__ __ _ _____ _ _ _
| \/ | ___| |_ __ _| ___(_) | |_ ___ _ __
| |\/| |/ _ \ __/ _` | |_ | | | __/ _ \ '__|
| | | | __/ || (_| | _| | | | || __/ |
|_| |_|\___|\__\__,_|_| |_|_|\__\___|_|
community weblog
The metaphor we didn't know we needed
A late-night bus ride from New York City to Washington, D.C., reportedly took a disturbing turn after one passenger claimed the trip suddenly went off course. The account, shared in a now-viral BlueSky thread, described growing confusion and fear after a driver switch at a rest stop. The passenger, who posted from the account @musicologyduck.bsky.social, wrote that they had been asleep when things started to feel wrong. "I just woke up from a nap and somehow while I was asleep, everyone on the bus has figured out we are not going to the right place."
posted by chavenet on Jan 21, 2026 at 11:07 AM
---------------------------
I can't see the bsky thread, but the People article doesn't actually clarify ... did they make it to Union Station? Did they stop in Vienna or Manassas??
Like, it's funny in hindsight and "I was kidnapped by a bus driver" is a good ice-breaker, but I don't think I'd want to actually experience that.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:17 AM
---------------------------
I'm not on bsky either, but when I saw this on Kottke.org yesterday I just assumed it was a fictional metaphor about living in the United States.
posted by Pedantzilla at 11:24 AM
---------------------------
I followed this on bsky semi-live, and it was pretty wild. I'm glad everyone's ok.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:26 AM
---------------------------
This article says the passengers all got off the nightmare bus at Vienna and were eventually delivered to Union Station by a standard non-nightmare bus.
posted by lapispimpernel at 11:28 AM
---------------------------
With a completely delusional driver and a larger fraction of the passengers not giving a f* about where they were headed to, it could have been mistaken for a metaphor.
posted by nicolin at 11:39 AM
---------------------------
I don't think it's that the passengers didn't care where they were headed, but were afraid to argue too hard with the driver while the bus was traveling at highway speeds, in case the driving would become even more erratic. Mind, that still works as a metaphor.
posted by Karmakaze at 11:45 AM
---------------------------
From 2006 to 2008 I would take the overnight (10 PM to 5 AM) Greyhound bus from Los Angeles to San Francisco once to twice a month.
It's easy for me to opine on what passengers should or should not have done while I'm sitting here in the bright light of God's day, but the night bus travels roads darker and unbound by reason or decency. Anything might happen. The Roy Batty "tears in the rain"-style list of people I encountered on those dim and dreadful miles would make even the brave wary of bus travel forever, leaving only the mad and foolhardy.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:47 AM
---------------------------
Man if this bus was originally headed to/from Philly, god help everyone.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 11:52 AM
---------------------------
MisantropicPainforest: "Man if this bus was originally headed to/from Philly, god help everyone."
And imagine if the bus instead was a Waffle House!
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:58 AM
---------------------------
I was immediately reminded of the killing of a passenger on a Greyhound bus bound for Winnipeg some years ago - warning, horrors in the Wikipedia link. I understand the urge to de-escalate.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:14 PM
---------------------------
I did once have to convince a Megabus driver that we'd gotten back on the interstate going in the wrong direction. Thankfully, it didn't take too much convincing as we went past some sign demonstrating I was correct as he was telling me I was crazy.
posted by hoyland at 12:32 PM
---------------------------
I took the bus the opposite direction last year and learned that traffic in NYC isn't a problem when you're in a bus and the driver is as least as nuts as this one was. But unlike in that case, we arrived at the scheduled spot and did so 10 minutes early, which is possible when you just drive full speed through Manhattan and expect - correctly - all other vehicles to get out of your way. On the one hand, I was completely horrified. On the other: 10 minutes early!
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:33 PM
---------------------------
traffic in NYC isn't a problem when you're in a bus and the driver is as least as nuts as this one was
I experienced this on a Bolt bus a couple of times on the Seattle to Portland route.
I don't know who this guy was or what his deal was, but I do know he was Slavic, maybe mid 20s or early 30s and he looked like he had seen some real shit, and he took his job very seriously.
It was one of those situations that gave credence to the idea that we're in a simulation and some people can bend and glitch that simulation to their will. It wasn't so much that he just floored it and traffic moved out of the way, but he willed it out of the way or just warped spacetime just enough to fit through the traffic.
That and when things got crunchy on I-5 he didn't even flinch at going to ground and taking surface streets and face roads so smoothly most people didn't even realize we left the interstate.
Every time I had him as a driver he was knocking like 20-30 minutes off of the scheduled ETA.
In hindsight I reckon a huge part of his magic driving skills was the fact that he really just wanted to get the route done as fast as possible so he could smoke and drink coffee.
posted by loquacious at 12:45 PM
---------------------------
the night bus travels roads darker and unbound by reason or decency
My god it sure does. I took the overnight Greyhound from NYC to Toronto once. In retrospect I think that trip marked the end of my youth.
posted by hovey at 12:48 PM
---------------------------
It was one of those situations that gave credence to the idea that we're in a simulation and some people can bend and glitch that simulation to their will. It wasn't so much that he just floored it and traffic moved out of the way, but he willed it out of the way or just warped spacetime just enough to fit through the traffic.
