Commuter Life I want to get something off my chest. If anyone rides commuter buses they'll recognise what I'm talking about. Here is a dictionary definition of 'spatial awareness':
"The ability to work within one's own space; the ability to organize people and objects in relation to one's own body."
In other words being able to see things or people and how they relate to you. In which case can some explain something to me. Why do people, when they get on a bus where there are no seats, insist on standing at the front in the way of the door? I know there are wider concerns in the world, but when I've forgotten my book in the morning other than see the same drab housing pass-by through the window there is nothing else to look at. The senario usually plays out something like this:

Three students and a businessman get on just before Toxteth. The Businessman will grab the nearest seat and the three students will congregate around the baggage rack just in front of the door. Next stop is full of people. As they get on, no one moves. As the people get on, rather than pushing past the students they will stand with them. Someone will move through when the space gets to full, but rather than moving all of the way to the back and letting everyone spread about, they will move forward as little as possible. Bus moves on, next stop. Doors open. The driver has to shout a request (as usual) for everyone to move down the bus. Which they do. But not all the way of course, just halfway down the isle. The bus driver asks again. Now, they move. But it's begrudingly, the look in their eyes either vacant or irritated because they've been shouted at.

Then there are the ones who meet a friend who is sitting down and start having a chat and then will pathalogically refuse to move even when they're getting shouted at. They will take all kinds of pushing and shoving as people try to get past them, and even tut when they're knocked away.

Final rant. What is it with people who won't take their bags off their shoulders when they are standing up? Every night I'll find myself sitting with a backpack in my face trying to avoid a smack in the face. I'm how do you ask them to move ... it's a bit petty isn't it?

No comments: