Bus Etiquette - A very British problem

[Arwon]

So if the windows don't open, where's the emergency exit?

Doors, roof hatches, and windows designed to be broken with the provided hammers

 

[sherbz]

Here where I live we have parts of the year where AC would be a waste of energy (and money), but when it's also too warm to turn on heating. An open window is perfect in that situation.

Wouldn't that be case almost anywhere on the planet that's not anywhere close to the equator? I bet there's exceptions, but it seems that seasonal changes will usually give you that "neither AC or heating makes sense right now" time periods

Yeah i agree. Mostly an open window is all you need. Air con is nice in summer though. And will sadly be increasingly more important with climate change. Canada did well i thought during its mad heat wave. When France had one in 2003 some 35,000 people died. And 1,500 died in 2019 as a result of the heat. Are there any figures for Canada?

 

[warpus]

Yeah i agree. Mostly an open window is all you need. Air con is nice in summer though. And will sadly be increasingly more important with climate change. Canada did well i thought during its mad heat wave. When France had one in 2003 some 35,000 people died. And 1,500 died in 2019 as a result of the heat. Are there any figures for Canada?

Hmm it looks like we had about 500 deaths in British Columbia during the last heat wave. I seem to remember another newsworthy amount of deaths in the province of Quebec, but wikipedia seems to be down for me right now, so I can't find the exact figure. I don't remember it being much higher than BC's numbers though (and could be lower). Other provinces had a lower amount of heatwave related deaths at this time, IIRC.

What helps us here is that everybody is used to AC. All newly built homes have central air built in, with an AC unit, and the vast majority of homes and businesses will have central AC or AC units in the window. With electricity prices going up and up, it does make it a more and more inaccessible to some people, especially since wages haven't been rising as fast as inflation... I can't remember one house I've visited in the last 10 years that didn't have AC though, excluding cottages (where AC is usually a premium).

From what I understand AC units are not nearly as popular in UK. I also remember reading that houses in the UK were/are built to keep in temperature very well. i.e. well insulated. Here in Canada that's not the case. We build our homes to be as flimsy as possible and call it a day. So you end up having to cool and heat them more during the winter and summer months.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

Yeah AC in homes barely exists in the UK. It just doesn't get hot enough consistently to need it.

Heating and good insulation is vital for winter tho as it's all a bit miserable otherwise.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yeah i agree. Mostly an open window is all you need. Air con is nice in summer though. And will sadly be increasingly more important with climate change. Canada did well i thought during its mad heat wave. When France had one in 2003 some 35,000 people died. And 1,500 died in 2019 as a result of the heat. Are there any figures for Canada?

Part of the issue this time was the covid restrictions getting in the way. Some cities have cooling stations as a matter of course but others don't. They had to flange something up quickly, and decide just how far they were going to insist on following the covid restrictions on occupancy and social distancing.

Hmm it looks like we had about 500 deaths in British Columbia during the last heat wave. I seem to remember another newsworthy amount of deaths in the province of Quebec, but wikipedia seems to be down for me right now, so I can't find the exact figure. I don't remember it being much higher than BC's numbers though (and could be lower). Other provinces had a lower amount of heatwave related deaths at this time, IIRC.

Lytton had a double whammy of heat illnesses/deaths, and then the town burned to the ground in a wildfire. That part of BC is hot every year anyway - it's semi-arid and desert-like in a good summer, never mind what happened this year.

There were a lot of animal and pet deaths, as well. I remember being worried about Maddy, what with her having just turned 14 in June, and she's noticeably slower than she used to be. She's a bit fuddly at times - gets a bit panicky sometimes if she forgets that she's not alone, and starts crying. I kept checking on her often, making sure she was hydrated, trying to keep myself hydrated... It was 40C here - and that was the outside, ground-level temperature. I live in an apartment that's the equivalent of 5 storeys up, on the east side of the building that's on a hill, so of course there's a lot of sunlight in the summer. If I'd had a thermometer in the apartment, it would have been over 40C. There's no air conditioning here, and I didn't own a fan. I realized I'd better get one quick, and thank goodness I did - the morning that the Amazon driver showed up, I woke up with symptoms of heat exhaustion. I basically grabbed the box out of the driver's hands (he thought I was a bit nuts, but when you're dizzy, have a headache, can barely think, and you know it's not because of the diabetes, you just don't waste time on courtesy), tore it open, plugged the fan in, and stayed in front of it all day.

That was Canada Day, the first day of the July NaNoWriMo, and the fan was the reason I decided I could go through with the July competition this year. I don't handle heat very well at the best of times, and this year... I barely had energy to think, let alone do anything else. But I decided that I wasn't going to push it too hard (NaNoWriMo is fun, but stressful when you're under a daily deadline). I decided on a goal that would be absurdly easy any other year, and pushed through it. The rest of the time I just sat in front of the fan and tried not to think too much. I have a ceiling fan in the dining room, so that was on all the time as well (opposite end of the apartment to where the computer is and there's no window there, so that's why I didn't just stay in that room).

