Philly Bus Riders - A rant

[GoneOffShore]

So, I usually walk or bike to work, but the gout has been acting up and I'm "on the buses".

I just don't get it. Board the bus at the front, walk to the back, find a seat, ride to destination, get off at rear door. Really simple, right? Not in Philadelphia!

Usual scenario - Board bus, pay fare, walk to the back, find a seat, ride to destination, walk to front of bus, make people waiting to get on wait longer while getting off bus.

What is that about? If one is fit and doesn't need the bus to "kneel" why walk to the front and obstruct the flow of passengers? Am I missing something here?

No, I don't think I am. I believe it's just the 'burning stupidity' and sense of entitlement that so many Americans exhibit in public. I've seen Americans do this in Europe and wonder why people glare at them.

[LeftinOH]

1. Where I live (Cleveland)... the back doors often don't work, or the

driver doesn't open the back unless one yells "BACK DOOR!!!" ...but sometimes that isn't enough - it seems to depend on the whim of the driver and/or the condition of the back-door-opening-mechanism.

[GoneOffShore]

2. We don't seem to have that particular problem in Philly.

The doors work, but riders brains don't.

They seem to think it's their right to obstruct the flow of traffic and get off at the front.

[Adsos Letter]

3. My eldest daughter is a California girl going to school in Philly...

...she has had several rants about drivers, in general, in Philly...as well as some garbled ranting about the weather back there... :D

[GoneOffShore]

4. Philly drivers are really bad

But the ones who come over from New Jersey are worse.

The weather here is typical Northeast weather - good, bad and occasionally indifferent. We have seasons here and that may be the cause of her ranting. :)

[Adsos Letter]

5. Indeed...

She likes nice sunshine, temperate weather; suffocating humidity or freezing cold...eh, not so much. :D

Her latest rant was about Philly drivers who stop in the street, toss their flashers on, and consider it "parking."

Plus, she has no compelling interest in History which, to me, seems an abomination considering where she is...I love visiting there, being a History freak myself...

:hi:

[GoneOffShore]

6. Ah, the flash parkers

Sometimes I wish I had a bazooka.

What's she doing here in Philly?

[Adsos Letter]

8. She is just finishing her second year of med-school...

She takes boards at the end of the semester, and starts her surgical rotations this Summer...most in Philly, but one in New Jersey.

[skypilot]

9. I disagree.

I don't take the bus that often here in Philly but on many occasions when I have I've seen the problem that LeftinOH describes. In fact, when I read your post the first thing that came to mind was the times I've seen people pushing on the back door and yelling "Back door!!" to the driver. It probably happens a lot more than we know and this would probably explain why people walk to the front of the bus to get off. People in Philly do lots of dumb things but I think there is probably a reason for this one.

[GoneOffShore]

11. The doors work -

I think that the drivers are so used to the "I'm-getting-off-at-the-front-of-the-bus-no-matter-what" people that they sometimes don't bother with the back door.

[skypilot]

12. Hmm. Sounds like "the chicken or the egg" to me

I'm sure that the doors work most of the time but there is no way to really know if people are gravitating to the front of the bus to exit because of numerous experiences with drivers who don't open the back door OR are the drivers not bothering with the back door because people are gravitating to the front. In either case, if the driver, for whatever reason, isn't opening the back door you're going to have situations where people are pushing on it and yelling for the driver to open it. If this happens enough, people might just get into the happen of exiting at the front since the KNOW that the driver will open the front door.

[Darth_Kitten]

7. Ah, the bus.............

my experience yesterday:

Bus was full and I was standing right in between (it was a tight fit) the seats and the area over the front tires (you know, where people put all their bags) Not in the aisle, though I could have. I was out of anybody's way.

So lady comes in with a huge stroller (takes up 3 seats) asks me, could I move so her son can stand here? Right where I am?

Uh, I'm squeezed out of the way, her son can continue standing next to her, and he can stand here when I get off.

[Tektonik]

10. Oh god that happens here in SD way too much as well

We have some pretty nice buses here in San Diego, and the back doors always are well functioning. I swear that anyone who is not directly behind the rear door ALWAYS exits from the front although it is much faster to exit out the back.

[Gormy Cuss]

13. The other reason for pushing to the front is safety.

Unless the bus has pulled into a designated bus stop, exiting from the back door can mean that you're stepping out to the traffic lane on the wrong side of a parked car, into a snowbank, a pothole, or any variety of other hazards. Regular riders tend to know which stops have these issues and choose the door accordingly. Irregular mass transit riders tend to be unfamiliar with the secrets of getting through the trip with the least irritation and they're often the ones who don't know when to chose the back door.

I've lived in three different areas as a local bus commuter and the operable back door problem was a constant in two systems and not a big deal in the third, except when passengers clogged the door well and wouldn't step off temporarily to let others exit. When that happens it trains passengers to understand that at the front of the bus the driver will tell people to keep the door clear and riders actually pay attention, at least most of the time.

[GoneOffShore]

14. I've seen this happen at all stops on the various routes I ride

Doesn't matter if the bus pulls fully into a stop or not. Most of the people move to the front of the bus to get off.

I've watched people force their way to the front of a crowded bus from the back, passing the serviceable rear door.

And as far as being an irregular rider - I've been doing this for about 4 months. No potholes, no snowbanks, just bloody rude and inconsiderate people.

[Gormy Cuss]

15. I wasn't taking a swipe at you with that remark.

The irregular riders really do muck up the works because there is a code of etiquette that takes some time to figure out. The tourists and weekend only riders often don't get it and clog aisles, straphold at the front of the bus rather than moving to the more open area at the back, etc.

It sounds like in Philly the tradition is to move to the front of the bus to exit, just as it is in Boston. Old habits die hard.

[GoneOffShore]

16. I didn't think you were

I remember riding the T in Boston one time and the driver would give a cheerful little speech between stops about the weather, keeping the car clean and exiting by the rear doors.

[Gormy Cuss]

17. That sounds like a Green Line story.

The Green Line trolleys do have a rear door exit tradition.
I rode T buses for years and the standard was that the rear door was only opened upon request and half the time the rear door either didn't open or the driver instructed passengers to use the front door because the rear door was balky or because heaven forbid someone might sneak onto the bus without paying a fare. There was also a time when they wouldn't open both doors to load at the subway stations unless there was an employee to check the passes of the people who entered from the rear door -- talk about silly and counter-productive when there are 30-40 people waiting to load at each bay.

That's why I said there is a tradition of it in Boston. Here in the SF Bay area, the rear door exiting is pretty well established, especially in the lines with articulated double buses but riders in the front half of the bus still exit from the front door.

[GoneOffShore]

18. You're right - It was the Green Line