in the category of statements that i overheard today that bothered me a little, 'no, sorry, we don't need to take the bus.'  the statement was made by an approximately 34 year old Caucasian male, wearing clothes that very likely could have been purchased at the gap and a leather jacket.   it was made to a homeless person asking people if they were done with their transfers. 
   this statement irks me on far more than one level.  the first is the sense of superiority it exhibits towards the person asking for money.  'of course i don't' have a transfer, i'm so much better than you are that i don't even deal in things that are above you, like buying bus tickets.'  that, however, only irks me a little.  what irks me the most is the attitude that this man obviously has towards the bus. the tone and the delivery of the statement made it seem that this man once, in the past, perhaps not too distant, had to ride the bus to most of the places that he went but through hard work, drive and ambition, (or perhaps sleeping with the boss, how the hell should i know), has risen above this need to the point where he no longer has to ride the bus.  he can now afford both to have a car and to park it downtown on a Saturday for long enough that he and his girlfriend could go to a movie. 
   I guess i didn't mention his girlfriend, or that we were all in line to buy tickets to a movie.  His girlfriend was a quite attractive, um, chinese princess.  that sounds moderately racist. but what do you call a haughty young asian woman that appears to do all of her shopping at Holt Renfrew.  Come to think of it, maybe his statement was subtly gauged to play to her whims. 
   Back to the point...what irks me about this is the notion that anyone who rides the bus is someone that HAS to ride the bus.  that no one in their right mind would ride the bus if they could afford not to.  doesn't this seem like it would be the precise attitude that would result in a world that is drowning in it's own gasses?  hmmm. shut up, i am not an environmentalist.  it's just that public transportation is a very good thing.  it's clean, it's moderately efficient and it's even relatively cost effective when used often and compared to driving and parking a car downtown.  you know, all those well dressed business people riding downtown in the mornings, not all of them would throw it away if they could afford to not take the bus.  they are not all there for money reasons. i grant you they are likely mostly not there for environmental reasons either.  it is far more likely that they approve of the convenience.
   we may not have the best transit system in the world but we really do not have a bad one.  when you consider how many people in New York take transit to work each day, you must begin to realize that there really isn't anything wrong with transit.  Europe is all about transit all the time. what's with this fat headed freak? he doesn't HAVE to take transit. if i had a baseball bat, he wouldn't HAVE to walk either.

  it's not even that i expect everyone to want to ride the bus. i don't consider it your moral or civic duty. some people don't like the bus, don't like all those people, get claustrophobic.  the rich don't ride and i understand this, they become a larger target. celebrities don't ride and this makes sense as well cause they get unwarranted attention.  it's the attitude.  the dumb bastard that feels he's better, simply because the bus is below him.

ok. end of rant.

happy new year.