Public Transportation Stories

[I Shall Engrave]

Public transportation seems to bring out the worst in people. Just when I think it doesn't get weirder, it always does. Share stories that have happened to you while on busses, trains, planes, etc.

1. I was riding a bus home from school. There's an old man I've never met cursing behind me calling me a bitch, whore, and telling me to "go back to Nebraska". Then he spits on me.

2. Last Friday I was on a train with a homeless man sprawled out on the seats. He proceeds to masturbate.

3. On a train, I was eating fruit snacks with my ex when a guy runs in, snatches them out of my hands and screams "give me some!"

[galled]

I think stuff like that only happens in New York (perhaps a couple of other big cities too). People are crazy in other cities, but there seems to be a bigger concentrations of crazies on public transportation there.

I used to ride the train and subways all the time, but I guess I did during regular work/school hours and kept within the city mostly and avoided the outlier stations. The most unusual things were just unconscious people, drunk people, people that talked to themselves, and those that smelled really, REALLY bad!

No offence to anyone that lives there, but I'm really glad I moved out of New York!

[MonkeyGirl18]

The only public transportation I used was a bus to get to the other side of campus with other students.

[Diana]

I haven't had on the bus problems yet, but Ive had before the bus problems with people. Theres a ton of homeless and highly schizophrenic people in my town who ride the bus to get places. A few weeks ago one of them had a huge meltdown/fit and was screaming and throwing the entire contents of their backpack everywhere. It was scary. They stopped when the bus arrived though.

[Hocus Pocus]

I've only ever rode one bus in my life that was classified as public transportation. It was in Chattanooga and it was completely empty except for me, two classmates, and a driver. We got ice cream then rode back to our hotel. Nothing bad happened. lol

[Mousy]

Wow! Those sound horrible! O-O

I've only been on a train and that ride was awesome. I'm glad bc it was 10 hours with complete strangers alone. But I made new friends.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

ISE: those are horrible, horrible public transit experiences! It would make me afraid to go on the bus again! I haven't ridden the bus in a long time.

[Ryvvi]

youve.. only ever been on public transport once? o.o thats so weird
ive been present for a few fights on public transport, as well as a lot of drunken/drugged up people yelling at anyone/nothing, but ive never been directly involved
ive only had a couple of creepy men try and strike up conversation, which is the worst thing to ever happen to me
i either ignore them or tell them to get lost, and thats usually enough

[Vivi]

Wow now that's crazy. Sorry to hear you had to experience that.

Once when I was riding the train cops came in and looked at everyone's ticket. Even though I had brought my ticket not too long ago, I was on my second buss going in another direction then the first, and wound up paying for another.

A friend of mine and I were heading towards the the subway when subway a inspector or whatever they're called stopped us. My friend was accused of jumping in after me, even though his scanned. The other inspectors believed us but the inspector who stopped us, I feel as if she was trying to get her quota for the day, didn't. My friend was forced to look through all of his stuff and the woman inspector threatened to arrest me when I tried to help my friend look. So I had to stand all the way, pretty far from him and just watch him struggle to find it. I suggested it may've fallen from his wallet into his bag when he put it back. By that time the woman was fed up and issued him a ticket. When he did find it he showed it to the woman but she refused to dismiss the ticket. We also asked to see her badge number but she was dodgy and headed downstairs quickly into the subway. Sadly he wound up having the pay the fines.

[Ryvvi]

thats dodgy as! why didnt you send a letter to the company? if you photocopy the ticket, i dont know what yours is like but our public transport system usually just dismisses the fine if you want to take further action
mostly because theyre so terrible at functioning that people can get around it so easily

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I agree with Ryvvi, if it was recently then photocopy the ticket and the fine and send them in.Actually it might even be worth it to send a letter anyway. Don't the inspectors have to sign or put their badge number on the fines?

When I took the public transit I invested in a bus pass, made it much easier then having to have exact change. But half the time I'd end up walking anyway...especially if the bus ended up being crowded. I can't stomach the smell of wet clothes in winter on a steamed up bus, ugh, too many body odors...I don't miss those days.

[Ryvvi]

oh geez yes the awful smells and the unrecognizable stains on the seats :X

[Zombie Bunny]

One time, this lady that sat behind me just kinda kept... smelling my hair... like, it was neon pink at the time and she thought it would smell good or something?

[Lemon Cheesecake]

It probably did smell good compared to hers!

When the bus stinks and someone comes in that smells good it is really noticeable!

The other thing I hated was the smell of buses with bathrooms. Gag!

[Fishy Zako]

Hmm, does a plane count? I have quite a few others...
Once I was on my way to the of Nebraska in the U.S. and I was one of the first people to get on the plane. Since I was alone, some stranger got a seat next to me, and she got to sit on the window seat(Lucky!).
She decided to get up and so I moved for her to leave, then sat back down again. Not too long after she comes back with a worried look, but I moved and let her sit in her seat again. Literally 5 seconds after I sit again, she says she needs to get up. Of course, that irritated me, but I got up anyway and she took her things and got off the plane.
Shortly afterwards a man comes from the back of the plane and asks me if I saw a woman, giving me the description of the woman sitting next to me. I told him she got off the plane and the man looked shocked then went back to the back of the plane.
It was weird.

Oh, but I have so many better stories if I could just remember some.