There's also a trick to Manhattan in timing to the lights. If you know the exact timing, there is a speed that will take you the length of the island without hitting a single red light. I learned this from a friend of a friend bus driver who did the route.
posted by Karmakaze at 12:52 PM
---------------------------
We had a guy steal a bendy bus in Hamilton a couple months ago. He continued the route, took directions from passengers and denied boarding to a rider with an expired pass. Sometimes you just have to YOLO.
posted by Mitheral at 12:54 PM
---------------------------
I was on a bus in Mexico that got lost going from Guanajuato to San Miguel Allende. There was no madness, at least I don't think there was, just a genuinely confused driver. People caught on slowly and then some kind of critical mass was reached and everyone knew we were lost. Then half the bus went up to the front to offer conflicting directions and wave their phones around (this was in 2017) while the others whispered darkly in the back. And the three of us with uncertain Spanish just watched and hoped for the best. Eventually consensus was reached and route was decided on and we got into San Miguel about an hour, hour and a half late.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:58 PM
---------------------------
the night bus travels roads darker and unbound by reason or decency
I notched two coast to coast bus trips in my early 20s (Portland to NYC; SF to NYC). Take three days. It's practically a non-stop ride, with drivers changed out whenever and where ever necessary. I don't recall stopping for more than maybe 30-40 minutes just handful of times, long enough to grab some food and maybe use a terminal restroom. Definitely met some strange folks on those two very surreal trips, esp. when I chose to sit in the back.
Would not repeat.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 1:00 PM
---------------------------
Wow. We live in Manassas and go through Vienna every few days.
posted by doctornemo at 1:09 PM
---------------------------
I read it on BlueSky maybe just a little after it happened.
"Best Bus" had better change their name. Because their name is now forever tarnished, and it's no longer true advertising. "Random Adventure Bus"?
posted by Schmucko at 1:15 PM
---------------------------
If you know the exact timing, there is a speed that will take you the length of the island without hitting a single red light.
In most cities, this magical speed is known as "the speed limit," but nobody's ever thought to try it.
posted by pwnguin at 1:18 PM
---------------------------
There's a commenter on Reddit who claims to have also been a passenger on this bus: "a kidnapping or a bus chase this was not....To my mind this is a story about an underpaid driver with bad people skills, poor management, and unnecessarily confrontational passengers who escalated the situation." I find MusicologyDuck's account more convincing, but would definitely love to read interviews with more of the passengers!
I've taken dozens of intercity bus trips via Greyhound and Peter Pan, and newer operators.* Most were absolutely boringly fine! The intercity bus trip I remember best for its driver was in 2021. The boarding time came and went, we got some explanation about a mechanical problem, and eventually the Greyhound bus showed up for us to board.
During the journey it became evident that our driver did not know how to navigate to the bus stations, specifically, along the route. I remember us going in a circle for some minutes before eventually pulling in to one station. At one point a passenger who lived nearby came up front and directed him. For another city he used the public address system to ask for someone else to come guide him.
Somewhere during this process, a passenger sitting near the front evidently sassed him. I was several seats back and don't know where that heckling sat on the "understandable jest" to "abusive and unacceptable" spectrum, but the driver found it unacceptable. He demanded that the passenger get off at the next stop, and when the passenger declined to do so, the driver called the cops and had them remove him.
The trip was scheduled to take about 2.5 hours. I think it took more like 4. I was glad to finally arrive in one piece.
* (As a New York City resident with friends in the Boston area, I happened to learn of the operator World Wide Bus, which, as I recall, solely travelled one route, between Manhattan and the Alewife metro stop. Amazing name for a bus company that exclusively offered a single two-city route; perhaps the joke was that both Boston and NYC think they're the center of the universe, so if you can get between them, that's pretty much the whole world sorted. I think Go Bus bought them, or their name changed to Go Bus.)
posted by brainwane at 1:20 PM
---------------------------
get...done as fast as possible so he could smoke and drink coffee
Fucking A man, I got a rash.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:24 PM
---------------------------
Sorry that this is limited to people logged into Bluesky, but Musicology Duck has posted a followup thread reflecting on the experience.
... the part that struck me in the moment wasn't "this is a microcosm for how America sucks" — it was "this is a microcosm for trying to behave democratically & respectfully of one another in a complex, evolving situation with things we can't know."
I'm not even sure I got all the info I posted right in the moment—I in fact almost certainly didn't, as I was reliant on different people's perspectives of things I couldn't witness myself (especially having been asleep for part of it).
I am less confident now, for example, that we had more than one driver, it might have just been one possible explanation that emerged in the dark after the confusion at the rest stop, or my own misinterpretation!....
....people communicated, gathered information, mediated between folks who wanted more extreme actions and those who seemed to think we were all just being inconvenienced but likely weren't in danger.....
