Rude Behavior on the Bus

[mondo joe]

I'm a big supporter of public transportation, and use it more often than a lot of people do.

But I'll admit sometimes I'm really turned off to it - not because of the convenience factors, but because of what I'd consider rude behavior on the bus.

Last week I got on the bus and 4 guys sitting way at the back were singing and talking loudly, and then one of them starting throwing little tiny candies, which landed on the few people sitting in the rear.

I finally gave up and moved up front so I could read my book in peace, and the guys in back got louder, singing and swearing quite a lot. A lot of other passengers were looking back and quietly complaining, but no one challenged them and the driver didn't do a thing.

It doesn't take too many people on a bus ride to make it unpleasant for everyone else - taking up too much airspace, not to mention legspace. It's enough to make me nearly swear off the bus.

Any other bus riders feel like this?

[swag]

1. Occasionally.

Sometimes the activity on the bus can be entertaining, though. I would get into specifics, but your thread does not want to be locked.

One runs the risk of encountering rudeness anywhere one goes in public, from the synagogue to the strip club.


Good luck. Life's a crapshoot.

[shanti]

27. shoot

the stories i could tell about riding light rail in sacramento could fill a book! i remember one time when this young girl was applying deodorant (lavishly) right out in plain view, as well as other toiletries! yechhh!

[swag]

29. I have seen both handjobs

and moisturizing of a bunghole, all from the same loving learning-disabled, couple.

My rule: when I get off the bus, find the nearest hot water and soap and wash my hands thoroughly.

[shanti]

30. yeesh!

that IS disgusting! i carry antibacterial gel in my purse and like you, wash my hands after getting off the train.

i'm sensitive to odors and sometimes the smells on the train could gag a maggot.

[mondo joe]

31. Hey, just so long as they quiet while moisturizing, I

don't care. (But now that you mention it, I want to be scrubbed down like Meryl Street in Silkwood when I get off the bus!)

[callous taoboy]

41. Reminds me of the scene in Kotzwinkle's "The Fan Man"

where he is riding in a bench seat across from a young chick in a hippy dress who keeps squirming around in her seat. When she stands up to get off at her stop the Fan Man notices that she has left a turd behind.

The Fan Man. If you haven't read it you must buy it immediately!

[Semi_subversive]

33. Good old Light Rail

A few years back a drunk tweeker Ralphed and some got on my shoe. Normally when I ride it's very early and not a lot happens, but on the commute home there ahve been many times where I've wanted to toss people overboard.

[shanti]

45. heh

a woman with her kids was seated across from me one time (the old style trains) and hurled into a newspaper.

we won't even get into all the fights i've seen on light rail :eyes: i've been riding it for more than ten years.

[babylonsister]

2. That sounds like my memories of being on the bus in

high school.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. How about those that sit on the bus and have cell phone conversations

that the entire bus has to be privy to? Sometime they are so embarrassing that you want to just go and take the phone away and tell the person to GET A ROOM!!! These people think they are in a cone of silence or something, or just don't give a damn that everyone can hear their lives being broad cast to the entire world.

[swag]

4. This is why I'm so excited about the prospects of in-flight cell calls

and the ensuing violence.

[Ian David]

5. I'd rather strangers on the bus hear my personal details...

than co-workers in the next cubicle.

I will admit to having medical conversations with my doctor on the train where strangers could over-hear.

I'm not proud of it, though.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. But don't you try to modulate your voice? There are some people who

talk on public transportation like they are sitting in their kitchen and no one else is sitting near them.
I have spoken on my cell phone on the bus, but I keep my voice down.

[Ian David]

8. Oh, well of course... I try and remove myself from the general population

and speak as softly as I can while still being heard.

[mondo joe]

9. I include that in the TAKING UP TOO MUCH AIRSPACE

category.

I actually really like the bus a lot of the time - I get a little 20 minute time to read or just zone out or think about something.

But if I can't get that because it's too disruptive, there's zero appeal for me.

[mrcheerful]

7. These are the same reasons when most of us got old enough to drive

we got off the bus. I can't see where public transportation would be any different, after all most large cities are using city buses to replace the school buses, so you get the kids learning from older jerks. Another thing not mentioned by the protect the children types out there, what happens when sex offenders are forced to ride the same bus as your kids? Fear terror terror alert alert danger danger, goes to show how far things are thought out before hand. But the repukes will save us, they are all about law and order. Yep more sarcasm about how safe americans are.

edited due to granny mistake

[Southsideirish]

10. The conduct of many bus passengers is so loathsome. I love the ones

with their big feet in the aisle and who won't move them -therby making everyone who passes by to have to climb OVER thier big clompers!

Also the cell phone talkers and all the moms with strollers who won't collapse them and make people, once more, have to navigate around them. Sheesh - people are friggin' rude!

[mondo joe]

15. Once there was an undercover cop on the bus - these

two assholes were going on about "fag" this and "fag" that -- and RIGHT in the most gay neighborhood in the city!

