SICK of your colleagues? Find your friends TIRESOME and PEDANTIC? FED UP with the perpetual same-old same-old carousel of life?
Yes?
TAKE THE BUS!
By jumping on public transport instead of motoring yourself around in your battered Oldsmobile, you will:
- Meet new people!
- Bolster your immune system!
- Improve your energy levels!
- See more stuff!
- Learn new things!
Does your day look like this?
Troubled sleep – shower to shake the mind-shit from your brain – Smarm FM radio in the car – snarly boss – loathsome colleagues – brown bag lunch – afternoon peppered with ennui – slow, solitary drive home – TV dinner – repeat ad nauseum …
Yes?
Then take IMMEDIATE ACTION!
Starting tomorrow, leave the car at home, and jump on public transport. Whether it’s the bus, tram, train or subway, the rules still apply!
You’ll see benefits immediately! But don’t take my word for it, read these testimonials:
“Before taking the bus, I used to be afraid of poor people. Now, I realise that they’re just like me (but without the Jimmy Choos).”
- Amanda Dell’Agincourt
“I used to drive into work every day. The commute, even in good traffic, was an hour and a half. It was taking its toll on my physical health. I was growing a gut and my hemorrhoids were agony. Now, I get the train. It takes half the time and, because I can never get a seat, my leg muscles are stronger and my piles have disappeared.”
- Harvey Lump
“This time last year I was lonely. I lived alone, worked in an office alone, and drove to work alone. My best friend was the dude at the video shop. One morning my car broke down and I was forced to take the bus. I tripped as the bus pulled away from traffic lights, and fell into Sean’s lap. We’ve been living together for six months and now I’m now pregnant with twins.”
- Natasha Duff
“I used to be frustrated that I couldn’t see over my neighbour’s fences from my low-slung Chevy Citation. Now I take the bus, and I can see straight into my neighbour’s windows. It’s great!
- P. Tom
Join a tribe of people just like you! Take the bus today and turn your life around!
You’ll be able to:
- Read more!
- Safely send text messages to loved ones!
- Shut your eyes!
- Get drunk in the afternoon and not worry about having to drive home!
What’s YOUR favorite thing about public transport? Leave your answers below.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Before I got the perfect job where I work from home I rode the bus to and from work – 45 minutes each way. I have to say it was time very well spent. Preparing for work on the way there, winding down on the way home. Here is one of the journal entries I wrote after an usually special ride home:
http://brief-therapy.livejournal.com/244894.html
That’s a wonderful story – thanks so much!
I’ve already told you this, but I love you more and more with every article you post. And I will adore public transit forever and ever, seriously, I’m sort of addicted. There are so many people to watch!
And people-watching is the great free European past-time. I’m with you there. Nothing like it.
I agree that it is fascinating to people-watch, but I have experienced a very odd phenomenon here in Japan. While commuting on perhaps one of the busiest public transit systems in the world (Tokyo) I noticed absolute silence. The Japanese patrons of the rail are extremely quiet. They keep their heads down, usually buried into a book or some minuscule electronic gadget and they make not a peep. It is insane. I almost went insane riding in complete silence while everyone avoided making eye contact. Though, I was able to enjoy my book and ipod.
Like Greena, I’ve met many interesting people on the bus. The highlight of a three and a half day bus ride to Banff was not the mountains, but Don, a man I met on the bus home. When I got on the bus at Banff, Don was talking with a few young men at the back. About every half hour, he would get up and ask the bus driver which way we were going. His speech was slurred, but after several hours during which I could see no drink consumed, I concluded that Don must have other problems. Indeed he did, a brain injury suffered during a mining accident. For three and a half days (he lives less than half an hour from my house) he entertained me with stories of his life as a mining engineer. He could remember that time clearly, but he could not remember which way the bus was going, and every half hour for three and a half days he’d ask me if we were heading in the right direction.
1. Lovely story.
2. Three and a half days on a bus? You’re a better person than me.
i love the names aha
You’re fun… in that way I should’ve outgrown by now… but until I do — you’re fun.
Favorite things about public transport:
#3 Busloads of people not in front of me in their crappy old cars
#2 Gives the Metro section and its readers something to rant for/against
#1 I don’t have to take it! Yay!
Not my fault; raised in the heart of car-ville, where public transport is just getting started (and not over here), at a time when gas was cheap and cars were freedom… and never left for greener cities that do it right.
Thanks for the reminder that I’m lucky and shallow ~
Immaturely yours,
~GirlPie
Arf! Lucky and shallow indeed. Join the club!
And this reminds me of an expression they use in the Czech Republic: “jezdit sockou”
Literally translated, it means “driving with social services” – and is used as a synonym for taking public transport …
I used to love the bus…
- Watching the scenery and the people in the street, not just that street.
- Having my own driver (just a feeling)
- Not having to park: that’s just liberating. You arrive at your destination free from worries of left behind properties.
Occasionally I get my wife to drive me to work. I make her wear a peaked cap, whilst I sit in the back with my newspaper.
Other good things about the bus -
Merry pranksters who are also bus riders may say at any time that they are “on the bus” or “off the bus” and no one will know that they are actually talking about psychedelic journeys.
Also, when was the last time you heard “bus crash?”
My favorite thing about public transportation is that I own a parking spot that I rent out to a sucker with a Land Rover for $185 a month. That covers an unlimited ride pass each for my husband and I with a little left over. It’s like I get paid to ride!
This surely applies for huge cities, since there is very good public transportation and streets are public, it is wise to take a bus or tram. But in smaller cities the public transport is awful and often a car traveling is not a bad idea.
Indeed everything depends on what is quicker. If your public transport is 3 times less than your car travel, your decition is made.
Taking the bus is cozy. I live in Denmark where it’s very dark and cold in the winters. I love taking the bus home in the evening because, even from the outside, it looks so warm and inviting. It gives off this yellow glow and is very warm. I like it so much, in fact, that I often take the bus instead of riding the train even though it takes longer.
i just stumbled upon this blog, and i love it! i am a huge proponent of public transportation and i have been for a while, but my trip to germany made me even more so! i am from the states, and it seems from the comments that most of your readers (and i’m assuming you?) are from europe, where i would encourage you ALL to take the bus more often. it’s hard trying to convince people here, where besides in new york city (i live in new york state), the public transit is mediocre at best by most people’s standards, they take longer, and you know us americans, always in a rush.
My favorite train story: One day when not one but two men were on the bus trying to make some money, Hustler #1 took it upon himself to instruct Hustler #2 on good hustling techniques. Hustler #2 was just shaking his cup loudly asking for some spare change while Hustler #1 was selling some books he had just stolen from the Borders downtown. Hustler #1 told #2 that if he wanted to just flat out ask people for money, he should try the commuter rail rather than the subway train. On the “Caucasian train” he had made over $200 the night before! He doesn’t like to ask his black brothers for money though, on the black train he gets some books from Borders to sell to them.