Bus Stop Fairy!

Just lately I have taken notice of the people that use the same bus service as me.

Every morning at eight thirty I make my way to the stop just around the corner from my flat. Arriving just a few minutes after the same people each day. Having patiently waited for the same bus every morning for the past three years I have come to the realisation that the other would-be passengers don't seem to have mastered the art of flagging down a bus, therefore signalling to the driver that they require him to pick them up. Many's the time I have reached the stop to find myself the second or third person in a metaphorical line. And for some inexplicable reason I find myself appointed as the chief flagger. Now I'm not saying for a moment that I shouldn't do it. Just because I wasn't first in line doesn't mean I refuse to, but it seems strange that the whoever got to the stop before everyone else doesn't step up to wave the bus down as it approaches us.

In my 20 years experience of travelling on public transport I'm wondering why, suddenly, within the last few years, there seems to be a lack of control taken of ones own transportational destiny? Have people forgotten how to take the initiative with these things or are they waiting for some kind of Bus Stop Fairy to come along and hold his/her (I'm an equal opportunities theorist) hand out for them in order to get the attention of the driver. I often wonder if they wait there, at the stop, until I arrive, and with a sense of relief, think to themselves 'hurrah! Our public transport saviour hath arrived. He's sure to know what to do', or had I been given the job of Bus Stop Fairy, on the one day I missed it?

And while were on the subject of bus etiquette, most of the buses I use has 'Press once' written above and below the bell push. Why then do people seem to press it more than that, even when someone else has, not five seconds earlier, done the same? Buses also have a display informing you that the bus is 'Stopping', why then do some people still insist on pressing the bell a few million times more. Even wearing headphones on the bus doesn't stop me from knowing when the bus is approaching the next stop, and also telling me when we have reached said stop. I realise there are users of the public transport system who may be visually or hearing impaired, but these things haven't been put in place for the benefit of me alone, who seems to end up pressing bells for other people and receiving no thanks for it. Just the other day I was nudged by the woman sitting next to me, who then just looked in the general direction of the bell. I must point out here that I did in fact take my earphones out when nudged, as I thought she was going to actually ask for my assistance, but no, she just pointed at the bell. I pressed it on her behalf, and as I did so I said 'that's the trouble with earphones', in as jovial a way as I could. I even chuckled as I said it. I received no response to it, and even less as she just shoved past me and I said 'that's got nothing to do with wearing earphones, ha ha'