Comments on: So Long, Sedan; Hello, Bus

By: BananaPeel

BananaPeel — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 18:11:41 +0000

@kellyography I sometimes ride the bus here in St Louis when I have to take my car in for repairs and I’d rather wait at home than at the mechanic. There happens to be a bus stop maybe a mile from the mechanic and it lets my off just around the corner from my apartment. I really lucked out. But, yeah, public transit here (especially Metro) is generally underdeveloped.

By: Hiroine Protagonist

Hiroine Protagonist — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:14:48 +0000

@stuffisthings Sigh. It *is* exhausting not being part of the default privileged group! And noticing when things specifically reinforce that dominance on the internet! Thank you for noticing!

By: bacon

bacon — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:18:00 +0000

@stuffisthings Also, there is exactly zero mention of Chinese people in this article, even though Chinamen (and, ok, Chinawomen) are the largest single ethnic group on the planet. For shame.

By: cdarcy

cdarcy — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:16:01 +0000

@MissMushkila One finds it tedious and distracting, doesn’t one?

By: z(oo)mm

z(oo)mm — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:26:18 +0000

related, kind of: this blog by a bus driver in Seattle Nathan Voss's Blog

By: MissMushkila

MissMushkila — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:47:17 +0000

@stuffisthings I remember the first time in college, when I read a textbook that mixed using “he” and “she” very specifically when referring to hypothetical people, because it was not a gender studies textbook and it was continually jarring to me. I’m a woman, and I had naturally been picturing all the hypothetical people as men. And then the text would go “she”.

I think things like this can sound somewhat petty, but it gets really old that pieces written by men about public life commonly have about a 10%-20% percentage of women in their comments. I don’t find it goes the other way (pieces about public life by women primarily referencing women). It isn’t about this article – which I thought was good and I enjoyed! – but about the fact that this is All The Articles. The author isn’t necessarily responsible for changing that, but it still kind of sucks.

By: MissMushkila

MissMushkila — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:37:56 +0000

@BillfoldMonkey The only ticket I ever received was a $200 ticket for only “pausing” at a red light when taking a right hand turn. I was by the high school where I work, and I think they were looking for students. I contested it, because $200 + the increased insurance fees for 3 years would have killed me as a part-time school teacher (selling my car was not an option, as I lived in the city and worked in the suburbs at 2 different schools).

I cried at the court officer very, very pathetically. All he could do was allow me to pay $270 to have the ticket continued for dismissal, since I had an otherwise perfect driving record. Basically, they agreed to not tell my insurance if I didn’t get any other tickets in the next year. It was essentially hush money? But legal.

The risk is that if I had been pulled over again in the next year, I would have had to pay the original $170 IN ADDITION TO the new ticket, plus whatever insurance increases would have occurred. Then I would have been in debt forever. (this didn’t happen but it made me so skerred to drive anywhere)

I got really angry about how impossible those fines are.

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:04:17 +0000

@sintaxis Sigh. I mean you have a perfectly good point, that one of the big reasons many people (who are in the position to do so) choose not to take public transportation is the level of harassment and danger, which especially affects women. Fair enough! I just think the claim of phallocentrism is way over the top and unfair to the piece and the author, especially as he DOES address — albeit glancingly — the very issue whose absence concerns you.

I’m not ready to concede that this short series of anecdotes by a male writer featuring mostly, but not exclusively, male characters, performing an activity not usually associated with any gender (riding the bus), is therefore a “male dominated” piece of writing. Any more than my telling you a story about a guy I saw wearing a funny hat is a “male dominated story.”

I also stand by my “snarky” comment: if you really do go around counting the ratio of male to female pronouns in every piece of writing you encounter, well, that DOES sound exhausting, at least to me. Maybe you enjoy it, or believe it to be somehow useful. To each her own.

And who knows — maybe the women he encountered in his bus rides failed to make an impression as colorful characters because most them were hunkered down in their headphones trying to avoid eye contact?

By: Deb of last year@twitter

Deb of last year@twitter — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:59:14 +0000

“Behind the wheel, I believed that my trip was more important than anyone else’s and that I was naturally a more skillful driver than anyone else on the road.”

Just as I’d always suspected! – A bus rider

By: TARDIStime

TARDIStime — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:44:31 +0000

I love this piece – beautiful. Totally relate as an early-twenties public transport user and soon-to-be student.
But I will argue that yes, @sintxis is right, on a level. I have been targeted by crazy/drunk/horny/bigoted people on the train and bus. It’s really unpleasant, but I’ve only ever had harmless experiences.
It is more avoidable when driving a car.
To counter – cars represent their own dangers, too. Road accidents and so on. I do wish buses had seatbelts on them, though – In Australia, it’s illegal to drive without your seatbelt on, but there is not an option for bus commuters to do the same, even by choice (?)