Adventures of Public Transportation

As I was patiently awaiting my stop on the bus this week, I noticed that several people as they got off thanked the bus driver. Usually with a simple “Thanks”, or “Thank you.” I even heard on guy say, “Thanks for the ride, man.” At first I wrote is off as a one time thing thinking, “Huh, that’s kinda weird.” But, as I paid more attention, it became more and more common.

So then, I started thinking maybe it’s just a Minnesota nice thing. Just like honking. Nobody ever honks in Minnesota. And when they do, it is incredibly justified and it’s a short little toot at the last second. Regardless, when I hear someone honk, my initial reaction is, they must not be from around here. Now although, I’m a born and breed Minnesotan, I couldn’t get past how strange this was to me. I kept thinking, “Why are all there people thanking a person for doing their job.”

A few days later I was on a very crowded bus, listening to people get off, and the first several people got off without saying anything, but then a girl thanked the driver as she exited, and so did everyone after her. I was about to get off, and someone thanked the driver, the people following him did as well. When it was my turn, I had a battle in my head, “Should I, should I not, all these other people did, it would be rude if I didn’t.” In that split second I succumbed to this unintentional pressure by all these strangers and thanked the driver. And to my surprise, he seemed to genuinely appreciate this interaction. He really seemed to appreciate my gratitude towards him.

Posted by marsh548 at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been taking public transportation long enough and have had plenty of time in the solitude of it to uncover the most unfortunate part of public transportation, the seats.

There are however, certain degrees of the uncomfortable seats. Starting with the best, the bright blue cloth seats that have the extra high back with the M on them. Typically, these seats are on the mega long buses with the accordion in the middle. In my book, they are the best of the worst. The one factor that brings them into the category of uncomfortable, is that they are mounted too high, so my extra short legs fall asleep in no time because they don’t make it anywhere near the floor. But, their extra cushion and velour fabric combination are winners, bringing them in at first place.

Next are the seats with the dark blue vinyl. These are the seats that I encounter the majority of the time. The best part of these seats is how squishy they are. The downside though, is the vinyl and the relatively low back. The vinyl is problematic because if it is a particularly crazy driver, it is quite hard to relax in the silence of strangers when you have to make a strategy for not sliding out of your seat. Then the back of the seat also isn’t really conducive for relaxation. Thus, it comes in at number two.

Finally, the most hated seats of all, the light rail seats. These seats are the worst because they are made of a piece of fabric covering a sheet of metal. There is absolutely no cushion to these seats, causing the entire bottom portion of my body to go numb in seconds. Again, my feet don’t touch the floor, only making it worse. These seats are also so incredibly close to the next one, I feel like I’m sitting on top of the other person. Luckily though, these horrendous seats only make seldom appearances on the buses.

Posted by marsh548 at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)