Of ranting and buses

[Sipex]

I was going to post this in the general banter thread but it got too big so I decided to make a seperate thread. I figure enough of you probably ride the bus too and can relate/rant/tell your bus stories.

1) The people who sit on the outside of a two seat and leave the inside empty or leave their bag there. Yeah, you'll probably move over if I ask but the bus could be full and you would pretend not to notice until I did ask.

2) Same as above except with headphones or pretending to sleep. Either you drown me out or pretend not to hear me, great.

3) When a stroller gets on the bus and of the two seats which fold up, one holding one person who is physically okay the other is full and probably has kids or peoples with disabilities on it, the full seat is forced to get up. This only changes by driver intervention which brings me to.

4) ***** drivers. You're in charge! Take charge already! Yes, those kids are standing at the front of the bus, tell them to move back!

5) The group of people that stand at the front of the bus. Usually they form when the bus is full but halfway to the end of the route they're still standing there, blocking traffic while half the seats are now empty.

6) The kids that take up the back of the bus. Sorry to generalise but here it's always the kids...usually teenagers and always around school release time. Each one will take up at LEAST two seats and end up taking up the back of the bus with no more than 8 kids.

7) The sarcastic jerk who hides in the crowd. Never fails, if you try to take charge in any way someone will pop in a sarcastic remark from the crowd. Take a situation I had two weeks ago, the bus is absolutely loaded and four pre-teen girls are taking up all the back seats. I asked them to save some seats for the rest of us and some jerk piped in. Of course I can't see him and he won't make himself known. Jeez, everyone was glaring at them and this is the thanks I get for being the one to take action? Fine.

8) The shy guy who won't sit next to anyone. I admit, I'm guilty of this from time to time but there's usually a guy/girl who will get on the bus and see that there are no lone seats then proceed to stand in the way of everyone else, usually near the front of the bus or near the back doors, causing buildups.

9) The guy you don't know who wants to talk to you. Hi? Who are you? No I don't shop at K mart. Oh no, I wasn't listening to my music/reading that book I had open/playing that game I'd much rather talk awkwardly to you.

10) Lazy moms. I'm sorry you don't have a car but the seats at the front of the bus fold up for a reason, so your stroller doesn't block the aisle. They are not there so you can sit on them and have your stroller block the aisle.

Share your gripes and or bus stories or woe.

[Coidzor]

It's a bit annoying to cobble together a route to get somewhere and back when you've never really, y'know, been around town much before and you're still very much new to the place.

[Sipex]

Or to find out said route doesn't run on sundays or after 6 or on weekdays or some other crazy rule that induces sudden "Oh no, I've got 10 minutes to figure out an alternate solution" panic.

Love the transit system.

[Mauve Shirt]

The Fred(ericksburg regional transit) is NEVER on time. Once, I was stranded at a bus stop at 10 PM for 2 hours in a sketchy neighborhood. College students get to ride the Fred free, but it's almost worth it to pay for a taxi when you want to go somewhere. Not only is it never on time, it also has a bad habit of getting to the places worth going about half an hour later by going around to the places where no one gets on or off.
As for the people who ride the bus, it's mostly college students and homeless people who want somewhere warm (or AC'd in the summer) to nap.

[arguskos]

You know, I hate the damn DART system here, but I must say, it gets me around. That's... basically all I care about at the moment. My bike doesn't go as many places as the bus/train system does.

Oh, and as for my personal gripe, here it is: the bus I take, 463, has a loooong route... and has the least buses of any route in the WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM. It has THREE buses for a 20 mile+ route. THREE. They break down frequently, and you can be left standing outside at 3:30 PM in the Texan heat waiting on a god damn bus that ends up being 2.5 hours late. TWO AND A HALF HOURS?! Where's the replacement bus? "Oh, sorry, we didn't assign one to that route, you'll just have to wait for the next one." Guess what? All the buses on 463 broke down that day, all at once, right when I wanted to go home from class. They had to fix them ALL before the route ran at all. >_< Ugh, that SUCKED.