Undercover dude just stood up, flashed his badge and in an assertive voice instructed them to get off the bus. They hemmed and hawed and he told them again, and they did.

Best bus ride of my life.

[Ian David]

11. You know what pisses me off? Push-to-talk cellular walkie-talkies

The ones that beep between messages like they're talking to Mission Control.

I mean, can't they use regular phone-mode at a restaurant?

[devilgrrl]

12. This so reminds of "The Incident"

http://imdb.com/title/tt0061814/

[Sammy Pepys]

13. What works best....

...for stuff like that is usually the hairy eyeball. If folks are singing or talking loudly I usually ignore that...but if they start throwing stuff it actually works to make it known they're being a pain in the ass.

[Catherine Vincent]

14. I agree.

Those guys make it uncomfortable for everyone else. Were they teenagers? They do stuff like that. I'm lucky...the park and ride that I take is usually pretty quiet. But we're all grownups. :-)

[mondo joe]

18. They were either at the upper end of being teens or the lower

end of being adults.

Too old to behae that way, at any rate.

As annoyed as I was for myself, I felt really bad for the seniors on the bus who seemed really upset at having to listen to FUCK and WHORE and so on, but seemed too intimdated to even say anything to the driver.

[demosincebirth]

34. Never seen a driver say or do anything to a group..

[porphyrian]

16. Chicago has a phone number posted for you to call...

...if you want to report anything like that. They'll radio your bus driver and make them do something if they aren't, or have people waiting for them at a future stop. I've never used it personally, but Chicago has a really good public transportation system, even if they did practically double prices at the beginning of the year.

[0007]

35. So does NYC. When I lived there the in the eighties I used the

subway trains all the time without any of the problems I'm hearing here.

[ronnykmarshall]

17. Kill them.

[demosincebirth]

19. It all boils down to lack of respect and a little discipline.

It has to be taught at home and that surely is not happening

[Virginia Dare]

20. We have a "situation" in D.C. on the metro trains...

I was going to start a thread about this but I forgot.

There is a certain individual who boards the train, says excuse me in a very loud voice, then proceeds to sing, very loudly and off key, christian hymns.

There has been an ongoing debate in the newspaper about whether this is harassment or just a matter of exercising first amendment rights? I see both sides, but it is annoying as hell.

:shrug:

[mondo joe]

22. Ain't no first amendment right to be disruptive on the bus.

They ought to have policies regarding conduct and they ought to enforce them, IMO.

[Virginia Dare]

26. You're probably right...

it's not much different than blasting your boombox or IPOD, which is against the rules.

[Arugula Latte]

24. Ugh. The singing is annoying enough .. But Christian Hymns?

x( Bleah.

[MamaBear]

44. A guy got on a city bus in Washington Heights in NYC

One Sunday morning, and I'm on my way to my music lesson, and this guy gets up in the middle of a city bus that's full (the A train wasn't running), and he gets up and starts preaching, loudly, in Spanish.

New Yorkers are pretty tolerant, but I can't hear my radio, and it's the only time we get Thom Hartmann in NY, and I was getting p.o.'d, and this guy goes on and on, and waves his big old bible around, shouting and exhorting, so I finally said, loudly, "Enough! We heard you the first fifty times you said it."

Usually I'm alone when I say these things, but that day about half the bus joined in, in at least two languages and maybe more, telling this nascent preacher to sit down and stuff it.

Surprisingly, he did, although he did get off at the next stop, looking utterly perplexed and bewildered. Evidently, he didn't understand that not everybody was eager to hear his message.

Nor, evidently, had he considered the possibility that we'd heard it all before.

Then it was quiet, as it should be, so I could listen to my radio (headphones, of course) in peace!

[Le Taz Hot]

49. At which point you REALLY need to

break out in a rousing rendition of "I like big butts and I cannot lie . . . " (or something equally, er, colorful). :evilgrin:

[shanti]

21. i think people are becoming ruder

on public transportation. my story: i was standing at the door of my train to exit at my stop. sitting IN the stepwell, was a middle aged wm who was reading a book. mind you, there were plenty of empty seats for him. another person came up behind him (the door accomodates two people exiting) and asked him to please move as she was exiting. he just turned around and gave her the hairy eyeball. she pointed out the sign on the wall next to him about "please do not sit in the stepwell" and he told her that she could just go around him and STAYED were he was! i don't normally confront people, but this just stuck in my craw. as i exited i told him that it was extremely rude to do this. the other person agreed and made some more choice remarks that i didn't hear. the man then said something like "i guess i should feel so badly", or similar.

why are people so rude??

(we won't even get into the incident where 4 young girls snatched another girl off the train when it came to a stop and proceeded to beat her butt - this while the security guard did nothing to stop it)

:argh:

[mondo joe]

25. Once an undercover cop on a bus kicked two jerks off

because they were making loud anti-gay slurs. Best bus ride of my life.

Too bad about the guard who did nothing. :-(

[shanti]

28. the rent a cops are frigging useless!

all they do is tell people to take their feet of the seats and walk up and down the aisles!

