Unfriendly El Paso

I wonder how much time bus drivers in El Paso's miserable bus system actually spend driving buses..

... and how much time they spend forbidding passengers from eating apples,
or drinking alcohol, or eating at all on the buses..

..not to mention negotiating with them about the cost of a fare... or requiring them
to prove that they have paid....

So much time is wasted every day with the time-consuming process of swiping cards and paying with cash...dropping the coins in the fare box, etc., or asking how much the fare costs. Wasted time which makes it a cruel joke that the managers of the El Paso buses dare to proclaim the bus system a "metro"...I would laugh if I weren't more inclined to weep at all the time I lose because of this inefficient and unpleasant system.

And there is the sheer physical geography of it: one must be inspected by the driver before being allowed to enter. This physical fact creates an ugly hierarchical situation, much like the border between two countries. And some drivers have, it seems, have gotten the message in their heads that they are superior to the passengers...

It occurs to me that in Central Europe the drivers of public transport do nothing but drive. This makes for a faster, more efficient trip.

Of course, in the Central European public transport system, there are people with the specific job of checking that passengers have paid, and they do this from time to time. But the bus drivers (or tram drivers or metro drivers) don't have to do this. They can concentrate on driving. It make the trip faster and more hassle free.

I suspect that this reflects a broader social attitude in these United States:
Heaven forbid that someone should ride the bus without paying!

That sort of pettiness fits well with the mindless and oppressive emphasis upon hard work so common in ordinary conversation... In ordinary conversations, people seem to be working very hard to prove that they are not lazy, and that they follow the rules..... unlike the bad people we read about in the newspapers or see on television.

Work? In the real world, it is an oppressive business. It is all about
some people sweating and being stressed so that bankers and their ilk can gamble with other people's money.....the whole system is transparently cruel and hopeless...