[Telonius]

I wish the bus were my transit problem. Personally, I hate it when:

- The train that you usually take has a malfunction that kills nine people
- ... and they still can't figure out exactly what went wrong months after the fact...
- ... but they're still running the cars that have been identified as a safety problem...
- ... and are running everything really slow and with fewer trains so that more people get a chance to crowd onto the trains when they do get into the station...
- ... oh yeah, and you live far enough away from work that the train is really the only way you can get there.

:smallannoyed:

[B-Man]

I despise the HRM transit. Nay, I loathe it. It does well enough if I have to get into downtown (during the week, before 18:00), but what if I want to get across the harbour to visit my friends in Dartmouth? 3-4 busses I would have to take to visit them. It's about a 1.5-2.5 hour trek to cover 8 km of car driving. The transit system here is the sole thing that's pushing me to get my licence before my 21st birthday...

[Sipex]

Yikes, that's pretty heavy. I can at least say my transit feels safe :/

arguskos: Yeah, been there. Worst part is they tend to reduce the service on sundays. I hope that isn't true for you.

Mauve: Been there too. Can't get to the east end of the city from my hosue without it taking an hour at least (that is if you catch good timing with the buses...ha!) The clincher? I live in the north east end already and can get to the south west end in an hour >.<

[Groundhog]

All the city buses I've ridden on were actually not bad at all. Of course, that's because all the city buses I've ridden on were in Israel, where there's a very strict (unwritten) code of bus conduct, not to mention a very good bus system.

It's the school buses that drove me nuts. I took a school bus into DC for high school, and half the people on it were major jerks. For example, one of them would purposely sit in the seat that I saved for my friend every day. Now before you jump on me, there was a very good reason for me to save this particular friend a seat. And second, this jerk-person got on the bus fairly early on, like me, when there were plenty of decent seats to sit in besides the one I was saving for my friend. The only reason for this was to be spiteful.

[arguskos]

arguskos: Yeah, been there. Worst part is they tend to reduce the service on sundays. I hope that isn't true for you.
Oh hells yes they do. :smallsigh:

The buses don't RUN on Sunday. The trains do, but I can't get there sans bus. >_<

[Sipex]

Wow, that's pretty bad.

And now a bus story from the PA forums:

"oh god I almost got fired yesterday

4 girls all get on my bus at the same time

as soon as they sit down they all whip out phones and start like

SCREAMING into them

but not like screaming, just really loud talking for no f***ing reason

and they're all trying to outdo each other it seems, they're all being so loud and shrill that they're raising their voices even louder to be heard over each other

so after a few minutes of this I get fed up. They ignore my statements asking then telling them to shut their f***ing whale mouths

so I raise my hand, extend my pinky and thumb and have my own phone conversation

YES. NO. WHAT. OH IT'S HAD TO HEAR YOU. THERE'S 4 GIRLS REALLY REALLY LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS ON THE BUS. YEAH. YEAH. WHAT? NO NO THEY'RE TOTALLY UGLY, NOT EVEN WORTH IT.

I am literally screaming into my fake hand phone

YEAH THEY DON'T SEEM TO REALIZE THAT EVERYONE AROUND THEM CAN HEAR THEIR LOUDA** CONVERSATION. THEY ARE EITHER TOTALLY OBLIVIOUS AND STUPID OR THEY'RE JUST COMPLETE ****ING B*****S. YEAH MAN. NO I'LL SEE YOU LATER. OKAY BYE.


i hang up my fake hand phone

the bus is dead quiet

all 4 girls have :O faces so hard

they get off soon after, being quiet


later that day I get called into the office and my termination is discussed.

All 4 girls have separately called and complained. One after the other.

I relay the story and my termination is no longer being considered

because they were about to fire me for talking on a phone on the bus. When they found out it was a fake handphone they changed their minds"

censored appropriately as I'm not 100% sure on this forums swearing rules.

