Bus loyalty

Is every movement you make an inevitable betrayal of every passenger around you?

The perfect bus experience is getting the slightly raised chair, not sitting next to anyone and staring wistfully out the window like you're in a terrible movie that no one would watch.

The reality is often your favourite chair is taken and you're forced to sit next to someone ugly or foolish.

If I sit next to someone I will want to bail as soon as possible, but in a way that makes it look like I did it for practical, rather than personal, reasons. It's very hard to convey this message in a movement, so my solution is simple: do it fast. Just run, don't give them time to think or be offended.

There are times when you freeze in your chair out of 'bus loyalty', that is if you move you feel you will break the status quo. I've seen whole buses frozen by cold because no one stood up to close a window, and the person next to it didn't even know it was open. Why? Bus loyalty. As soon as you stand up the bus world is SHAKEN, everyone's disturbed, it's like you're steamrolling through a jungle.

You have exactly 2 minutes after sitting down to stand up again, after that point if you stand up when the bus hasn't stopped you are some kind of maverick who might kill someone or everyone or ask for money or start dancing and no one wants that, not at 7 in the morning.

Where do your loyalties lie?