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There is one person on this bus, where are they? All the way at the front.

I ride the bus nearly every day to work and  on my way home. I’ve been on buses in many other major North American cities. I wouldn’t consider myself to be a bus expert but I do like to think of myself as least an experienced bus goer. If you’ve never been on a bus I feel the need to warn you that I’ll be using some very bus-specific terminology in this piece and maybe you should brush up on your bus lingo (or “busingo” as we say in the bus biz). Complex bus words like “driver”, “seat” and “the back” will be popping up all over this article and if you’re not familiar you might miss out on some of the nuances of what I’m trying to get across.

What I’m here to write about today is general bus behavior when you get on the bus.

Here’s how I understand the process is supposed to work.

1. Get on the bus.
2. Pay your fare and nod to the driver.
3. Move as far back as you can since there are people behind you, if there aren’t people behind you, more people might get on later.
   1. This doesn’t just apply to sitting, even if all the seats are full, you still move all the way to the back to stand.
   2. No, this doesn’t mean to the steps at the back, it means all the way back.
   3. Listen, if you can get to the back of the bus, that is where you should be going.
   4. Oh, you’re near the back door and you want to stop? Keep moving, there’s still a bunch of space at the back.
   5. No seriously, there is space at that back what is wrong with you?

You might (especially as a non-bus traveler) think that the 5 sub-points of step 3 are excessive but if you’ve ever been on a crowded bus, you know that those sub-rules exist for a reason and even with 5 clear clarifications about moving all the way to the back, many people on the bus will just get on the bus, look to see if there are any seats and if there isn’t, they will just stand there. Near the front of the bus. Everyone who gets on after them will have to push past them to try and get further into the bus. Most of the people that make it past will stop somewhere in the middle anyways, too tired from pushing past the people in the entrance of the bus to to make it all the way to the back. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…