As with most human behavior, people's comfort level with riding the bus seems to depend on prior experience and habit. If riding the bus is a natural thing for you, the sometimes odd but nearly always harmless behavior of some of your fellow passengers rarely fazes you. For this reason, I've gone out of my way to introduce my young son to the bus. We ride fairly frequently to places around town here in Olympia, most often (but not always) if his mother is using the car.
For example, a few weeks ago we were headed out one weekend to our local Children's Museum, a favorite haunt, and I decided it'd be a good day to take the bus downtown. We caught our bus a few blocks from home without incident (the woman sitting at the curb near our stop complaining about how the last driver had refused to let her on without paying notwithstanding) and made a smooth connection at the transit center.... about a 20 min ride altogether.
On the way home we caught our first bus after a short wait and headed for the transit center. Now, my son likes to sit near the window on the bus. He loves being up high and being able to see everything. Usually this is fine but can present some issues when the bus is at all crowded (which these days is much of the time as anyone riding the bus will have noticed). We reach the transit center and I point out our connection. Suddenly, my son bolts for it at top speed and before I can catch up he's on the bus and headed to the back. I step onto the bus just in time to see my little bull clambering over the lap of a large, gruff-looking, somewhat unkempt about 250 lb dude with a bushy grey beard in the back seat so he can get to the rear window seat. Thankfully, this guy didn't seemed bothered and took it in stride and I managed to coax my son to sit next to me at a different window seat, albeit with our backs to the window.
At the end of the day, we had a great trip to the museum and he's getting used to the idea that riding the bus makes sense, even in a city made for cars. I imagine by the time he's my age, that may change (gas prices, global warming, all point to more dense living where transit makes sense).
Garrett, Staff
For example, a few weeks ago we were headed out one weekend to our local Children's Museum, a favorite haunt, and I decided it'd be a good day to take the bus downtown. We caught our bus a few blocks from home without incident (the woman sitting at the curb near our stop complaining about how the last driver had refused to let her on without paying notwithstanding) and made a smooth connection at the transit center.... about a 20 min ride altogether.
On the way home we caught our first bus after a short wait and headed for the transit center. Now, my son likes to sit near the window on the bus. He loves being up high and being able to see everything. Usually this is fine but can present some issues when the bus is at all crowded (which these days is much of the time as anyone riding the bus will have noticed). We reach the transit center and I point out our connection. Suddenly, my son bolts for it at top speed and before I can catch up he's on the bus and headed to the back. I step onto the bus just in time to see my little bull clambering over the lap of a large, gruff-looking, somewhat unkempt about 250 lb dude with a bushy grey beard in the back seat so he can get to the rear window seat. Thankfully, this guy didn't seemed bothered and took it in stride and I managed to coax my son to sit next to me at a different window seat, albeit with our backs to the window.
At the end of the day, we had a great trip to the museum and he's getting used to the idea that riding the bus makes sense, even in a city made for cars. I imagine by the time he's my age, that may change (gas prices, global warming, all point to more dense living where transit makes sense).
Garrett, Staff
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