On the buses

Here's a quietly fun article from Lucy Mangan in today's Guardian about travelling on buses. Because it's infuriating isn't it how posh people go round in cars and indirectly spoil the journey when "an impressive amount of socialisation can be condensed into one ride." I like the way she reminds us that pausing at the bus stop, with the occasional curious conversation or observation, is all part of the journey.

"And while, in the world at large, the common good becomes an ever more unfashionable idea, in bus world everyone knows that the system only works by compromise and cooperation."

Me, I love being at the front on the top deck, better than the view from a plane. Mangan mentions also the Margaret Thatcher comment that anyone over 30 who travelled by bus was a failure. (Could there be a better way of summing up that something was rotten in the state of Thatcherism? Answers, pertinent to the blog theme, in the Comments section please).

Comments

[David Wilcox]

Having a bus pass and a willingness to wander enhances the experience greatly too. Instead of waitintg for the 'right' bus (and single journey fare) you can get on one going in the general direction and change later. There's a metaphor aboput pricing and life in there somewhere.

[Martin Dudley]

I remember getting a London Red Rover (half a crown or five bob depending) and travelling all over when first exploring the city as an independent teenager (not including the famous ride on a fixed wheel bike through the Blackwall Tunnel)and discovering the far east and random hopoffs, and that the No 11 went eveywhere anyone would sensibly want to go. Next year - I can travel free on the buses where I live (but don't expect a vote on that account). Hooray!