Room 101: Bus Rant

After much thought, I have decided that what I would like to be put in Room 101 are certain annoying people on buses. People who sit next to you on an empty bus, people who talk loudly on their phone and people who try to talk to you when you are clearly not in the mood are three examples of this. I beg, I demand, I implore you to join me in agreeing that these people are what ruins public transport for us hard-working citizens.

My first qualm with people on buses is those who sit next to you when the rest of the bus is empty. Studies show that 80% of people agree that this is unnecessary, annoying and just down right uncomfortable. Ladies and gentlemen, don’t you agree that this type of behaviour is truly irritating? Imagine this, you are on your way home, from a hard day of work and you would have gotten the luxury of an empty bus.

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You’d know you’d have a number of stops to go, so you’d begin to nod off, when you’d hear the dreaded ‘Is this seat taken?’

Of course, because we are polite people, we’d shake our heads and shift across, pressed up against the window. They’d sit down and you’d suffer the rest of your journey in uncomfortable silence, while trying to make yourself not touch them and thus moving closer and closer to the wall of the bus, which no-one knows how many germs exist on.

When your stop would come, you would have to be the one who apologises when you’d have to awkwardly shuffle past them. Now, tell me ladies and gentlemen, does this sound like your ideal journey?

My second problem is with people who decide it is ok to have very loud conversations on the bus. Since when was it socially acceptable to loudly rant to your friend in some foreign language on a bus full of people? Worse still is when it’s in English, and then we become the impolite ones, when you can’t help but pry on a conversation you don’t even care about. Furthermore, when you cough to express your annoyance and they give you the rudest look you could imagine. Surely, any sane person would agree that these people are bothersome? Studies have proven that if you can hear both sides of a conversation it's easier to ignore. When you only hear one side your brain tries to fill in the gaps. I'd never have a long, idle phone conversation on a bus. It's like these people can't bear to shut the hell up for a few moments, Heaven forbid they'd have to contemplate their own thoughts.

Finally what irritates me most are people who try to have long, pointless conversations with us after a long day. For the hardworking ones of us, this is the only time away from work and family where we have time to do what we want without having to deal with anyone else. We are not rude. We just need solace. When I am quite clearly listening to my iPod, and my body language definitely says ‘leave me alone', why do they keep talking to me? Trying with small talk is fine; I understand that, but to constantly push conversation? Rude.

Now, I’m not an unreasonable person, and I have nothing against your average commuter, but these people are what ruin your journey that could otherwise be a pleasant experience.