Public Transport Blues

In earlier posts, I suggested that a prime value among the managers and supervisors at the El Paso Bus Company (which has the ridiculous name "sun metro"--ridiculous because a metro is fast and efficient, neither of which applies to buses in El Paso)...

is the value of CROWD CONTROL.

The bus company has strict rules about entering and exiting. You can enter with
a gun. That's important, because that's the law. (Of course. you do have to have
a license, but that is a minor detail.) But heaven forbid you should exit at the wrong place!

Today as the bus approached the changing center, located a stone's throw from Mexico,
the bus suddenly stopped. The doors opened and several passengers got out.

Now, I happened to be standing up, as I was eager to leave the bus.

However, I did not depart. Neither did I press the door in order to open it.

Nonetheless, the bus driver directed his attention at me, sternly warning that this
was not a place to get out.

It was too late to tell the two people who had left. They were safely down the block
by now.

I explained to the driver that I had "done nothing; I was just standing here."

But the whole affair is insulting, paternalistic.

The doors opened because the driver did something--such as pushing a button.

This has happened before.

But the whole idea of the right and wrong place to exit! Give me a break! The people who got off the bus are not stupid. They are not willfully going to jump in front of a car or bus!

Again, the El Paso bus system insults the riders.

I notice a similar antipathy toward pedestrians when drivers steer far away from me when I cross the street, or when I stand on the curb preparing to crosss--as if they were afraid I were about to hurl myself in front of them......a sick country...really...

But as for the El Paso bus system, we see once again that the bus drivers have a dual role: they drive the bus and they act as POLICE to control the passengers!