Planned to catch the 7:57am 81N today. Gave myself a couple of extra minutes to get coffee and when a bus showed up at 7:50am, figured we had a late 7:42am or early 7:57am. Instead of the usual 6000 class bus, a 4100 craft appeared at the stop. Near to overflowing when I got on, I luckily secured the upper level, rear-of-the-bus seat I always took on the 66. A woman reading a book occupied the wider bench seat to my right and, as other riders boarded later in the trip, she eased closer to me, sighing quite loudly as each new body entered the area. Not sure what she expects on public transportation, but if she wants a solo seat with plenty of elbow room, she needs to consider private transportation - especially between the hours of 6 and 9am in the Phoenix metro area.To add to the congestion, a young woman across from me sat slumped crosswise, sleeping, with her backpack occupying 50+% of the wider bench seat to her left. Eventually a man came up and sat in the remaining -50% and slid her bag slightly over to make a bit more room. The young woman adjusted herself, but made no move to remove her bag from the seat. At least four people stood in the aisle and I know she saw them - apparently in this millenial "age of entitlement", her bag needed a seat more than any of the people. Finally, her mental fog lifted and she pulled the backpack onto her lap - duh! While she eventually recovered her fumble, I don't understand why people will look at the situation and not ask her to move her bag so they can sit down? It need not occur in an aggressive manner; a gentle request can obtain the desired result.
Today's picture is actually a 6000 class bus, but I couldn't find a good, wide angle photo of the smaller 4100s.
1 comment:
I'm afraid many of us are seat baggers...attempting to keep a double seat to ourselves for as long as possible by placing a work bag of some kind beside us...it's only human nature...a territorial thing...
But most of us are probably good natured enough to shift the bags to the floor if the bus starts looking really crowded and people are standing...
As a company employee I've developed an interesting tactic if the bag stays on the seat...I firstly ask them very politely if they'd care to remove it, and on the very rare occasion this fails, I then flash my staff pass and ask them (loudly) to produce their ticket for the second seat...
In the very rare event this fails I threaten to go see the driver (whereafter the bus will stop and stay exactly where it is until the offending bag is removed)...
I've only had to do this (on a dual carriageway too) once...the guy soon backed down when he realised the bus was going no further, about fifty people were being held up, and it was all down to him...
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