The perfect passenger is almost invisble.
Recollections of a woman bus driver – the perfect passenger
The perfect passenger is almost invisible. They are already at the bus stop when the bus arrives. Their fare is ready, preferably a ticket, but if it is cash, it is neither a large note nor made up of small change.
They catch your eyes in the mirror and acknowledge with a nod that by now you know where they get off the bus. They never ask to be let off at any other place than a bus stop. They are friendly, but not overly so and they do not try to strike up a meaningless conversation while the bus driver is reading his or her newspaper, waiting for time. They don’t jump out of the bus before it came to a dead stop.
That is in theory.
Colin, one of the bus drivers, had a few other rules – for him the best passenger was an absent passenger. He preferred to drive an empty bus, so that he could drive fast or pull away without considering any old ladies staggering in the aisle towards the door. Once when a passenger gave him a fistful of change, he neatly swept it out of the door with the back of his hand while calmly taking a ticket out and punching a neat hole in the correct place.
Many people try to get off just before the bus comes to a halt, while still in motion, in a direction opposite to the movement of the bus – not a clever idea. Colin always had the door open and just shook his head when someone almost stumbled on the pavement.
He must have been the driver with the most complaints against him for bad attitude and rude behaviour.
There are different kind of passengers:
Type 1: Slightly disorganised, they are often late but also friendly in an absentminded way. The are often picked up halfway to the bus stop, while they are still busy pulling on their shoes. They will then scratch around for their ticket, give up, and pay cash. Almost always female – they never actually ask for a favour. Men of this type are quite endearing and unaware of it.
Hehe, nice post. 
I don’t envy daredevil bus drivers and I’m not the perfect passenger unfortunately.
The last part was amusing. 
Sometimes people become what they are because of how they are treated, or because they just have to adapt to their environment. A great read!
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