me and past everyone else. It was quite rude. I mean she was really shoving so she could be the first one out. She then walked behind the bus shelter and laid down on the pavement. Those of us she shoved out of the way walked over to see what was going on. Several of us asked if she was OK. She insisted that she was. Nobody bought it. Before long an ambulance was there. The EMTs tried to figure out what her story was, but she just wanted to be left alone. They asked her a few basic questions. How old are you? Forty. Where do you live? Cambridge. What do you do for a living? Doctor. The EMTs gave each other a knowing look and said “Worst patients of all!” They finally convinced her to get into the ambulance. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/58 "2010-03-04T23:35:02Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > I guess the trouble isn’t worth it. Supposing I did break his finger - it’d be his word against mine that he was groping me, and in Korea the climate is such that women making those kinds of accusations aren’t believed (or are brushed off) most of the time. If I made a fuss, I doubt I’d have many sympathizers among my fellow commuters. Especially if the dude was older than me (respect towards the elderly is an absolute rule here, even if they are trying to grope you on a subway). > > It’s a weird culture. 😕 The trouble isn’t worth it? _I_ would have made one hell of a loud fuss and bent that grubby finger backward until I felt a satisfying pop, but then I’m not a Korean woman respectful of the elderly. Isn’t there a brilliant solution in Japan, by designating some trains ‘for women only’, since groping seems to be a divine right for the men? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/59 "2010-03-05T20:36:29Z")
Not horror stories, really, just amusing things that have happened to me on public transit… 1.) Back when I had blue hair and/or a mohawk, I used to get all kinds of fun people talking to me. One of them was an odd old man who smelled like stale sweat, had one eye like a cat’s, and asked me how elephants sat. 2.) MCTS busses generally have one long row across the very back, five seats wide. One day, I was sitting in the middle of that, listening to music, and a guy sat down next to me. For some reason, the first thing he said was, “Do you speak English?” I took the out, shook my head, and turned up my music. (My ethnic background’s entirely Euro and I look it, so who the hell knows where that came from.) This gave me an idea for politely avoiding a conversation with a drunk guy at a bus stop a few years later… or so I thought. He tried to start talking to me, so I kept telling him, in Japanese, that I didn’t speak English. Unfortunately, this didn’t discourage him. At all. He kept asking if I was speaking Spanish, both in English and in broken Spanish. He kept it up so long that I finally gave up and walked to the next bus stop. 3.) Foreigners in Japan will often have “the gaijin zone”: a radius of personal space around them that Japanese don’t get. It was the night that a 20-something Japanese woman fell asleep on my shoulder on the last train home that I truly felt like I belonged. 😃 4.) Tokyo trains and subways can get jam-fucking-packed. I once saw two men get into an argument because one guy was reading a relatively large manga on a crowded train while standing up. Fellow Stander started yelling at Reader, telling him that he was taking up way too much space, and everybody else probably wanted to read something, too, but they weren’t rude enough to do it. Reader got off shortly thereafter… and Fellow Stander followed him, yelling louder once he got off the train. The chest-shoving started just as the train pulled away. My feelings on the subject were a combination of, “You tell that asshole,” “Jeeze, enough already,” and “Holy shit, I actually understood a good chunk of that conversation.” > [@salinqmind](#): > > Every bus I’ve been on, the rear door on a bus opens automatically, with no yelling to the driver. I doubt it’s automatic–you’ve probably just always had drivers that always enable it. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091/60 "2010-03-05T20:44:25Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > I doubt it’s automatic–you’ve probably just always had drivers that always enable it. Yeah, from what I’ve seen, they are independently operated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-transportation-horror-stories/531091.md?page=4)