[demosincebirth]

32. Security guard don't get paid enough to put themselves

in harms way.

[shanti]

46. these were young girls

i believe the burly security guard could've handled it....but he chose not to.

[mondo joe]

47. If the bus passengers are THAT dangerous we really do need

security.

[callous taoboy]

42. Rudeness level everywhere is climbing. My neighbors are

boorish assholes.

[MikeNearMcChord]

My route goes by an area where

blind and deaf workers get on to commute, if you want to lose faith in humanity listen to the remarks made by some bus riders when they have to give up seats to those who are visually impaired. One more thing, I wish Seattle would scrap that electric line system, those things are more trouble than they are worth.

[MikeNearMcChord]

23. My route goes by an area where

blind and deaf workers get on to commute, if you want to lose faith in humanity listen to the remarks made by some bus riders when they have to give up seats to those who are visually impaired. One more thing, I wish Seattle would scrap that electric line system, those things are more trouble than they are worth.

[MadHound]

38. Oh yeah, it's amazing how rude people are

When they think that you can't hear them. I was riding the bus one time with a deaf friend of mine. We were conversing in sign, which prompted a couple of young male idiots to start making rude and insulting comments about us and the deaf in general.

Imagine their supris when, as we were leaving the bus, I turned around and gave it to them with both barrels. The look on their face was priceless.

[countryjake]

40. Are you a driver?

I had a friend who drove bus years ago in Seattle and one of his complaints about riders was their ill-treatment of those with disabilites...giving up front seats, waiting too long at stops, and general resentment of the special treatment those who need it may receive.

[Steve A Play]

36. Not at all, but then again I live in Santa Cruz County, California!

Our county bus system, the Santa Cruz Metro, has clean, quiet, modern buses, most of which are powered by CNG. {compressed natural gas) They are all wheelchair accessible and bicycle friendly, with bike racks on the front of the bus. They have LED dot matrix signs that indicate each stop on the route for the hearing impaired and a pleasant voice system that announces each stop for the blind. The drivers are the friendliest I've ever encountered. People here tend to converse with one another during the longer rides and many times total strangers will engage in the conversations. The drivers and passengers alike have a low tolerance for rude and abusive behavior and I've been on several buses where the drivers have stopped the bus and thrown someone off for such behavior.

The bus routes go everywhere from the beaches, up into the Santa Cruz mountains, and down into the farming communities past the farm fields in the south part of the county. The views are sometimes absolutely breathtaking, running along the scenic coastline or on cliffs high above the rivers through the redwood forests. People who take the same bus on a daily basis tend to get to know each other and some become good friends. Many of my closest friends are either bus drivers for the Metro system or people I casually met on the bus when I used to commute from the San Lorenzo Valley where I live down to Watsonville where I worked full time years ago.

To many people who live here and rely on the transit system to get around on a daily basis, it's more like a party with old friends than an inconvenience. But in some ways, that's just Santa Cruz in general. :)

[FlaGranny]

37. When I was

young and rode the bus into the city to work, there was this guy who used to wait for the most crowded bus, and then smush himself up against any female around and try to get himself off. It's a shame that when you're young you're so shy. If that happened now I'd give him a black eye and announce his offences every time he tried to board the bus - "Watch out ladies, that's a pervert trying to board the bus."

Got stuck once between a garlic lover and a bath hater and didn't know which way to turn.

[AngryAmish]

39. I will always remember the homeless guy going number 2 on the el platform

He was concentrating so hard! I am glad I have a car now.

[BooScout]

43. I've ridden public tranportation all over.....

From Atlanta to all over the UK. Never had a problem....the worst I ever saw was a dog take a poo in the train aisle on the way from London to Edinburgh........a disposable diaper quickly remedied that. }(

[Le Taz Hot]

48. Yes, at times

although I have to say most of our bus drivers WILL kick their punk-assess off the bus for stuff like that.

Last fall I got on a bus that was standing-room-only. No problem, I have perfectly good 50-year-old legs, but then a guy who was obviously disabled (cast on arm AND leg) got on and do you think ONE of these little lazy-assed punks would get up? Nope. I even overheard one say, "I'm not giving up MY seat" (snicker, snicker). Of course, being the short little pushy broad that I am turned to another young person and said, "Excuse me, but would you mind giving up your seat for this gentleman?" Looked him straight in the eye with THAT look and guess what? He did. I said, "Thank you."

The other thing that is driving me crazy are the LOUD cell phone conversations. I'm currently formulating a "remedy" for that one.

Now, having said all that, $35.00 a month for unlimited ridership beats the HELL out of $3.12 a gallon for gas.

[shanti]

51. what i've seen...

whenever a mother/child get on a crowded train, the first to offer their seat is....another woman, not a man. it disgusts me. the men just bury their heads in their newspapers.

[Swamp Rat]

50. Try riding city buses in Brazil!

Imagine all the crap mentioned on this thread but on buses packed beyond capacity. x(

... not to mention animals on board too, like CHICKENS! :puke:

[shanti]

52. it's like that

on jamaican buses too :)