Twister meets the morning commute

Twister, anyone?

On city buses here, there is no white line to stand behind. The white line is a product of nanny states with an overabundance of trial lawyers. Here, if the bus is full, you just get on anyway. The driver and the other passengers expect it and there is zero concept of personal space. At times you can practically feel if the person behind you put on underwear or not, they pack in that close.

It’s not so bad in winter but in summertime it can be truly wretched.

If you don’t speak Spanish and you’re in such a situation, all of the people around you are likely to say unintelligible things to you – everyone is generally advising everyone else of their destination somewhat in advance so they others are not surprised when they proceed to climb over you to get out of the bus.

The first 2km or so of my commute this morning, I was standing right inside the bus with my back literally right on the front door, it was that full. You have to hang on real tight because it’s not a good idea to trust anything mechanical here, especially with your life. It’s not especially dangerous in general, but ya never know.

Two of the bus companies post capacities for their vehicles, but ignore them. The one I was on this morning doesn’t bother. And yes, they are private companies. Transportation is not a government business – this is a good thing or it would be very poorly run and overstaffed. Since it’s private, its just overstaffed. How can a city bus be overstaffed? Because there is a second person on the bus whose job is to collect the fares. Some buses have them, some don’t.