One thing about the heat dome this summer... I had to keep the window open in the room where I am now, where the computer is. The screens don't fit right, and while the extreme heat meant mosquitoes wouldn't be a problem, the moths... holy crap, I don't think I've ever seen (or killed) so many moths in my entire life. There are still bloodstains on the wall from some of the insects that got swatted. And Maddy was no help with the bugs - she likes to play with them.

What helps us here is that everybody is used to AC. All newly built homes have central air built in, with an AC unit, and the vast majority of homes and businesses will have central AC or AC units in the window. With electricity prices going up and up, it does make it a more and more inaccessible to some people, especially since wages haven't been rising as fast as inflation... I can't remember one house I've visited in the last 10 years that didn't have AC though, excluding cottages (where AC is usually a premium).

AC isn't common here in homes, and especially not in apartments. The company that owns the building I live in had decided that ceiling fans are not aesthetically pleasing(!), and the policy was to remove them when people moved out. I had to argue with the manager last year to let me keep mine, and thank goodness he agreed. It's the only thing that kept it cool enough in the apartment for me to even attempt to sleep during the heat dome. I think I got maybe 2-3 hours/night during July and part of August (I had a nap in front of the computer sometimes... just dozed off in the middle of reading whatever).

From what I understand AC units are not nearly as popular in UK. I also remember reading that houses in the UK were/are built to keep in temperature very well. i.e. well insulated. Here in Canada that's not the case. We build our homes to be as flimsy as possible and call it a day. So you end up having to cool and heat them more during the winter and summer months.

I grant you the flimsy. It's appalling how shoddy some standards are. At least the building I live in has the excuse of being several decades old and being built on top of a hill. I hope that by the time it slides down into the valley that I won't be living here anymore. But at least in this part of the country, homes are built to keep heat in, not out. Winters aren't as bad here as they are in Manitoba (there's a good reason why Winnipeg's nickname is "Winterpeg"), but they can get bad enough during a cold snap. Summers can get pretty hot here, but what we had this year just isn't normal for this side of the Rockies. A lot of people were caught unprepared, and the stores couldn't keep up with the demand for AC units and fans. So the people who were unlucky enough not to get anything were told to go to cooling stations... hello, not every municipality has them, and even if they do, they could be a long way from the people who actually need them.

And one other thing... I've experienced heat waves in BC when the Sun was red. But they weren't the heat waves that are killers, and they didn't last anywhere near as long as this one did. Back then nobody had heard of a "heat dome." But this year, I was reminded of a saying my grandmother would tell me: "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning."

Well, my province is landlocked and there isn't even a proper lake here where humans can go for a swim (there are a couple of lakes in the wildlife sanctuary, but they're reserved for birds, amphibians, insects, etc.). So there aren't any sailors around to care. But that red Sun, day after day, was just bizarre and unsettling.

 

[warpus]

Yeah AC in homes barely exists in the UK. It just doesn't get hot enough consistently to need it.

Heating and good insulation is vital for winter tho as it's all a bit miserable otherwise.

The companies that build homes here use the cheapest possible materials so they can make the highest possible profit. You can then usually upgrade this and that, including probably insulation.

The insulation in my house is not great. I was able to lower electricity costs in the summer by investing in blackout curtains for key windows. A lot cheaper than replacing insulation with something better, and it was a lot more effective than I thought it would be.. although to be fair I also bought a new ceiling fan and put it in a strategic spot at the top of the stairs. It pulls up cold air in the summer and pushes down warm air in the winter.

In an effort to not be too off topic, let me say that the London I live in (the second most popular London in the world) also has double decker buses. They are only used for tourists though

As for but etiquette specifically, I hate it when people get on a bus where all the seats are full.. and do not move to the back of the bus. So when the next group of people get on the bus, they have to walk past that person or stand near the front. It ends up creating a traffic jam, and the bus might appear to be full even though there might still be a lot of room in the back. The bus drivers here often yell things like "Move the back of the bus please".. and in fact now we have a robot doing this.. or rather a computer.. because people seem to be stupid enough to not remember or figure out this one simple rule..

Another related bus etiquette problem is when people congregate near the door. If the bus is packed, I will sometimes stand there, but I make sure I am off to the side. If somebody is getting off the bus, there's lots of space. Sometimes you get a group of people congregating around the door, even though they're not planning on getting off the bus. Then they get annoyed when people have to push past them to get out.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

What profoundly annoys me is the women with Costco shopping cart-sized "strollers" that they insist on taking on the bus, and the only place there's room enough is the place that's designated for seniors and disabled people. I (with my mobility aids) was told to move out of the disability-designated seating area one time, to make room for one of these selfish (w)itches with their shopping cart-size "stroller".

There really should be a size limit to these "strollers". Often the mother doesn't even use them for the kid. She's carrying the kid and the "stroller" is full of her shopping bags and snacks and whatever else.

 

[sherbz]

What profoundly annoys me is the women with Costco shopping cart-sized "strollers" that they insist on taking on the bus, and the only place there's room enough is the place that's designated for seniors and disabled people. I (with my mobility aids) was told to move out of the disability-designated seating area one time, to make room for one of these selfish (w)itches with their shopping cart-size "stroller".