[valadil]

Cell phones bother me. Especially cell phones owned by people who don't have indoor voices. Recently cells have found new ways to annoy me. There's a woman on my morning bus with an iPhone. One of the awesome features of iPhones is that you can play your music through the phones speaker instead of using headphones. This feature isn't so awesome on the bus. The best part is that she wears headphones, but doesn't plug them in (presumably because it has wireless, so obviously she doesn't need the wires). Instead she just broadcasts her crappy music for all to hear.

I'm also annoyed by people who only go for one stop. It's one thing if the stop is across a highway or the weather is bad. But on a bright sunny day you have people waiting 10 minutes to avoid a 3 minute walk.

[Lolzords]

Whenever I get on a bus and it's jam-packed I limp and support my leg with my hand, gets me a free seat sometimes. :)

But the bus I ride to college is awful, it takes over an hour because the bus driver doesn't take the motorway and the seats are so narrow that I've no choice but to sprawl across two or sit with my knees in my face. I find it difficult at 5'11'', but I feel sorry for those who are over 6'.


EDIT: Thought of something else. There's this village en route to college called Whitchurch, quite tiny, though it's got three stops in this one village. People have taken to getting off at one stop, grabbing some cheap munch at somerfield while the bus loops round the village and getting back on to continue their journey. Adds five minutes or so to the journey, but it's a pretty fun thing to do.

[pendell]

I wish the bus were my transit problem. Personally, I hate it when:

- The train that you usually take has a malfunction that kills nine people
- ... and they still can't figure out exactly what went wrong months after the fact...
- ... but they're still running the cars that have been identified as a safety problem...
- ... and are running everything really slow and with fewer trains so that more people get a chance to crowd onto the trains when they do get into the station...
- ... oh yeah, and you live far enough away from work that the train is really the only way you can get there.

:smallannoyed:

You don't happen to live in the Washington DC area by any chance? We have exactly that problem on our Red Line.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[varthalon]

We (taxpayers) voted to have a mass transit bus system for the first time in our county and it was really nice, and FREE! (well paid for through taxes rather than by bus fares).

And then the school age kids starting using the mass transit buses to go to school rather than their assigned school buses. Whenever I was using the bus to get somewhere it always seemed jammed packed with rowdy and rude juveniles riding it rather than the school buses.

They finally had to start charging fares just to get the kids off the public buses and back onto the school buses they were supposed to be riding. Of course now I just drive everywhere because I never have spare change for the bus.

[varthalon]

There's this village en route to college called Whitchurch, quite tiny, though it's got three stops in this one village. People have taken to getting off at one stop, grabbing some cheap munch at somerfield while the bus loops round the village and getting back on to continue their journey. Adds five minutes or so to the journey, but it's a pretty fun thing to do.

That's freak'n hillarious... a bus system so slow you can stop for lunch along the way.

[Telonius]

You don't happen to live in the Washington DC area by any chance? We have exactly that problem on our Red Line.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Yep, that's me. My wife nearly fainted when she saw that it was the red line that crashed, since that's the train I'm usually on. Fortunately for all concerned, I normally take it to Shady Grove instead of Glenmont, and was able to cobble together a trip to Leesburg on the Loudoun commuter bus that day. I'd have been in town overnight if I hadn't made that bus.

[Lolzords]

That's freak'n hillarious... a bus system so slow you can stop for lunch along the way.

Too right. :smallbiggrin:

Also, I can no longer get lifts anywhere from anyone, I have to take the bus because I have a free pass. :(

[pendell]

Yep, that's me. My wife nearly fainted when she saw that it was the red line that crashed, since that's the train I'm usually on. Fortunately for all concerned, I normally take it to Shady Grove instead of Glenmont, and was able to cobble together a trip to Leesburg on the Loudoun commuter bus that day. I'd have been in town overnight if I hadn't made that bus.

*Nods* I know exactly where those are. I've been commuting on the orange line from Vienna/Dunn Loring since 1995 or so. So NOT happy with WMATA right now.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Icewalker]

That's a hell of a story, Sipex. Pretty hilarious.

AC Transit here in the bay area is pretty good. It's all almost always 5-10 minutes late, but pretty consistently so.

