I find it kind of funny that some people find it surprising that bus riding can be done with a child. Everyday I ride the bus, I see someone with a child. I have seen everything ranging from mothers with their brand new baby to families with several children of different ages, to middle school aged children riding by themselves. I have seen people in wheel chairs, elderly people with canes and walkers, people with crutches, and people with downs syndrome on the bus. Yes all of the people I’ve just mentioned have their own challenges to riding the bus. But these are the same challenges that they face with everything they do in their daily lives.
Please understand that I am not an anomaly just because I have a child. I’m not an anomaly just because I’ve ridden the bus on crutches. I’m not an anomaly just because my motivation for going car-free has nothing to do with being green. There are a lot of us. Don’t forget about us.

A few rants though, the disgruntled bus drivers really tick me off. I mean, it’s been getting much better over the past few years, I’ve been encountering less and less bitchy bus drivers but every now and then I do see one. And it’s usually when I’m in a good mood too (which doesn’t last long, because of the disgruntled driver). I just want to call bullshit on the bus driver who nearly passed you by because your baby was still in her stroller. There is no rule saying that you MUST have her out of her stroller or the bus will not stop. If they did, they would have had to advertise it to educate the public. If that happened to me, I would have complained about that driver.

That just fries my hide. I remember last summer, I was putting my old raleigh on the bike rack of the bus that I usually took every day and the bus driver was annoyed because I took a little longer with the holding bar that she liked so she just honked her horn at me when I was RIGHT IN FRONT of her bus making sure my bike was secure. Her excuse was she was late and didn’t have the time to wait for me. What was she gonna do? Run over me with my bike barely on the rack? And I wasn’t the reason why she was late, she had a whole bunch of different types of people on the bus who were making her late (families, other bicycles, wheelchairs, old people with tons of groceries). I rarely take that bus anymore.

Another thing this interview reminded me of that really ticks me off is people who don’t make room for the elderly or disabled passengers. I’ve been on the bus many times where young mothers holding babies, elderly and/or disabled passengers get on the bus and the healthy-looking able-bodied people (teenagers to middle-aged) outright ignore those people who need a seat. I mean, if you are a single woman and want proof that chivalry is dead, just take the bus, where you will see as many as 10-25 men in your own age group NOT offer you a seat. And I’m a child-free single woman. I see red whenever I see disabled or elderly struggle to find a seat. GRR!!

You know, I don’t have a problem with public transportation, just some of the people, sometimes…

I’ll stop right there, didn’t mean to hijack this post…

Cute baby, cute mommy.

Browne

It’s a shame that not being car dependent is looked upon as being poor.

Have I mentioned how much I love this series? ;-)