Riding the bus to work is seen as an undesirable activity by the vast majority of car users. There are many reasons for this negative perception, but the three that are cited most often are lack of privacy, lack of control and the fact that a bus doesn’t take its passengers from door to door like the trusty and convenient automobile.
Okay, so that’s three perfectly sound and logical reasons for not taking the bus. To redress the balance (and then some) here are 11 reasons to leave your car at home and ride the bus instead.
1. You can catch up on some reading. You can leaf through your favourite magazine, keep abreast of the latest developments in the world of politics courtesy of the in-depth analysis of your daily newspaper, or you can lose yourself in the imaginary world of a really great novel. Driving in your car you can listen to the radio news as they skim through the day’s events, doling out sound bites. You could throw an audio book CD into the car stereo, but it’s hardly the same thing as the incredible alchemical process of taking the printed word from that crisp white page and recreating the author’s vision in your own imagination. Books are tactile, they’re artefacts. They’re beautiful. Audio books are convenient, true enough, but like anything that requires little or no effort, ultimately unsatisfying.
2. You can daydream. Recent scientific research has demonstrated that whilst we are daydreaming our brain is actually doing a very important job, increasing positivity and reducing stress levels. It’s cheaper than therapy and, unlike any pharmaceuticals currently on the market; it’s not prone to nasty side-effects. Daydreaming whilst driving your gas-guzzler is, to say the least, not advisable.
3. You can work. Thanks to the latest mobile technology, you can turn the bus into a temporary office. And you don’t have to worry about distractions: just pop your headphones on and play some music, not so loud that it interferes with your train of thought but loud enough to block out the hubbub around you. Getting a little work done en route will help ease the stresses of the day by giving you a little bit of a head start; it might even give you the edge when it comes to that promotion: “The Stanford Report? You need it tomorrow? It’s already done, Mr Drysedale. It’ll be on your desk in five minutes.”
4. You can relax. You don’t have to worry about bicycle couriers weaving in and out of the traffic or deranged cab drivers who are liable to perform a u-turn completely without warning. You don’t have to worry about becoming the subject of tomorrow’s newspaper headlines (Road Rage Man Slays Seven) as you nervously eye the guy with the purple face and bulging eyes in the car behind you.
5. You can exercise. Obviously you might be on the receiving end of a few sideways glances (and quite possibly a restraining order of some sort) if you were to attempt Pilates or boxercise on your morning bus journey into work, but bus travel can definitely contribute to your fitness regime. The fact that bus users, on the whole, have to walk from their home to the bus stop and from the bus stop to the work place (and vice versa) means exercise is guaranteed. However, you can opt to ‘go for the burn’ simply by getting off the bus sooner than you normally would and walking the remaining distance. With a car, you’re almost entirely at the whim of available parking.
6. You can meet people. It happens. The bus is a pretty cosy environment. And because you tend to see the same commuters day after day, relationships can develop at healthy, steady pace. Love blossoms in department stores, public libraries, so why not the bus? Conversely, cars tend to be the place where relationships rapidly deteriorate: “You said take a left, a left!”
7. It’s cheaper. No parking fees, no fuel costs, no parking fines, no expensive repairs, no insurance. Plus it frees you from one of the more costly forms of status anxiety: are people judging me because I don’t have the latest GX2017i farceur? Maybe I should get the latest GX2017i farceur. Yes, if I get the latest GX2017i farceur all will be well. I probably can’t afford it, though. Maybe if I sell a couple of organs. I mean, what exactly is a pancreas, anyway?
8. You can people-watch. People-watching is fun. That woman in the lemon trouser suit, is she trapped in the 70s? Why is she trapped in the 70s? Maybe the 70s were when she felt happiest and she’s clinging desperately to the memory of those happier times by kitting herself out like someone from an episode of The Partridge Family. And that guy over there, he hasn’t shaved for two days. Maybe he’s experiencing marital difficulties. Or maybe it’s suddenly occurred to him that his job in the city really is as boring as it sounds and, oh God, what’s the point?
9. You get to feel really good about yourself. Let’s face it, you’re saving the world. Okay, not Superman trapping General Zod in the Phantom Zone kind of saving the world, but by reducing your carbon footprint, you’re making a genuine and valuable contribution to the fight against climate change, securing a better future for generations to come.
10. You can improve your brain. According to a recent study, doing puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku can help stave off dementia by stimulating the creation of new neural pathways and giving the old grey matter a vigorous workout.
11. It’s safer. The odds of being killed on a 5-mile bus trip are 500,000,000 to 1. The chances of dying in a car accident are 1 in 18,585.
So, in a nutshell, on the bus you can read, get fitter, get smarter, fall in love, reduce your stress levels, indulge in a little harmless voyeurism, save money, improve your career prospects, save the world and not get killed.
Well worth the price of a ticket.