Another common horror one runs into on the bus:
The kind of creepy crazy person who you often can't fully understand the speech of, but tries to speak to people, and often ends up yelling randomly in a really disturbing fashion.

[SensFan]

Having read the front post, I fulfill many of the things you complain about, and don't see anything wrong with it.

(Note, I have no children, don't sit in the priority seats, and don't try to talk to people. I think everything else applies to me.)

Its public transit. If you want a seat by the window and someone is sitting on the aisle seat, then either ask them to move or don't. Its not their job to move to the window seat.

In fact, many of your points are contradictory. Take me, for instance. I'm an overweight male that is always listening to music (and often reading or playing a gameboy or something), rather introverted, and has a very irrational paranoia of missing my stop.

Due to the fact the sitting room on the buses almost always fill up, if I take a window seat, I have to squeeze by the person sitting by the aisle when I want out, which is hard and uncomfortable. My two options are standing or sitting on an aisle seat to which the window seat is empty (it gets uncomfortable if I sit in an aisle seat next to someone by the window) or stand. You seem to be against either of those choices.

As far as taking up 2 seats, yeah, I often do that. Like I said, I'm a big guy, both tall and otherwise. If the bus fills up to the point of people needing seats, I'll pick up my bag, or if someone that needs a seat (older people, disabled, etc...) I'll offer it to them. Otherwise, if there's plenty of standing room, if you want a seat, I see nothing wrong with you asking me.

I tend to get to know the drivers of the busses, since I usually take the same bus every day, and its nice to chat with them sometimes. Also, its easiest to watch the route from right in front, by the driver. Regardless of my reason, whats it to you if I want to stand by the front?

In all honesty, it sounds a lot to me like you take public transit and want everyone to do things exactly as you want them, which is an unreasonable expectation.

[Katana_Geldar]

Here's another one: kids that will push the stop button for EVERY STOP and make everyone late. When I see that, I ring up their school.

[Headless_Ninja]

People taking up two seats I can almost live with. What I really hate is when I get on the bus with a couple of friends, we walk up to the four-seat so we can all chat, and there is a person sat there alone. When there are plenty of other seats free. Argh!

[thubby]

applies to pretty much any situation where you're stuck with people. out of control kids. :smallfurious:

[Katana_Geldar]

People taking up two seats I can almost live with. What I really hate is when I get on the bus with a couple of friends, we walk up to the four-seat so we can all chat, and there is a person sat there alone. When there are plenty of other seats free. Argh!

They have a right to sit there unless an old person wants a seat.

[Kaelaroth]

4) ***** drivers. You're in charge! Take charge already! Yes, those kids are standing at the front of the bus, tell them to move back!

*snigger*
Where I am, for the most part, a driver saying anything like that to anyone in their teen years isn't going to happen very often, if only because, very occasionally. Or just occasionally:
"Please move, kid, you're in the way" = "STAB ME. I has pretty, woundable skin!"

[Moff Chumley]

I really don't like having to walk 1.5 miles to get to the nearest bus stop. :smallmad:

[Zanaril]

Let me join you in your ranting, with some things that annoy me about school buses:
-The kids who sit at the back and throw food at people, or who sing loudly just to be annoying.
-The people who smoke on the bus.
-The people who stand/sit on the stairs, preventing anyone getting to the top of the bus.
-The way the line for the bus moves about two feet along the road each day, as people cut to the front before the bus is actually there, forcing it to stop earlier. I predict by the end of the year it'll be stopping ourside the village (Which is about 50ft down the road :smalltongue:).

[Bouregard]

Top of my most hated list:

-people who drink alkohol in a bus

-homeless/drugvictims that smell awful
-whole schools using a bus for transportation, you won't find a seat and it's near impossible to read something with screaming and talking kids around.

[Lorn]

Yay, bus ranting :D

The prices. Four quid for a return to Durham here. That's a 3.5 mile journey either way. Day ticket is £7. Down in Cheadle-ish area wheere I have friends, a day ticket costs about £4. Gah. Then they have the audacity to complain... :p

The passengers.

