Big Blue Bus Etiquette
I like to think that there are certain rules of thumb that bus riders observe. We're all in the same vehicle, we need to show some respect for the other riders and share the space to make the trip as comfortable as possible for everyone. Of course common sense dictates that we should give up our seats for the elderly. I mean you wouldn't make grandma ride standing up on her frail little legs, would you? And when the bus gets crowded, we make sure every available seat is full to clear as much space as possible in the aisle.
This morning as I climbed into the #3... I saw that BOTH sides of the bus were occupied by people taking up the aisle seats, effectively blocking access to all the empty window seats. Usually I'll see one or two people who prefer to sit in the aisle, either because their stop is coming up, or they don't want any "undesirables" sitting next to them, or they have a bunch of shopping bags or something. But today there were at least seven or eight! All those riders pretty much "filled" the bus since none of them slid over to let others sit down. There wasn't a free seat except in the back of the bus, so that's where I went! But I wondered why all those people took aisle seats. Could all of their stops really be coming up so soon?
Apparently not. We reached Pico and Lincoln and still not one of them got off. Pico and Lincoln is a popular stop, and I watched as 10 more people boarded the bus. I thought surely the aisle sitters would start scooting over to make room for the crowd of new passengers. But no! Not a SINGLE ONE moved. There were ELDERLY boarding the bus, for pete's sake! A small little old woman had to push her way towards the back and request that one of the aisle sitters move. And even when he reluctantly did, he only got up so she could squeeze into the window seat, rather than letting her have the more accessible aisle seat. One by one the new boarders either had to work up the guts to ask the aisle sitters to move... or didn't bother and remained standing. And incredibly, all the aisle sitters who did get asked did the same thing the first man did. Seriously, is it so hard to scoot over? It bothers me to see people standing up when there are empty seats on a bus.
I can understand if your stop is coming up soon and you'd rather sit on the aisle so you don't have to climb over people on your way out. But only one of the aisle sitters got off soon after. The rest of them kept sitting there... I watched stop after stop go by, new passengers get on, climb over the aisle sitters to a window seat, and then climb over them again to get off! One of the aisle sitters just refused to let anyone sit next to her all together. She had a single shopping bag (that could have fit on her lap) taking up the window seat.
I am dumbfounded by this behavior. I just don't get how an entire bus of people could be that inhospitable to other riders. Maybe this is like one of those psychological phenomena my 10th grade history teacher told me about, where if a group of people start doing something, everyone else imitates it as well.