Bus Loading

December 13th, 2011
transit
As I write this, the front of the bus is packed to standing while the back has four empty seats. I've potential passengers left behind because of majorly inefficient space usage. The bus driver can tell people to move on back, but people don't listen. I think the problem [1] is misplaced politeness: people are afraid of being rude in squeezing past people to get to a less crowded area. Really, I think people are rude not to: in edging past other passengers to fill the space at the back you make room for more people.

This is especially tricky if I'm waiting for a bus along with a large crowd. I know that if I get on near the front I can make my way to the back, even providing a path for other passengers to do the same. If I wait and let other people go first, fewer people may make it on. In trying to get close to the front of the pack, however, I look greedy and inconsiderate. [2] I'm not sure how to treat this. Especially, I'm not totally convinced the harm of aggressively jockeying for position is outweighed by the benefit of improving passenger distribution; most of the time no one is left on the curb.

[1] The new buses exacerbate this somewhat. The older ones had a wider aisle and didn't have a split level design (that might provide some sort of psychological barrier).

[2] I'm not talking about pushing other people out of the way or anything, just being more assertive than I would normally be.

Referenced in: Merge Timing

Comment via: google plus, facebook

Recent posts on blogs I like:

On Polarization

weirdmaxxing as a dating strategy

via Thing of Things March 14, 2025

Frozen meals are actually great

I cook most of my meals and am pretty frugal. I do a lot of meal prep (cooking in bulk), so I don’t have to cook every day in order to have food. But sometimes I run out of my meal prep or just want something different, and don’t have energy to cook somet…

via Home March 7, 2025

Breakfast Over February Break

Over February break I made breakfast for me and Nora three days in a row. Normally, my dad makes me, Nora, and Lily breakfast, but my dad and Lily were on a trip and my mom wasn't up yet so I was basically the only one in the house who was awake and cou…

via Anna Wise's Blog Posts March 1, 2025

more     (via openring)