Snippet from a bus ride

[badgerbag]

Yesterday getting on the bus with Moomin, near a hospital, the driver did the sort of technically correct thing of telling everyone but me to board from the back and lowered the ramp right away. But there was a woman with a giant leg cast standing there looking very pained and tired. I gestured to her and said Oh please go first, but simultaneously, the driver yelled at her to go to the back. She started screaming at the bus driver OH FINE SOME PEOPLE ARE SO SPECIAL.... And things like that. Then she yelled at me JUST HURRY UP AND GET ON SO I CAN GO NEXT as the driver was not going to unramp and restep the bus and kneel it for her. So I got on. Other people on the bus were throwing me sympathetic looks, which I didn't want, and remarking out loud about Some People. I wanted to convey to the lady in the cast that I thought she was right and often tell the bus drivers they should get people standing up first who are clearly disabled or elderly or frail. I"m sitting down! And the bus isn't going to board any faster if they take me first. Well, maybe, but still. The bus was so crowded that I couldn't really get to that lady to talk with her. I thought of sending her one of my cards via Moomin but the only card I could find on me was one of me flipping off the camera. (Which maybe she would have liked.)

Comments

[challyzatb]

Well, that sounds an uncomfortable experience. :(

[jesse_the_k]

Oh, I have had that uncomfortable experience a lot. My sympathies.

(In the current weather hell, I've been encouraging everyone walking to board first, so that they can enjoy the air-conditioning (ahhhhhhh) on our buses while the driver fuzzes around with tie-downs. (Yes, they actually do four-point tie downs in Madison, with the exception of 5 jerks.))