City buses are scary....maybe?

May 06, 2012 07:59

I must confess that I have an irrational fear of riding city buses, which makes me a terrible hypocrite when I blithely tell my kids that they can get where they need to go because we're right near a bus stop and "it's not that complicated ( Read more... )

bus, fears

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Comments 11

piplover May 6 2012, 16:10:16 UTC
I don't like riding buses either, though I don't really have an excuse. I just don't like being around that many people in an enclosed space. And I also fear getting on the wrong bus.

I've found, though, that if you ask the bus driver, they're usually really good at helping clueless people like me navigate. I just give them big puppy eyes and tell them I'm hopelessly lost and they take pity. :)

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primsong May 7 2012, 02:52:54 UTC
Do they still take pity if you look like you have controlled panic oozing from your eyeballs? @.@

I think I can manage the Lots of People in a Box part okay, as long as there's not so many of them I literally can't get off...

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dbskyler May 6 2012, 16:56:14 UTC
Wow, those sound like scary school bus experiences indeed! But good for you for deciding to go out and conquer your bus-riding fears.

When I moved to NYC, I didn't have a car, so I had to learn to get around via subway and bus and train. The biggest problem I had on the bus was knowing when my stop was coming up so I could signal the bus driver. More than once, I pressed the "next stop" button too early, bringing the bus to a halt at the wrong stop. Then I had to choose between getting off and walking the rest of the way, or staying on and pretending to look around for the idiot who had asked the bus to stop but wasn't getting off. Even after I had ridden the bus for long enough to have learned the route, I was always happiest when other people pressed the stop button so I wouldn't have to.

But if there's no particular place you're trying to get to by a certain time, and you know the area well enough to stay out of the scarier neighborhoods, exploring via the bus is fun. : )

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primsong May 7 2012, 03:03:17 UTC
"...pretending to look around for the idiot who had asked the bus to stop but wasn't getting off." Oh gosh, yes - this is such a temptation in situations like that. (Who me? It wasn't me. Nope. Not me at all. I'm just very, very interested in studying the zipper on my jacket just now to see if it's stuck or not. Nope, works fine! Yup. There it is, still working. You never know.)

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pitry May 6 2012, 17:17:42 UTC
Buses are the devil's pawn. Honestly. They're meant to get the biggest amount of misery out of you in the smallest amount of time possible.

... I'm not helping, am I? YOU CAN DO IT YOU CAN DO IT! Also, a giant inflatable raft could so work.

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primsong May 7 2012, 02:56:01 UTC
I am reminding myself that it is not the same as a school bus too - i.e. no one is likely to call me names and stick spit-wads in my hair like they used to. And I'm a Grown Up now.

Isn't it weird when old kid stuff you thought didn't matter anymore pops up and says "Oh, btw, I'm still down in here being wigged out at that"?

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lost_spook May 6 2012, 19:29:17 UTC
Aw, good luck with that!

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primsong May 7 2012, 02:59:31 UTC
Thank'ee muchly for the vote of confidence.

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lolmac May 6 2012, 23:13:33 UTC
At least in my once-and-future neck of the woods, bus riding was okay at worst and great at best. I came from a little town with no public transportation at all, which meant damned little opportunity to get away from the immediate neighbourhood. A place with a good bus system was almost magical -- all those places you could get to, and insanely cheaply! In Seattle, even after I had my own car, it was often better to park the car a healthy ways away from one's destination and catch a bus in and out, especially if it was a big event (Folklife or Pride, for example).

I can see it could be unnerving or scary in some lights . . . but for me, it was glorious freedom.

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primsong May 7 2012, 02:57:27 UTC
I love hearing positive accounts - thank you!

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