Submitted by Muni rider Jared
I met up with a friend who lives in Pac Heights one afternoon and we decided to head down to the Ferry Building for some food and shopping. We got on the 1 at the corner of Fillmore and Sacramento and it was already pretty packed. I got on first and ended up pushing my way to the back of the bus where I stood near those groups of chairs facing each other. My friend couldn’t make it as far back and was closer to the rear door.
We were riding along a few blocks, approaching the point when the bus turns left at Gough and then down Clay for the rest of the trip, when all of a sudden a woman started screaming.
“Get out of that seat you piece of shit!” came from this little woman in her forties or fifties.
Immediate silence falls over the bus.
“You heard me,” she continued, “get up so the old man can have a seat. What kind of lazy sack of shit are you? You are the laziest fuck I’ve ever seen.”
We all look toward the supposed “old man” who doesn’t really seem to care if he’s sitting. He looks just as confused as everyone.
Although the dude that was being yelled at looked extremely uncomfortable (with a twinge of nervous smiling) as she continued to berate him for the next five minutes, he never talked back. He just sat there in silence as she kept screaming. The woman finally got off the bus at a stop in Nob Hill. She walked down the back steps, and while the doors were still opened, screamed from the street “I hope a bus runs you over and you DIE.”
Bus door closes. Uncomfortable laugher ensues. Uncontrollable laughter from my friend I keep us connected even though strangers continued to keep us apart.
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Something a bit similar happened on the J a month ago (though this was much less interesting). There was an older guy standing at the front or a slightly crowded car. Someone asked if he wanted a seat and he smiled and declined.
Next stop, some lady gets on and then starts trying to shame the people sitting for not giving him their seats. Everyone just kinda smirked at her. I told her “they already did, he doesn’t want to sit” but at that point she just started getting louder. I think the guy standing finally told her to shut up.
It’s one thing to offer a seat to someone yourself, but it’s really just insulting to start berating people in the name of someone else. I’d be pretty pissed if someone decided to go on a mini Muni crusade on my behalf.
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agreed. knowing the whole story before taking sides is a moral we should all adopt. that, and “fighting” on behalf of those who don’t need it or ask for it only because it makes us feel better is really a show of self-righteousness. the fact that the old guy in your story never said a word in itself speaks volumes.
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I hate sitting in the seats for the elderly and disabled. I almost always prefer to stand than to deal with the internal hassle that goes through my mind. Because most of the time I’m reading or “resting” my eyes on the bus, I don’t always pay attention to who is entering the bus. Sometimes I look up and there are some people who are much needier of the seat than I am and I feel awful. If someone asks me to sit I’ll always get up, but I know, especially in this city, a lot of people worry about the reaction they’ll get for asking.
And then there’s the matter of deciding who you should offer your seat to. Obviously to the disabled and elderly. I was nearly slapped by a woman for offering her my seat; I guess she saw it as sexist.
I prefer to stand on crowded buses.
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was she a african american woman missing a few teeth?
there is one of these rude nasty people doing the same thing
on the 24 who berated a woman who just came from chemo treatment
wonder if same
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My very pregnant wife was riding the 19 home from a long day at work and plopped herself down in one of the front handicapped seats. Some busybody boarded and immediately and started yelling at people to give up those seats. My wife hissed at her “I’m 8 months pregnant and I’m not going anywhere.” The rest of the bus laughed at the woman and she finally STFU.
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A driver on the 38 stopped driving, got up and yelled at a few of us to give up front seats last week on one of those awfuly crowded runs outbound around 10pm. I got up, because I figured the rest of the bus just wanted to get going, and I wanted to do my bit to placate the (likely) insane bus driver. But for the record, none of the older people standing up took the seat. It remained empty until a lucky soul who got on at Van Ness thought they won the lottery.
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I remember one time that I had recently had foot surgery. I had probably only been walking without a cane for a week or so when I took the Metro home from downtown. I sat down because my foot would really hurt after a few minutes of standing. Some woman read me the riot act for not offering my seat to someone else. Who the fuck is she to decide who is able bodied?
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