The drivers.

The buses. They're falling apart.

The time. Why are they all concentrated together between the o'clock and half past mark? Why none at, say, quarter to?

Bus station plays classical music to "calm people down." Classical music makes me want to physically injure people a lot of the time. Yay, you're being totally ineffective!

Why did you spontaneously give the most busy service on a morning a single decker thus making everyone late for everything because it didn't even STOP?

Similarly, why give a schoolbus going to a heavily populated area a single decker after two terms of a double decker?

And now I'm on schoolbuses, driver. You are the driver. Act like it. Just turn the bus around if things are too much, let the parents solve it. This includes when people are literally throwing rocks and glass bottles out of the top of a double decker bus moving at 30MPH+.

[Headless_Ninja]

They have a right to sit there unless an old person wants a seat.

Well, of course they do! I'm not saying they don't. But you could say the same thing about the people upthread complaining about people sat on two-seats with a bag. It's still annoying. The worst was on a train, though - a man sat on a six-seat by himself despite nearby other seats. When the train became packed, so it was actually justified, he compunded the problem by refusing to remove his bags so someone could take the seat next to him. Fortunately for him, most people on the train were tired commuters who just wanted to get home, so no-one picked a fight.

[RS14]

4) ***** drivers. You're in charge! Take charge already! Yes, those kids are standing at the front of the bus, tell them to move back!

I'd like to relate a story that I heard secondhand. A few friends wound up taking a bus through downtown LA at approximately 0200h. (Bad idea. I know. They now know).

The bus stops, and a man gets on. He tells the driver "let me ride or I'll cut you." The driver shrugs and lets him on.

My point being: those few dollars weren't worth the life of the driver, nor even his job. He's not being payed to get stabbed. Nor is he particularly payed to deal with a bunch of (potentially, drunk, high, aggressive, armed, and/or insane) passengers; I certainly wouldn't do so for the wages they get. If you want something done about it, deal with it yourself, the same as you must with everything else in public. The driver is just there to take you from point A to point B.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I ended up walking from Queen to Bloor, a distance of many city blocks, after waiting 20 minutes, and still beat the streetcar there. And still wasn't late for class.

[Jack Squat]

I ended up walking from Queen to Bloor, a distance of many city blocks, after waiting 20 minutes, and still beat the streetcar there. And still wasn't late for class.

I once got sick of waiting for a bus ended up walking ~4 miles in an hour and a half, and one never passed by. I then waited 15 minutes to catch a bus the rest of the way back to where I was headed.

That was the last time I vaguely acted like I trusted public transportation here in Knoxville.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I once got sick of waiting for a bus ended up walking ~4 miles in an hour and a half, and one never passed by. I then waited 15 minutes to catch a bus the rest of the way back to where I was headed.

That was the last time I vaguely acted like I trusted public transportation here in Knoxville.

You win. I only walked 3 kilometers, at most, which is around 2 1/2 miles.

[Thrawn183]

I'm so glad I don't ride MARTA anymore in Atlanta. The buses weren't terrible (late, slow and expensive but not terrible), however I was afraid I might kill the next person to try and convert me.

[Klose_the_Sith]

Seeing as I break pretty much all of Sipex's laws (:smalleek:) let me defend my likeminded comrades as best I can.


1) The people who sit on the outside of a two seat and leave the inside empty or leave their bag there. Yeah, you'll probably move over if I ask but the bus could be full and you would pretend not to notice until I did ask.

My bag is ****ing heavy and it's uncomfortable to have it beneath me, seeing as I'm too tall for that to be practical. You want a seat then ask me and I'll compress myself for you, but otherwise just deal.


2) Same as above except with headphones or pretending to sleep. Either you drown me out or pretend not to hear me, great.

I do this to avoid dealing with the people who'll just abuse me anyway. If you want to talk to me then I'll listen, and I'll move over if you ask, but I'm not gonna pay attention to you just cause you have great self-importance.


