So, after the trip to the local subway we decided to try out the bus for our next adventure into the city (it was closer than the subway and it turned out to be at the corner with the police station). The start of the journey was a bit worrying with a streetscape of boarded up houses, cages around doorways and signs in the windows saying 'stop killing, start living', but as always and with most cities, it's not the people on the bus you have to worry about.
I am a huge fan of public transport (when it is working right) for more than just environmental reasons...I like to avoid road rage welling up inside me, I usually get my bit of exercise walking to and from the bus/train, and best of all is the public theatre it presents you with, and this bus journey certainly did not disappoint!
We were a couple of blocks into our journey when we see a guy in an electric wheelchair parked up waiting kerbside for the bus to stop. The bus driver stops the bus, asks mam to move out of her seat because that is where the wheelchair goes, and then opens the rear doors. As soon as she sees the guy she starts shouting at him that he is at the wrong bus stop and that she can't possibly get him on the bus because the kerb is too high. He is obviously dissapointed because, as we have just found out, this bus is not too frequent. Then she starts shouting all over the bus and telling all the other passengers that he is a lazy bum and he knows what stop he should be at...'all he gotta do is push a button and he be there'! She's like, 'he knows this kerb is too high, why's he even at this stop?' The poor guy is then racing down the sidewalk trying to get to the next stop, the bus driver is cursing him all the way back to her seat and then speeds off, leaving the poor guy for dust...you just couldn't make it up! I hope he got himself to wherever he was going...
This is us at one of the bus stops waiting for our carriage to take us home on a crisp cold night in Brooklyn...
