Trippin' III

If I ever win the lottery (which will never happen, because I practically never pay idiot surtax), I'm going to self-publish a booklet and hire people to hand it out at every subway station and GO terminal. It will be called, "Transit Etiquette: Grab a fucking clue". I know, ranting about other passengers is old news, but I've had a few too many "hell is other passengers" experiences lately. Besides, what transit blog would be complete without at least one post about breaches of transit etiquette?

Personal Space!
On my way to Mississauga last Saturday, I got onto the GO bus. As it was an odd time, there were hardly any other people on the bus. Tons of seats. And there were no elderly or disabled people in line, so I sat in the front seat because I like the view. (I'd have moved if I'd seen anyone having trouble moving up the steps.) Just before we were about to leave, a woman came running up to the bus, and made it just in time. I smiled, having been there before. So what does she do? She perches on the seat next to me, ON MY BAG which had a couple of crushable things in it while fishing for her ticket. Okay, fine, she's just looking for her stuff. So I move my bag. Then after she pays, she settles in for the trip. There are tons of empty double seats - the bus is practically empty, but no, she needs to sit next to me. So I fumed for a few minutes, and then I finally got up, and grabbed another seat, and spent half the trip thinking about all the rude things I should have said to her. Now, I hate it when people hog seats when there are lots of people on the bus or train or streetcar. But when there is no one on the bus, no, you DON'T need to crowd me on the same seat. Personal space, people!

Move back, and don't block the doorways!
I'm riding the bus home last night, and it's more egregious than usual. Four perfectly able-bodied adult men are completely blocking the entranceway of the bus by standing right at the front on one of those new buses where the passageway between the front wheel and the driver is narrow. And there's a ton of room behind them - even seats in the back of the bus! And the idiot driver is driving past bus stops instead of telling them to move back. Geez.

Don't hog the seats on full vehicles!
Can we just talk about people who sit on the outside of seats and stick a small bag on the inside seat and stare sullenly at the people standing up? Okay, lots of people want to get off soon and they want the outside seat. Fair enough. But quite a few times I have gone to sit next to someone trapping an empty seat, and they move to the inside seat. Which makes it obvious that the only reason they were sitting in the outside seat to begin with was to discourage anyone from sitting next to them, on a bus where a bunch of people are standing. I always make a special effort to sit next to people who trap a seat, even if there is an empty aisle seat near them. I leave those aisle seats for people who are too shy to tell rude idiots to move their stuff.

Don't even get me started on rude drivers! I'll save that for another post sometime.