For March/April 2013, we’re spotlighting Life on Transit—observing and illuminating the quirks and habits of daily transit rides around our region!

We asked you last week if you had a secret friend on transit—someone who you see all the time on transit, but have never spoken to.

And after 119 votes, 70 per cent of our poll takers say they do have a secret friend!

There was also a little bit of discussion on the subject. Wendy shared the story of her morning commute:

I take the first 345 every day. My stop has several regulars. There’s myself, the older white woman, the older aboriginal woman, the two male construction workers and myself. We don’t spend a lot of time on the bus as it’s only 10-15 minutes but we do spend a lot of time waiting for the bus together. The first to arrive is always myself or he older white woman. We are always at the stop by 5:10-5:20. I do not know a thing about her. I often wonder what she does as I can only assume that’s she’s going to work that early on a regular basis. She looks so statuesque and never says a word. The other woman looks like she does labour based on her workboots. The two men know each other and talk to each other. Other than that we make a silent group. When he bus is running late we all keep checking by leaning out into the street but we never say “I see it” or “hey, did we miss it?” We get on the bus in our order (my only words being “good morning” to our bus driver) and even if we sit next to each other we don’t say a word. These are my transit friends.

We posted this over on Facebook too, where Spencer noted:

I always enjoy the “missed connections” in the Straight right around the start of every new school year. Dozens of “I saw you on the 99, you looked at me for 1 second” posts.

Anyway, thanks so much to everyone who took the poll! Hopefully it helped you notice something new about your transit ride :)