Friday fun poll: where do you like to stand on a bus?
Friday fun poll: where do you like to stand on a bus?
If you like, you can skip to the end of this post to answer the poll about standing on a bus.
Results from last poll: trying transit in other cities
Last week I asked how many cities have you tried transit in.
With 207 votes counted, the most popular answer was “5 or more cities” with 72% of the vote. Far fewer voted for 4 cities (10%), 3 cities (7%), 2 cities (6%), or 1 city (5%).
Really, I should have known better with you transit enthusiasts—most of you guys listed 10 or more places you’ve travelled! Daniel Quinn even suggested rerunning the poll with higher numbers.
Anyway, to manage all the data, I put together an Excel spreadsheet counting the cities you specified, and used it to produce the chart at right. Together you provided 122 city names, with Victoria, Seattle, Edmonton, and Portland being the most mentioned outside our own system.
In the comments, people mostly gave lists of the cities they went to, but there were a few stories about transit experiences elsewhere. Here’s Alexwarrior:
I got a 40 Euro fine in Paris. I paid the wrong fare, d’oh! (Wasn’t on purpose) I framed the ticket and it made a nice souvenir for my wall.
And Dora, who is really on a roll with good stories in the poll posts, wrote this:
I once got a talking-to (but thankfully no ticket) in Frankfurt because the group of us accidentally go into the first class section of the commuter train (who ever heard of a first class section on an intra-city train?). I often find myself missing London’s Oyster card system and wishing we had something similar here at home.
We will soon enough — smartcards are coming!
Anyway, check out the comments at the original post: there are some good conversations on how to get to Seattle from Vancouver solely on transit. I should mention that there’s even a zine showing how to travel from Vancouver to Portland solely on transit, if you haven’t seen it. Yay zines!
This week’s poll: where do you like to stand on a bus?
David Lam suggested this poll, and I realize I’ve asked about sitting but not standing on a bus!
If you have anything to add, feel free to share in the comments :)
First it all depends on which bus I’m on; regardless it’s the same answer. For example on articulate buses, it’s still in the middle of either the front or rear part of the bus, not the accordian joint (although the joint has plenty of unobtrusive standing room).
This kind of relates to an earlier poll whether if you prefer to stand near the rear doors, (the yellow area) which I tend to do from time to time.
I would actually like to know why people stand where they do. Especially those that hover near the doors for over 10 minutes during a ride. I never stand there unless I am getting off in a few stops. Otherwise, I can’t stand being in others’ way. I feel I’m being rude if I stand by the rear doors for too long.
Since you’re compiling a list of cities of Vancouverites trying transit, I might as well add mine to the mix.
– Toronto
– Montreal
– Calgary
– Edmonton
– Halifax (ferry only)
– Seattle (if the monorail counts)
– Portland, OR
– San Francisco
– Los Angeles (Pomona to West Covina)
– Hong Kong
– Wuhu, China
– Hefei, China
– Beijing
– Shanghai
– Nanjing
– Tokyo
I have recurring foot, knee, hip, and shoulder injuries, and arthritis starting in my hands, so I try not to stand at all if I can help it. Even when I’m relatively pain-free, one good lurch or tight corner can instantly put me back into a world of pain that will last days and even weeks.
If I can’t avoid standing (and I don’t look disabled, so people don’t usually get up for me), I go for the nearest pole so I don’t have to reach up or swing, and keep my body close to it and feet planted apart, so I can use my core muscles to stabilize myself. Once I find a good pole and solid position, I won’t move back or relinquish it unless I see a seat that I can reach before the bus starts moving again!
I would like to stand in the back, however getting that can be a challenge with the exit door congestion, people boarding in the back want to get to the front, backpacks, and people standing behind the driver because they have their heavy valuables above the front wheels.
For the list/graph, you might wanna merge “Anaheim” into “Orange County” — Anaheim is merely a city in OC (like how, for example, Burnaby is a city in Metro Vancouver) and both operate under OCTA. (There is no definite “largest city” in Orange County either; people there claim to be “from OC” rather than “from Anaheim.”)
Sorry for the nitpick. :)
Well I can’t stand the people who board through all doors on the 98 B-Line.
They stand AROUND the doors and no one ever moves up the back steps to the back of the bus.
I find myself impersonating a transit supervisor or skytrain attendant off duty or pretending to talk into the phone loudly reporting for Global TV to try to get the blockheads to move back.
Otherwise I’ve gone as far as blaring my pre-recorded cell phone message asking people to move back.
Naturally I get looks from various elements on the bus, so I avoid the B-line on weekdays and take one of the Richmond Rush hour rotes where people notably the 9-5 crowd and WORKING OFFICE professionals who know how to move back.
On a recent trip to Victoria, I discovered some of their buses have retractable straps to discourage people who stand in the rear door way. They look something like the old seatbelts that were attached to a car door. When the door opens, the belts retract for passage. When the doors are closed, they provide a visual safety deterrant to keep people from getting hurt by standing next an opening door.
Hey! So Translink is planning on introducing Oyster cards? That’d actually be kinda cool.
Yep, we’re going to put in smartcards across the system! The project is in the planning stage at the moment.