3) When a stroller gets on the bus and of the two seats which fold up, one holding one person who is physically okay the other is full and probably has kids or peoples with disabilities on it, the full seat is forced to get up. This only changes by driver intervention which brings me to.

Kids over like ... 12 should ALWAYS be the ones to get up. The disabilities I'll grant you is wrong, but I've been riding in those folding seats frequently for years and I've never created problems.


4) ***** drivers. You're in charge! Take charge already! Yes, those kids are standing at the front of the bus, tell them to move back!

Drivers are better off avoiding the kids altogether, punks will always draw them into petty arguments and the resulting verbal exchange very often gets someone fired. It's just not worth it.


5) The group of people that stand at the front of the bus. Usually they form when the bus is full but halfway to the end of the route they're still standing there, blocking traffic while half the seats are now empty.

If people *can* get past them then this really shouldn't be an issue. Mostly it's just people who aren't familiar with the route or who have gotten caught up in conversations with their friends who are sitting nearby. As someone who knows both situations quite well I bear them no ill will for slightly impeding my movement.


6) The kids that take up the back of the bus. Sorry to generalise but here it's always the kids...usually teenagers and always around school release time. Each one will take up at LEAST two seats and end up taking up the back of the bus with no more than 8 kids.

Sure it's annoying, but once again - you don't want to get involved with these kids. They aren't going to listen, nor will they care, about who you are and the fact that you have to stand. Get too close and it becomes a case of abuse.


7) The sarcastic jerk who hides in the crowd. Never fails, if you try to take charge in any way someone will pop in a sarcastic remark from the crowd. Take a situation I had two weeks ago, the bus is absolutely loaded and four pre-teen girls are taking up all the back seats. I asked them to save some seats for the rest of us and some jerk piped in. Of course I can't see him and he won't make himself known. Jeez, everyone was glaring at them and this is the thanks I get for being the one to take action? Fine.

They're MAKING LIGHT OF A SITUATION? O_O THE NERVE!

Seriously, what's the big deal? It's ****ing bus seating - no point getting all that worked up about it.

(I might also note that I've been the victim of this in other situations but never the culprit - why should it bother you?)


8) The shy guy who won't sit next to anyone. I admit, I'm guilty of this from time to time but there's usually a guy/girl who will get on the bus and see that there are no lone seats then proceed to stand in the way of everyone else, usually near the front of the bus or near the back doors, causing buildups.

They have their reasons and I've never seen bad build-ups resulting. Don't tell me to just swallow my social anxiety and that it's "all in my head", it doesn't work that way.


9) The guy you don't know who wants to talk to you. Hi? Who are you? No I don't shop at K mart. Oh no, I wasn't listening to my music/reading that book I had open/playing that game I'd much rather talk awkwardly to you.

Try talking back to them maybe? Why is there so much importance in your music/book/game. If they aren't someone you're interested then just be a **** to them and they'll shut up - that or hilarious hi jinx ensue.


10) Lazy moms. I'm sorry you don't have a car but the seats at the front of the bus fold up for a reason, so your stroller doesn't block the aisle. They are not there so you can sit on them and have your stroller block the aisle.

Again, it's really not that big a deal. So long as people are capable of getting on and off the bus this is just idle whining.


Share your gripes and or bus stories or woe.

I have one from a friend here


So it's around 10, and I'm waiting on Northbourne for a bus to get me near Curtin, I wait for 40 minutes before the bus gets there, with maybe seven other people waiting for a bus. When he got there, this asshat driver saw us, and decided he didn't want us on his bus. So he specifically pulls up 20 metres past the stop, to let people off, then leaves as the whole lot of us sprint over there.

I wait another hour.

I get on the next bus to Curtin and when it gets to Civic I'm told that it's terminating, and I'll have to catch a cab.I had no money, so I had to walk. Nearly three hours later, after being honked at by every other ****wit that thought it would be fun to do so as they drove past, I got back home, absolutely screwed from all the walking, and I get raged at by my panicked family, so it took another hour before I could go sleep.

If the ******* bus driver hadn't been an agest prick, and let me on. None of this would have happened.

