December posting meme: Public transportation

[magnetic_pole]

December posting meme suggestion box

Just a brief post today in praise of bus drivers the world over, because I bought a Christmas tree yesterday and took it home on the bus. It wasn't a very big tree, to be sure, and I wasn't on the bus at rush hour, but the driver was very nice when he really didn't need to be. "Time to decorate, huh?" was all he said, and he waved me on.

Folks tend to complain about public transportation a lot--about buses that don't come, or buses that don't stop because they're too full, or subways that are delayed, or weekend track work--but on the whole it's amazing that we can shlep ourselves and our stuff across the city for a few dollars or euros or yen. What's the oddest thing you've ever brought on a bus or train or seen someone else carrying? Or what's your best story about trying to get somewhere via transit?

Comments

[liseuse]

I used to see a guy commuting with his rabbit, which was fab. He had it in a travel-case thing, and it used to sit on the table, with the front open so the rabbit would poke its head out occasionally and sort of check out the fellow passengers and do that cute little rabbit head-bop before shimmying backwards.

[magnetic_pole]

I know I'm missing the point here, but you commute on a train with a *table*? That's fancy!

Aw, rabbit. I wonder if there was a story there? M.

[liseuse]

Hee, you get X number of rows of seats and then a four-seater table and then some more rows of seats. The tables manage to not really have enough room to put much on, and you kick the person opposite you every time you move your legs. I rarely go for the table!

I always wondered, but could never work out a polite way to ask. It was a very cute rabbit.

[magnetic_pole]

I can see the legroom problem. Still, it helps with using the computer, doesn't it? (Although it sounds like you read en route.)

I got the Christmas tree because I asked a woman who was carrying one where she got it--but she was going to our building, which made me braver. :) M.

[liseuse]

You do see a lot of people using their computers at them, but yes, I usually read on the commute - it's only about 25min so there isn't really time to get into anything properly on the computer for me.

[magnetic_pole]

You are my transit-reading hero, L. *smooch* M.