Riding the bus irks me!

It drives me crazy...and I have to ride it everyday....

Some of the things that drive me nuts:

1. Some stops people line up and other stops they don't. That doesn't bother me. I can figure out which stop is a line up stop and which stop is a free-for-all-cram-on-the-bus-in-a-great-big-bunch stop. And actually I don't prefer one over the other. What drives me nuts is when people ignore the obvious line up (hello, it's about 30 people long, how did you miss it) and try to cram their way on the bus.

2. People who try to push their way onto the bus when a wheelchair or stroller is obviously trying to get off.

3. People who are way back there in the bus and have to even pass the other door to get to the front door to get off the bus, even though the signs say, USE THE BACK DOORS.

4. Bus drivers who honk and yell at anything that moves on the street. Buses are not the only vehicles on the street!

5. Bus drivers who are idiots and make me fall over...like the one who drove the 22 that I took one dark, rainy night. I got on the bus. It was slippery from the rain. I reached out to hold onto a grab bar and the driver jammed on the accelerator and then slammed on the brakes 15 metres later. Because the light was red. The light had been red since I got on the bus. My hand hadn't quite made it to the grab bar. I felt my legs fly out in front of me. I felt like I was lying in the air. Then my head (and body) made hard and sudden contact with the floor. Then there was yelling. Lots of yelling and then the bus was moving and then it stopped suddenly again. The yelling was all the passengers who saw what happened telling the bus driver exactly what they thought of him. The sudden stop was him checking to see if I had died. Just as I started to get up and regain my balance, zoom, he was off again and I was teetering, but some little old lady grabbed my elbow and pulled me into the seat. Yeah. I'm not kidding. Stupid bus driver.

6. People who don't take their gi-normous backpacks that are almost as big as they are off when the bus is crowded. These are the same people who forget they are wider from front to back than usual and try to decapitate people with said bags.

7. People who eat stinky food like salami or bananas on the bus.

8. People who yell loudly into their cell phones. I don't care what you're having for dinner, who got lucky last night, what minor drama played out at work this morning or what was in the baby's diaper. If you must talk on your cell phone, use your inside voice. I don't care about your life, I don't care that you have a cell phone. I have one too. I usually choose not to use it on the bus.

9. People who attack bus drivers because they think they shouldn't have to pay full fare. Pay full fare and get over it. Our transit prices aren't that bad. Have you ever been to London or Sydney? Be nice to the bus drivers. Seriously.

But I will continue to take the bus...for the time being anyway...because there are only three alternatives: walk, ride a bike or drive. Walking would be okay but would likely take two hours because of the evil hill. I don't have a bike. I don't have a car. I don't like driving, I don't like parking and I certainly don't like $1.195 for a litre of gas. At that price, I'd have to take out a second mortgage to pay for my commute. And it's a short one. And I don't have a first mortgage so I'm out of luck on the second one. But Translink will drive me where I need to go, I don't have to find parking, they just drop me off and they even fill up the tank when necessary...