Last week, I asked if you had ever carried something really cumbersome on transit.

And after 206 votes, 83 per cent said you had indeed lugged something big on transit—just 17 per cent hadn’t!

Is this representative? Well, it is a fun poll, so it’s only a good indicator about the pool of voters. But I can’t imagine that it’s super far off: it sounds reasonable that most transit riders have done this at least once, intentionally or not!

And just what people are hauling around on transit can be pretty hilarious. The items described in the comments were just incredible!

For example, Phyzz and Jay carried big paintings (Jay said they sparked good conversations!), Brooke took a vacuum cleaner, Pip had a pinata on the TTC subway, and Sean moved a whole wooden desk on the subway too!

Daniel saw someone moving a washing machine on transit once, and Scott took a five-foot Christmas tree on the bus and SkyTrain, and two eight-foot pieces of lumber another time. And taking luggage on the London Underground was described as an arduous odyssey by Steven, David and Eric B.

Closer to home, Jim Wheeler had an unexpected windfall that he had to get on transit:

A giant stuffed bumble bee about 6 foot high won at the PNE’s midway-we had to stand on the bus all the way to the skytrain-when getting off the female driver said maybe your friend would like one of these buzzers and I said no thanks honey. People were making Bee jokes all the way home.

Ikea furniture was also repeatedly mentioned as a transportation challenge for people. Here’s sarahmross, who sent this one in via Twitter!

@thebuzzer furniture home from ikea! If the box had been 2inches wider it wouldn’t have fit thru the bus door.

transitfan also took on the Ikea challenge:

I have carried lots of IKEA stuff over the years, from big boxes and large picture frames, to a 5x8ft carpet (rolled) and large suitecases – never had a problem or strange looks from drivers or other passengers.

But CMBC driver Derek Cheung probably had the craziest story—he had a coffin on one of his buses. Here’s the story:

Twas a home-built prop made out of plywood that a fellow was transporting for a Halloween party.

Though myself and several customers remarked that it had better be empty and not a ruse to sneak on another customer without paying…

Most people didn’t seem to have any difficulty getting their large items on transit, unless it was during rush hour on a crowded system—then the solution suggested was to take a taxi to save yourself the effort! Sheba also mentioned using a kids kick scooter was really handy to move a full CD tower around.

And finally, Reva had this heartwarming story about an oversized piece of luggage and an honest passenger.

A few years ago I escorted an Australian exchange student from the airport to a friend’s house in PoCo. He had only one piece of luggage — the most enormous backpack I have ever seen. The #100 driver jokingly asked if he was going to pay an extra fare for the backpack, since it literally was as big as a person.

We laughed, but being the nice Aussie guy that he was, he paid it!! He said it wasn’t fair that his pack was going to prevent someone else from getting on if the bus got full, and there was no way to “check” it. It was still way cheaper than taking a taxi so he didn’t mind at all. :) Considerate!

Bonus, it put the driver in a good mood too.

Thank you all again for taking part in the poll — I’m sorry I couldn’t quote you all, because all the stories were so good! Check out everybody’s full comments at the original post for more: you won’t be disappointed, I’m sure :) And stay tuned for a new poll next week!