Friday, November 06, 2009

Bus Etiquette

When you ride the bus to and from work everyday, you realize that there is such a thing as bus etiquette. I don't take public transportation - the company that I work for provides bussing to all employees and contractors. I catch the bus at the same place and same time every day.

Similar to airplane etiquette, it's common courtesy to ask the person behind you before flinging your seat all the way back. There's an order to how people disembark (get off) the bus. Being quiet is common courtesy, as quite a few people use the 45 minute ride to sleep or read. Cell phone use should be limited to emergencies, and music/movies are played through headphones.

Today after work I sat in my usual seat (when you take the bus every day, you get into a habit of sitting in the same place every day). Several "new" people board the bus, each sitting in their own seat (despite the fact that it's obvious that they know each other). The guy in front of me was sitting in the outside seat (I always sit on the inside), and without even a glance behind himself to see if somebody was seated behind him, he threw his seat back. He didn't slowly put it back, he pushed the button and threw all of his weight into it. He did have the grace to turn around and apologize to me. Fine, no big deal.

Well, normally people put their seat in the upright position when people start getting off. This way the people disembarking don't have to fold into a pretzel to get around the seat that is flung back. Of course this gentleman couldn't be bothered to set his seat upright, even when I shoved it with my hand and my knee. When I looked behind me as I was leaving the bus, he just stared at me.

I'm sorry, but have some freakin' manners! Seriously! People like that make riding the bus a pain in the hind end. I hope they don't get on again Monday.

1 comment:

Visichy said...

It's the little things that can turn a bus/airplane/elevator/train ride from pleasant to a horrible experience worth blogging about. A little courtesy sure goes a long way.