**** Action bus drivers

Additionally:


<Cool post tragically snipped for length, you should check it out on the first page O:>

Praise be to someone who gets it! :smallbiggrin:

[Trog]

I only have two bus stories of vague interest. Both happened long ago on the way to middle school.

1.) It was winter and a friend of mine brought a bottle of fox lure (read horrid smelling fox pee) and for a prank dumped it into the heating system of the bus. The heating system kicked out the stench of it everywhere. It was a long and horrible smelling ride for all. :smallyuk:

2.) We were picked up for school by an antiquated city bus. The bus driver turned to is at a stop light sometime after his last pickup but before dropping us off at school and said "I hate having to drive this old ratty bus they gave me today and I never want to have to drive it again. Help me out. I want to you to trash it in what ever way you can think of - make a mess!" We never saw that bus again. :smallamused:

[Ninja Chocobo]

CityRail Buses.
They are an eighth of the size of the trains they're meant to replace, travel at half the speed, and come an eighth as often. Their timetable is also a tissue of lies, when it actually exists.

[Etcetera]

Heh. Free bus travel.
I was sick on a bus once (not very much, but still), for which I'm sure the other passengers disliked me for.
I did once have a stereotypical "evil old woman" sitting in front of me. I was standing at the back doors of the bus, as my journey was relatively short. I was carrying a bag with me. The woman was sitting by herself on the inside of a double seat, and the other seat was empty. The woman had been giving me the evils for most of the journey. Another, seemingly older, woman got on the bus, but the first woman shooed her away with "You'll have to go upstairs, dearie," which didn't seem very nice. Near to the end of the journey I dropped my bag and it slid under her chair and behind the people in front. When I asked the people in front, the woman started insisting that my bag (which was rather large) was not there. Eventually they found it and handed it back to me, but I've never quite been able to understand why the old woman behaved as she did.

I wasn't behaving threateningly by anyone's standards, I wasn't making any noise, I wasn't wearing anything ostentatious.

[Syka]

I have a couple. When I was up at school, we got to ride the bus for free (it was part of our student fees). The only time I ever had a bus drive past was on an afternoon when I was trying to get to the grocery store from campus...while everyone else was trying to get home from campus. I learned to never again try catching the bus at 4.

There was also a crazy lady that rode that route. Like, honestly crazy. Normally, she'd get on at the Publix and off about half way to campus. Somehow, more often then not she rode when I rode. She'd talk to the air, sing to the air, start SCREAMING at the air. Everyone just ignored it because...well, we had all seen her and knew it was normal for me. As a disclaimer, she definitely didn't have a bluetooth headset on. ;)


Then this one recently was the only one that has ever actually gotten me pissed off at the bus system, but more particularly the driver. For the last month and a half I have been regularly riding a route from my house to campus for a 5 o'clock class. I don't normally on Tuesdays, but the route is the same. So I wait for the bus which is supposed to get there at 3:15. It gets there at about 3:50. It's a driver I always have, so I think nothing of it. I can handle it being late, it's normal and something I accept as part of public transit.

We get to the stop at the airport, and he turns around to the three of us that are still on the bus, me, a woman, and a man. He asks where we are going. Both me and the man are going to campus, I don't know where the woman was going.

He tells us "Oh, you should have told me that back there because I would have dropped you at the other stop to catch a connector. You guys have to get off here."

In unison: "What?"

Him: "You have to get off here. You can catch the next bus." By this point it's 4:15.

Me: "What time does that come?"

Him: "Six."

Both the man and I: "*jaw drop and glare*".

So we got off and called rides. I was lucky my mom's boss is understanding, because I had to call her to come get me so I wouldn't be late for class.

Now, if the guy had asked when we got on or told us prior to the stop that the airport was the end of the line, I'd've been fine and called Oz to take me to class.

But he didn't! He gave NO indication until we were at the airport that would be the last stop!

We called and complained, because there was no route change or anything to justify kicking us off, but never heard back as to why it happened.


Still pisses me off. :smallannoyed: