I actually have a much longer list of inappropriate bus behaviors. But a rule of thumb is to ask this "Does what I am doing going to bother the average person?" If the answer is yes or "I'm not sure" then don't fucking do it.

Pretty damn simple when it comes down to it don't you think?

The local (and by extension, virtually all of this Citadel of Freedom) attitude towards public transit is seen in the advertisements. On the outside are panels for REAL citizens, things to buy, places to have fun. Some of these adverts even spill over the windows, impairing the view of the riders. My favorite ads are the ones facing rearwards, pitching DUI Lawyers: "Call me, or you'll be one of the shits riding inside this low-class shitwagon".

Inside advertisements are for social service agencies (multilingual) and Metro Maintenance Worker of the Year.

Another super click bait Charles post, and I'll bite...What if they're a homeless person on the phone?

I don't mind a quick cell phone call like "OK, I'll meet you there. Bye." - but anything longer than that is too much in a confined public setting - like in a bus, plan, or in a cashier check-out line.

The big backpack thing applies to everyone -- I can't tell you how many times I've been smacked in the face by someone's bag because they don't realize that wearing a backpack makes you wider and therefore restricts movement in small spaces.

Bonus points if it's someone talking to a person behind or beside them so that I get smacked in the face with their backpack each time they want to turn and make a comment. I've literally had to ask people to "please stop hitting me with your backpack" because they're so oblivious to their surroundings and will just keep doing it until you say something.

So annoying. Not a problem specific to homeless people.

So you agree that the person talking on a cellphone is a bother but not the asshole with the speakers forcing his music on everyone else? Didn't you describe that behavior as "too novel to be annoying" or some malarkey?

"But we also have the luck of living at a time when there are so many silent ways to communicate on the ubiquitous smartphone (text, Gchat, Messenger, and so much more). Why do you need to actually talk to someone at the end of the line? It makes no sense. This sort of activity should be discouraged or even punished."

Yes and if only there was a technology that allowed someone to listen to their music without broadcasting it to everyone. Like a pair of headphones or earbuds... I'm sure scientists are working on the problem right now.

The absolute worst, non-criminal thing people do on the bus is exhale the last drag of their cigarette on the way in. Second place is saving half a cigarette behind their ear. I don't care how broke you are or how bad you think you need the nicotine, it shall not be done. There are rules.

Also, learn to wrap your weed, motherfuckers.

Also, also; no forward facing two handing bar holding. We are primates, but brachiation on the bus says "I've never been on the bus!" Keep it under control.

Who cares about phone yappers? That's what earbuds are for.

The backpack thing is annoying, They have handles on top, carry it at your side.

A backpack, if possible, should be removed from ones back and carried down the aisle and placed between ones feet or on ones lap. WEARING them on the bus is the root of the problem.

Cell phone: if the conversation is no louder than a polite conversation that would occur between two people sitting next to each other, I really just can't understand the justification for saying not to do it. Proper topics for public discussion is another issue all together.

Yelling or talking loudly (to other people, into a phone, or otherwise) is the biggest annoyance I tend to experience. Eliminating that would go a long way to making riding the 2 much more pleasant.

The worst behavior is the guy who camps by the door so everyone entering and exiting must go around him.

What about the people who take up more than one seat? That's the ultimate in rudeness.

How about bus drivers who think having a captive audience gives them a daily opportunity to practice their stand-up or future game show host routine?

@10 yes, and the person in the aisle holding onto both sides. Many of the folks with duffel bags are also fishermen, or other crew workers getting around town- not necessarily homeless

Fortunately, the rest of the world isn't subject to Chaz's more risible pronouncements, such as those vis-a-vis cell phones in this post. Mass-market cell phones have been in existence for some 30-odd years. Although early on restricted to business executives and other high-status users, they are now so common as to be essentially ubiquitous. People are not going to stop using them in public settings just because a few Luddites get their boxer-briefs in a knot over some perceived, and completely arbitrary, offense to their sense of decorum, or because it violates some bullshit "evolutionary imperative" (the entire point of evolution being of course to move BEYOND primitive constructs); using cell phones IS evolution, at least of a technological sort, but changes in technology frequently drive changes in social behavior and mores, that's pretty much a given. Sure, it's probably inappropriate to use one in a nice restaurant, or a hospital, or anywhere noise levels are generally expected to be kept to an absolute minimum, but on a freaking bus? Seriously?

Honestly, if you can't tell the difference between a cell phone user and a crazy person who just talks to themselves from the myriad of external clues each one exhibits, and if either causes you such physical discomfort, that's really not anyone else's problem but your own, and maybe you're just not cut out for using public transit in the first place.

Oops… one more... Really would improve efficiency, unless you have mobility issues EXIT BY THE REAR FRACKING DOORS!!!

And yet Manspreading isn't on this list?

http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/11/shou…

"Should the Handicapped Be Banned from Express Buses?

posted by Erica C. Barnett on November 9 at 10:23 AM

This morning, the ride on my express bus from Rainier Valley, which is supposed to take 30 minutes, was delayed four times for the entry and exit of two handicapped people in wheelchairs. The first wheelchair took a full 10 minutes, as the bus driver scooted a few inches forward and backward repeatedly to line up with the curb. Thus a ride that was supposed to be “express” ended up getting me (and maybe 100 other people) to work 20 minutes late.

So I’m just putting this out there: Is it fair for one or two handicapped individuals’ right to public accommodation to trump the right of dozens or hundreds of others to have reliable transit service that gets them to work on time? Is it fair for two people in wheelchairs to make everyone else on the “express” bus late?"

Homeless or not Charles people often move objects that don't fit in backpacks, satchels, or messenger bags around the city. And a HUGE problem with the post-car future that no one talks about is how exactly anyone is supposed to move stuff from place to place with public transit. At best its a miserable exercise in making everyone else on the bus hate you, and at worst its just impossible.

1) Yes on the phone complaint.
2) I'm calling bullshit on your delicate sensibilities; I ride the bus every day with morons who seem to be employed, seem to have jobs, and yet are totally ignorant to their backpacks smacking me in the shoulders and head no matter how much I try to dodge their baggage.
2) cigarette smells yes. All other strong smells too. This includes your powerful perfumes, BO, and cooking spices.

By far, the worst behavior of the average Seattle bus rider is to look away and not intervene when someone needs their assistance. This may be when a drunk makes lewd remarks to female passengers; when someone is running to the bus and the driver is about to pull away and needs to be told to wait; when someone needs a hand with their bag or a place to sit; when someone needs to be told to shut the fuck up; et al.

In other words, 95% of the time we do the Seattle thing of looking the other way like a bunch of dickless, selfish cunts. Fucking speak up, help a fellow dolla-van rider out.

@13:

Don't forget students. The size of the backpacks some of these kids need to lug around textbooks, laptops, supplies, rival those required for hiking the PCT.

The individualistic habits promoted by car culture and, in general, American ideology, have no place in the shared transportation of the future.

Nor do the individualistic hypersensitivities promoted by that same car culture.

@17: Dear God. I agree with ECB about 95% of the time but that's some epically, horrifically self-centered bigotry right there. Wow.

@17

Holy fuck, what a goddamn asshole!

So everyone is fine with clipping nails on the bus, apparently?

if the busses were so great there would no Uber

Sorry, not everyone loves the smell of pot, and people who smoke have dulled their sense of smell that they don't realize how pungent you are. Apparently Charles is one of them (I suppose I shouldn't be surprised...)

@10: To elaborate, my No. 1 metro bus frustration is people not moving as far back as possible when entering a standing-room-only bus. So many buses, especially at rush hour, appear to be packed to the gills when you try to enter the front doors, but if you just push past everyone clustered in the front half of the bus, you'll find plenty of space to stand (sometimes even sit!) at the very back. I don't know whether this happens out of laziness or lack of awareness, but it's a very simple fix that would make riding the bus at peak times much smoother. Related is some riders' insistence on standing even if a seat becomes available. Unless there's an elderly/disabled/pregnant/heavily burdened by groceries or luggage person standing near you who needs the seat more than you do, continuing to stand is not selfless -- it just puts you in the way of everyone else trying to move up or down the aisle, makes the bus appear more crowded, helps create and intensify aforementioned logjam at the front, and ultimately prevents someone who potentially does really need the seat from even getting to it.
@26, if you're holding the bars on both sides of the aisle, you're blocking anyone from getting around you without ducking under your armpits.

@31:

I don't know about other people, but if the bus is that crowded and I'm double-holding, I let go of one rail when the bus stops to let people through. Sometimes, it's a problem no matter how you're standing, because the bus is so crowded you just have to squeeze into whatever available space there is, and you can't always turn sideways to keep aisle space open.

There's indoor voice, then there's talking on the phone while riding the bus voice, use that, and set some standards for when you pick up the phone in the bus. Use even stricter standards when calling someone on the bus.
If I'm talking on the bus, chances are its work related. My income can't wait.

@30:

I find automobile exhaust to be a far more unpleasant odor than I do cannabis or tobacco, as I'm sure do many others, but whinging about them isn't going to solve anything. So long as people have the legal right to smoke, spew, consume, or adorn themselves with noxious-smelling products, complaining serves no useful purpose, and generally proves to be not only ineffectual, but in many instances simply emboldens the person to do more of the same, just out of spite if nothing else. It's unfortunate for the relatively small percentage of the population that exhibit legitimately allergy-like reactions, but if everyone with an allergy had their own way, the planet would be devoid of a large bulk of plant life as it is, and I don't see many of the rest of us clamoring for the extermination of all pollen-producing vegetation, just to accommodate them. In short, they learn to live with it.

