City buses are scary....maybe?

[primsong]

I must confess that I have an irrational fear of riding city buses, which makes me a terrible hypocrite when I blithely tell my kids that they can get where they need to go because we're right near a bus stop and "it's not that complicated."

When I was a kid, we moved a LOT. This meant multiple rounds of being put on a school bus and not only having to hope IT found the new school, but to hope that I could A) get on the right bus after school and B) remember what the name of my street was and C) remember what my house looked like. >_<

Leftover echoes of that anxiety have made my inner child flail about in fear I'll catch the wrong city bus and end up in some godforsaken and unrecognizable place and NEVAH FIND MAH WAY HOOOOME...!
0_0

SO - having conquered my earlier fear of drinking tomato juice, I think it's high time I get some bus tickets and go riding around in a bus from time to time. Even though I'll probably need someone to (figuratively) hold my hand at first - and lots of bus schedules in my pocket. And a teddy-map to cling to. Even though I know my way around this area really well. And emergency granola bars. And a watch. And a GIANT INFLATABLE RAFT AND A PARACHUTE. (er, well, maybe not. But that would be comforting, wouldn't it?)

Comments

[justice_turtle]

A GIANT INFLATABLE RAFT and a parachute are always comforting! XD

(I do not know your city, but my city buses are not that scary. Strange and unreliable, yes, and I always carry the general overview map with me for reference - but I have learned by writing a not!NaNo set in my city: if you do not ask the bus to be timely and instead wish it to be interesting, it will deliver IN SPADES. ;-) So many people ride the bus! Fascinating people! People who have weird and interesting conversations! Sherlock Holmes used to say truth was so much stranger than fiction that writers had to tone things down in order to be believed. This goes double on buses. *g* They are FUN... but yes, an unlimited-rides pass and a map, or the willingness to ask the driver "what bus do I take from downtown to get to X area?", are highly recommended.)

[primsong]

This is why I figure it will only work if I don't really have to be anywhere at any particular time, that way I have no stress about the sheer number of hours it can take to get around, or any freaking if I accidentally go in the wrong direction. We'll see!

[kayjayuu]

If you have a smart phone, get familiar with it. I was astounded at how much my son uses it to get around his city. You can look up routes, see how late the bus is, all that. Amazing.

I felt like a fish out of water in Chicago, because everyone else knew where they were going and I just had a vague idea. :/ Getting older is taking the adventure away from me -- I need a smart phone myself!

[primsong]

I am such a dinosaur I still have a "land-line" phone at my house, not even a cell thingy.

However! I DO have good map reading skills and directional sense thanks to being old enough that I grew up without GPS so there is hope.

[kerravonsen]

Oh, hooray, someone else who doesn't have a cell phone!

[primsong]

I was at a meeting recently where there was admiration and discussion of high tech gadgets for taking notes and reminding people of things they needed to do, etc. The consensus seemed to be they would be utterly lost without their battery-driven toys if they were traveling. Until it got to me.

"Give me a spiral bound notebook and a pencil and I'm good to go," I said.
"But how do you remember things?" one lady asked in amazement.
"Scraps of paper in my pocket."
"I love how you remind us of the basics of life," another noted, and they all were a little abashed. Heh.

[kerravonsen]

That sounds like a perfectly rational reason to have an irrational fear of busses. I know that when I catch a bus or tram to somewhere I've never been before, I get all nervous that I will miss the correct stop, and I haven't had the extra trauma that you have.

Trains somehow seem friendlier. Probably because one doesn't need to signal the driver before one's stop; they always stop.

[primsong]

Amen! I love trains, never had a problem with those at least. There's something kind of friendly about them, whispers of an older-fashioned time perhaps.

[alouzon]

I don't know if buses are scary per se, but they are *disgusting*. At least in my town. So I avoid riding them whenever possible.

[primsong]

Well, yes - there IS that factor too. I'll try to remember to pocket some hand sanitizer while I'm at it.