There really should be a size limit to these "strollers". Often the mother doesn't even use them for the kid. She's carrying the kid and the "stroller" is full of her shopping bags and snacks and whatever else.

Its first come first served in the UK. I bought a xmas tree one year. And had to transport it back on the bus. Some young mother got on with a pram. And asked whether i would move out of the way. I said no - me and the tree were staying put. She wasnt pleased

Id have moved for a disabled person. But not a pram.

 

[warpus]

My rule is that I will move for anybody who looks to be weak, pregnant, diabled, sick, or just in need of a seat, or whatever reason. That usually means the elderly, but a lot of people on that "elderly or not?" boundary seem to like to stand, or at least argue about taking my seat. So I've stopped asking some of them. Now my rule is - I look to see if it looks like you could use a seat - and not necessarily how old you are. If someone looks uncomfortable - that's a sign they probably wouldn't mind sitting down, etc.

Nobody here will ask you for your seat though. I mean, I'm sure it happens, but usually it's up to somebody to offer a seat. There's even signs at the front of the bus that explain which situation you should give up your seat in. This only applies to the front seats.

I think only once or twice when I offered my seat did the person take it right away.. usually they try to say no a couple times first. One of those polite Canadian: "No, you go first" things..

I would probably get up and move for a woman with a stroller, if I'm sitting near the front. That's where people with strollers usually sit - some seats flip up and allow you to put something there while you sit nearby. So if I see a woman with a big stroller and a child inside get on, and I'm in the front, I will move to the back. IMO it's not that she needs a seat, it's moreso that she has a lot of crap to deal with and being able to sit while keeping an eye on the child seems a lot more comfortable.. and I don't mind standing.

I'd also move for somebody with a christmas tree though. I mean.. It depends? We all have annoying days. It's easy enough to stand for 10 minutes instead of sitting or whatever, so I don't mind. Lugging around a xmas tree on a bus seems annoying. I don't think it's even allowed here.

If I saw a showdown between a guy with a xmas tree (let's say he's also dressed up as santa) VS a woman with a stroller, I would start collecting bets on the bus and start getting everyone excited about the upcoming fight over the seat

 

[Valka D'Ur]

There's been a time or two when I really wasn't feeling well at all - just exhausted and dreading the long walk from the bus stop to my apartment building (winter, hardly anyone clearing their sidewalk, it's icy, and I'm carrying two 6.7 kg pails of cat litter plus my canes; it's a balancing act that I'm really glad I don't have to attempt anymore...). I saw young, healthy high school kids parking their backsides in the seniors/disabled-designated seats, and yes, I asked one of them to please let me sit. I wasn't nasty about it, and just told them that I would appreciate a seat as I wasn't feeling well enough to stand. They moved. And there were a few times when a particular driver stopped the bus long enough to walk over to those seats and order a kid or two to move, since they didn't get up immediately to let me sit.

And then there was the (w)itch of a driver who pitched a fit when I refused to get off the outbound bus on one side of a six-lane road (basically where the QEII highway meets the intersection near the two major malls on the north hill), walk across, and catch the inbound bus on the other side. It's a hike that's impossible to do without waiting in the middle, on a narrow boulevard where a lot of accidents happen. It's unsafe for an able-bodied person and would have been utter insanity for someone like me.

She pretended to care about saving me a 45-minute trip through several subdivisions on the route, saying I'd get home faster, but I just told her that since the bus was more than half-empty, it's not like my seat was needed for anyone else, I had no pressing need to get home faster, me crossing the highway on foot was unsafe, and if I didn't mind taking extra time to get home, why should she mind?

Well, she kept carrying on about it, I told her flatly that she was telling me to put myself in an unsafe situation, and I would not do it. When we arrived at the downtown depot I promptly found one of the security people and reported her.

 

[Plains-Cow]

I favour communting when possible to work via bicycle. Electric Bomptons are cool, fun to ride, and let you get to work without being too sweaty if it's an office job. Best of all, small enough to take inside and put in a locked room, locker, or space. No need to worry about getting it nicked while you're working!

 

[NovaKart]

I think the windows on buses in New York might not open either. I never really noticed before. These days when I go visit my sister in Brooklyn I have to take a bus, then the ferry, then the subway. The express bus is kinda expensive and the taking the bus and ferry doesn’t seem to take that much longer.

The subway platforms are really hot and stuffy in the summer, I hate taking it.

New York has a lot of old houses some without AC except window units. Where my sister lives all the houses are Victorian era and the window AC keeps it cool but God help you going into the kitchen or bathroom.

In Iraq some people use kerosene heaters and I would either use the AC which also worked for heat or if the electricity was out just stay cold and bundle up. Last time I was there in winter I could see my breath sometimes indoors.

 

[stfoskey12]

In the times I've ridden a bus as an adult in the US or UK, it seems like people generally don't open the window, or if they do it's never bothered me. When I was a kid people would often open the windows on school buses in the warm season, because some of the older buses didn't even have AC. I didn't like it when people opened the windows in the winter, because then I would get cold.