Friday, March 13, 2009

public transport observations

  1. there's an inexhaustible supply of ineligible L-bus hailers
  2. there's an inexhaustible supply of heartless bus drivers
  3. you can count on seeing someone run for the bus/train before too long
  4. you can never quite tell which emotions will be invoked by seeing someone run and miss. sometimes schadenfreude, sometimes bellylaughter, sometimes deep sadness, sometimes frustration.
  5. you can count on someone unnecessarily running at strathfield train station. i find this both amusing and incredible frustrating. no, there's no train there, so you don't need to push past everyone and sprint faster than you've ever done in your life and if you just poked your head up you wouldn't need to sprint all the way to the platform before realising all of this. i do understand the anxiety induced by having your view of the platforms obstructed by going underground from one platform to the next.
  6. the space dimensions of a train will always make it a different ride compared to a bus. you got levels, you got places to hide and hide trash, you got multiple carriages separated by flirt with death. trains are much more likely to be dreamt of than buses for these reasons and others.
  7. sometimes i understand why people sit at the edge of a vacant seat, but mostly i loathe folk like that
  8. very rarely i understand why people don't move down the back of the bus, but pretty much all the time i shake my head at people like that.
  9. many people are so anxious about missing their stop.
  10. people never talk to each other on public transport

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a heartfelt and bowel clenching sympathy with all of the above statements. I will report back dutifully on my observations about sydney Vs. rest of world public transport habits

Hammertime said...

y'know, a german pal of mine once told me, in my 16m2 apartment in saarbrucken, about a book about the way australians are, written by an outsider (a european i think). i eventually saw the book, and it caused my friend Ralph* the utmost of mirth to point out to me, and agree with, the part saying no one ever sits next to anyone else on a bus. i'm telling you, they're reading us like a book.

* his real name