ride share

The bus was packed early this week, as it usually is when it rains.  I am not sure where all the people come from but I suspect that taxis which might look for passengers in the valley get picked up in Causeway Bay so that regular taxi riders have to look for alternate forms of transportation.

This would also explain why some of the unfamiliar riders this week also were unfamiliar with how to behave when sharing public transportation with others.

Here is a man who decided that rather than sitting next to another passenger (the horror) he would sit in the priority seating.  The priority seating is marked by not only a sign posted right in front of the seat, but also by red seat covers stating "PRIORITY SEAT" in yellow font.  Mr. Businessman not only sat in a seat that should have been offered to special needs riders, but he placed his backpack on the seat next to him so that no one else would try to share his perch.  After observing several women and their pre-school children boarding and look over at the seat while he pretended not to notice, I saw an elderly man stand next to the seat and try to gain this man's attention only to be ignored.  I got up to tell the businessman to move his bag but the elderly man waved me off after correctly guessing my intentions, probably by the purple tinge to my face as I headed over.  The elderly man was too shy to accept my offer of my own seat and rode the bus standing, gripping the railing right next to Mr. Businessman.  Mr. Businessman actually had to lean out of the seat to look around the elderly man for the bus stop signal but he managed to avoid noticing that someone could have used the seat. What an ass.

And here is a woman who may look like a normal human being but what you can't see in the picture is that her bottom is so wide that she needs to take up two seats.  And she's clearly embarrassed by this fact, as you can observe in her defensive posturing.