The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Topic #78: What is the strangest thing that’s ever happened to you on a bus? If you don’t take buses often, how about on an airplane? While driving to work? While walking home from school? And if nothing strange has ever happened to you while using transportation of any kind, what is the strangest thing you can think of that you wish had happened to you while using transportation?

I’ve never had any strange experiences on buses – weird things have happened, but they’re things that could happen anywhere, not only just on a bus. However, I do recall an event that other people on the bus thought was strange at the time.

I’m not sure if it’s like this for all public buses, but the buses at my university have a yellow cord that extends across the side of the bus. This yellow cord is the signal cord – you pull it when your stop is approaching so the bus driver knows that (s)he has to stop at the next bus stop. If the cord is not pulled and there is nobody at the stop waiting to board the bus, the bus passes the stop without stopping. Unfortunately, many first-riders don’t know this; if I hadn’t read through the Metro website before my first time riding a bus, I would’ve never known either.

One day when I was going to work, two women entered the bus. Apparently, they weren’t getting off very far from where they got on, and they were expecting the bus to stop at every stopping point regardless of if people were present at the stop or if the cord was pulled or not. When one of the women saw her destination approaching, she stood up and put her bag around her shoulder. As she shifted momentum to start walking towards the door, the bus driver passed the stop because nobody pulled the cord. She looked slightly confused and sat back down.

As the next bus stop approached, she got up again and put her bag back on her shoulder. As she again shifted momentum to start walking towards the exit door, the bus passed the stop without stopping. This time, she looked completely puzzled.

This went on for about two or three more stops.

As my workplace was approaching, I pulled the yellow cord to signal that I was intending to get off. When the bus got to my stop, it pulled over so I could get off. When the women saw this, they stared at me in bewilderment and gave me a “how did the bus driver know you were getting off here?!” look. I’m pretty sure this was the strangest bus moment for these women.

Picture of the Day

Sleeping Lawyers

From my criminal justice textbook:

“… lawyers have fallen asleep during their clients’ death penalty trials, yet one Texas judge found no problem with such behavior. He wrote that everyone has a constitutional right to have a lawyer, but ‘the Constitution does not say that the lawyer has to be awake.'”

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 21

Number of times I did my own laundry: 2