I am not amused

[mbarrick]

Somewhat like the "You must be this tall to ride this ride" signs at amusement parks they should have "You may not ride if your ass is this wide" signs on buses.

Comments

baby got back

[evilyn13.livejournal.com]

hahaaa, was somebody sitting on your lap on the bus today?

Re: baby got back

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

No. I had a huge ass in my face most of the way. That was when I wasn't getting clocked in the side of the head by ESL students with backpacks. I dearly miss being able to walk to work.

One other gripe: I think I am the only fucking person in North Vancouver that knows how to open bus windows.

Somebody buy me a Segway™, damnit!

[mediavictim.livejournal.com]

No just double charge them like the airlines do - if your blubber oozes into another seat you pay for another seat. Problem solved

If they double pay - translink makes more money
If they decide to walk - they burn off the blubber and eventually feel better about them selves

Everybody wins.

Yeah

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

I've often had that thought. Same should go for people with Volkswagen-sized backbacks, snowboards, etc. - if you need more than one space, you pay for it.

And on a related note, do you remember an ad campaign that ran inside the buses a while back (I think it was for an airline, but I'm not so sure about it anymore) where they rhetorically asked, "Would you pay double just to get guaranteed seating [on the bus]?" Those ads used to bug me because they were obviously written by someone who didn't have to use transit (at the time I was doing a 1.5 hour each way commute to SFU from Kits). Everytime I looked at the ad I thought, "Fuck, yeah, I would!"

As it is now I hike "upstream" on the bus route if there are a lot of people at the stop to better my chances of getting a seat. Here (http://www.mbarrick.net/mbarrick.net/hub.nsf/webportfolio/7A1E039D2AA77D0288256ADB00233EF0?opendocument&cat=Digital%20and%20Other%20Media&count=10) is link to a video I made back in 1991 that came from my adventures on transit.

did we get sat on?

[sylkweb.livejournal.com]

*giggles* I choked on my lasagna.

Re: did we get sat on?

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Not quite, but close. I was sitting. The wide-load was standing. It was, put mildly, not pretty.

I solved my transit woes

[mediavictim.livejournal.com]

I got a bike ....

I get to work much faster

I don't have to wait forever for a No-show bus

I get into shape

I am in more control of my transportation

I save $90 bucks a month

No fat/ugly/smelly people

I don't have to wait 10 minutes for an E Van drunk to argue with a bus driver.

No farking around with transfers

No worrying about lost bus passes

The only person around with a bad attitude is me.

No Asian kids bashing me in the head with a backpack

And a bike round the seawall after 8 pm is a great experience



Sure - It does mean that I have to make alternative arrangements when it comes to a social life - but it is a small
sacrifice.

Re: I solved my transit woes

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

I live in North Van (not by choice) and work downtown. Not bikeable. Or driveable for that matter.

I *used* to live downtown and I could walk to work. I miss walking to work. Suburbs are evil and I have sold my soul to Satan Martha Stewart.

ESL assumption

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Not all the ESL students bashing me in the head are Asian. Quite a few are Hispanic or European. Sure *most* are Korean or Japanese, but Germany and Latin America are well represented.

[mediavictim.livejournal.com]

I have never had that problem from Europeans
(Germans/French/English or even Midlle Eastern)

I guess it might have something to do with
cultural ideas about personal space. Western
Nations usually have lower populations and so
we can afford to demand some personal space and share
the respect for anothers personal space)
Where in Japan - when they pack subway cars like
Sardines in a can and have a population density
of 1 person per square meter these concepts don't translate well.

Although this does mean that things like shoving,
pushing and bumping into people probably aren't
considered rude in those countries and so these
visiting people probably don't know any better.

True

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about that the other day after boarding the Skytrain at Waterfront Station. Just as the train was about to leave (the "ding, ding, dong" had sounded) a half a douzen Japanese girls forced open the doors one by one and packed in as horrified locals looked on like they were watching a murder.