I suppose one could argue that, people, unlike plants, have some measure of control over the odors they create, but so far as I'm aware there's no law that says Person A taking offense at Person B's odor requires them to alter their behavior just to suit Person A's personal standards. Presumably Person B has standards themselves; they just don't happen to coincide with Person A's, and in the end, human behavior being what it is, when given a choice people are generally going to do what suits their interests, even if that means inconveniencing, however slightly, someone else, and particularly if their actions don't effectively curtail other people's legal rights. Last I checked though, the right to not breathe whatever gaseous chemical compounds happen to be in the air at any given moment doesn't, with very limited exceptions (e.g. indoor smoking in public facilities), actually exist.

@34 its legal (mostly) for for public and private entities to make rules regarding personal cleanliness/odor to the point of becoming a nuisance and preventing others from using the facility. the offending person being asked to leave the premises as a result. the concept has been batted around the courts a bit for sure, but if the policy is reasonable and enforced fairly, the rules usually are upheld. not sure if Metro has a policy, but they could.

like a lot of other subjective rules or laws, the test of reasonable-ness would probably end up decided on by judge or jury if litigated.

@35:

Granted, but that still leaves a tremendous amount of leeway, and just because a particular individual claims to be offended by an odiferous presence doesn't necessarily mean it meets the standard of "nuisance" set by the establishment.

It's like people who still complain about cigarette smoke in theatrical productions: the City banned indoor smoking in public venues years ago and dramatic presentations that require a character to smoke aren't exempt from that proscription, but you can bet dollars to donut holes that the second someone "lights up" onstage (using those fake cigarettes that exhude small clouds of a non-toxic powder), several people in the audience will immediately start coughing, not because they're actually inhaling tobacco smoke, but merely because the action itself seems to generate an almost Pavlovian response in them that signals disapproval. And they STILL complain to the management, even though there is simply no possible way for them to have smelt burning tobacco.

This seems to me analogous to many situations that occur on public transit: some people will complain about ANYTHING that strikes them as offensive, and all too often their threshold of tolerance is extremely low by even the most generous standards. While there are certainly extreme examples to be had, frequently the response is completely out of proportion; the merest whiff of perfume or a bit of sweat odor sending overly-sensitive, easily offended people into paroxysms of passive-aggressive behavior, which personally, I find more obnoxious than the aroma that prompts it.

inclined to agree about the smoking-in-a-play thing, but i'm curious if metro has a policy on BO and/or personal hygiene.

I really really want to like Metro, but it never fails that either a foul-mouthed obnoxious teen goes agro on something or a completely mentally-ill or addict freaks out. i'm usually taking the #2 from home to office and the clinics just west of broadway are on the route. i end up getting off and walking or taxi'ing the rest of the way. Sometimes the 48 to the U-district is a nice drama-free route, but anything to or from downtown usually a freak show at least half the time.

@10, YES! Or anyone who stands anywhere when there are open seats. Aisles are one-person wide. If you're standing, you're in the way. Sit the fuck down.

I kinda want to figure out Charles' route, just so I can give him 4 more things to whinge about.

Yeah, Charles is clearly trolling on this one. Not only did he just post about how it's "novel" enough to allow idiots to blast their (invariably hiphop) music loud enough for everyone else to hear, he finishes with this obvious wink:

"As we become more and more dependent on public transportation, we will need a kind of ruthless Stalinism to minimize or eliminate anti-social behaviors."

I stand by in the spot by the back door on a full bus. It's the one spot you don't have to move every single time someone wants off (there's enough room for people to get by). I don't apologize. That's just smart riding. I can get off on 3rd and Seneca before all you other slow pokes meander off.

Amen @31. Move back, you idiots! Yes, you may actually have to look back over your shoulder to determine whether or not there is room, but DO IT. Save yourself some time. Save us all some time. How hard is it to figure out that if the front half is getting full, you should MOVE BACK when there is room.

I'm fine with bags and backpacks, bikes, w/c, walkers, cane, and crutches. People need groceries and things for their home. People with luggage need to get to/from homeless shelter, train station, bus depot, and airport. College and school kids with book bag 1/2 their weight. Workers with their bike plus change of clothes/shoes, lunch bag, water bottle, laptop, and sundries - to cover their needs for the next 10-14 hr of their work day.

People and their things need to get around.That's the purpose of public transportation. World class city or not, on matatus or a donkey cart, it's all the same.

I just ask people to be mindful of their stuff so they aren't blocking aisle and hitting people.

Nobody mentioned manspread?! Yes about taking off your backpack or purse when standing; and putting bags on you lap or the floor. I'm most annoyed about space taken up by the empty sacs of man-ego.

As a large person who frequently has a backpack on, I frequently stand in the aisle because I take up more than one seat. Yes, I hold on to the rails on both sides so I don't go flailing about with the frequent jerky starts and stops of public transit. Plus the pungent smell of weed is enough to trigger allergies. Not that there is an allergy test for marjuana.

Smelling like skunk cabbage weed and then making big the whole bus smell that way ain't cool. Period!

@31 my biggest pet peeve with that is that people NEVER stand in the area behind the back door, even if there are people crowded right up to the yellow line in the front.