...we're all millions of flawed sense-making units having millions of different lived experiences of our current, utterly chaotic situation and (for the most part, the exceptions hopefully are obvious) all trying to see each other through....
posted by brainwane at 1:27 PM
---------------------------
"unnecessarily confrontational passengers who escalated the situation"
The dude was driving them away from their destination, possibly by law kidnapping them. If they could have safely stopped the bus and hog-tied the driver, that would still not have been unnecessarily confrontational.
posted by tclark at 1:29 PM
---------------------------
If you know the exact timing, there is a speed that will take you the length of the island without hitting a single red light.
When I was in high school in the late 90s I dated a guy whose dad worked in City of Portland's IT dept and swore that the magic speed in downtown Portland was 22.5 mph. He seemed to get decent results with it.
posted by polymath at 1:46 PM
---------------------------
We had a guy steal a bendy bus in Hamilton a couple months ago. He continued the route, took directions from passengers and denied boarding to a rider with an expired pass. Sometimes you just have to YOLO.
Jerry: You kept making all the stops?!
Kramer: Well, people kept ringing the bell!
posted by dirigibleman at 1:54 PM
---------------------------
I used to take this route a couple dozen times a year. I was never kidnapped and taken to Manassas (or Vienna), but honestly it wouldn't have surprised me.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:38 PM
---------------------------
dirigibleman, you read my mind with that reference.
posted by davidmsc at 3:42 PM
---------------------------
I was immediately reminded of the killing of a passenger on a Greyhound bus bound for Winnipeg some years ago - warning, horrors in the Wikipedia link. I understand the urge to de-escalate.
The killer has been completely released too, because he "responded well to psychiatric treatment." When it comes to murder I am not sympathetic to the "oh he was just misunderstood" defense, especially with such a gruesome act, but what do I know.
* (As a New York City resident with friends in the Boston area, I happened to learn of the operator World Wide Bus, which, as I recall, solely travelled one route, between Manhattan and the Alewife metro stop. Amazing name for a bus company that exclusively offered a single two-city route; perhaps the joke was that both Boston and NYC think they're the center of the universe, so if you can get between them, that's pretty much the whole world sorted. I think Go Bus bought them, or their name changed to Go Bus.)
Ah, the stories about the cheap buses from Boston (Chinatown) to NYC. Drivers getting lost. Buses billowing smoke with the driver not bothering to pull over until it was strictly necessary. I had a blind friend with a certified guide dog, and the driver refused to let them on. My friend tried to explain that she had a legal right to bring the dog on board, but the driver didn't speak English. The trip at the time was $15 IIRC, you get what you pay for. They got shut down eventually.
posted by Melismata at 3:46 PM
---------------------------
When it comes to murder I am not sympathetic to the "oh he was just misunderstood" defense,
Good news, then: that's not even remotely what an insanity defense is.
posted by Mathter_Lee at 4:11 PM
---------------------------
The killer has been completely released too, because he "responded well to psychiatric treatment." When it comes to murder I am not sympathetic to the "oh he was just misunderstood" defense, especially with such a gruesome act, but what do I know.
"oh he was just misunderstood" is a pretty shitty - nay, REALLY shitty - reading of "was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia which prompted the attack." Yes, he responded well to psychiatric treatment because people with conditions quite often do respond when those are treated.
Anyway I am reminded of the time I went to take the Chinatown bus NYC-BOS and when I arrived at the stop, there were two buses. I asked which one I should take, and a guy said "well they both to go Boston so you could take either one. But...you don't wanna take Shawty," he said, pointing at the smaller bus, "...Shawty got ups."
On the way home there was only one bus, and it was, of course, Shawty. Reader, Shawty DID got ups. I have never been so thoroughly jolted, tossed, and carsick in my life.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:14 PM
---------------------------
If you know the exact timing, there is a speed that will take you the length of the island without hitting a single red light.
In most cities, this magical speed is known as "the speed limit," but nobody's ever thought to try it.
Back in my youth when I rode zippy and easily-maneuverable motorcycles, I learned that traffic lights timed for 35mph were also timed for 70mph.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:31 PM
---------------------------
In weird synchronicity, Josh Johnson's latest video includes a very similar story, but on a city bus in Brooklyn.
posted by funkaspuck at 4:42 PM
---------------------------
In most cities, this magical speed is known as "the speed limit," but nobody's ever thought to try it.
When I commuted on 2nd St in San Rafael California it used to be 7 miles an hour over the speed limit... a decision I still do not understand.
posted by straw at 4:58 PM
---------------------------
Possibly the street was set to optimize legal traffic in another direction -- from the excellent Wikipedia article on "green wave" stoplight timing,
A green wave in both directions may be possible with different speed recommendations for each direction, otherwise traffic coming from one direction may reach the traffic light faster than from the other direction if the distance from the previous traffic light is not mathematically a multiple of the opposite direction.
Or possibly one part of the design wasn't thinking about another part.
posted by clew at 5:31 PM
---------------------------
2nd St in San Rafael is one way...
posted by straw at 5:43 PM
---------------------------
Okay, that's sus!
(Could be constrained by optimizing travel on *cross* streets. Technically.
There are some, yes?)
posted by clew at 5:45 PM
---------------------------
Yes. It's a major corridor, so ???, but the ways of traffic engineers are arcane and not ours to know... (I suspect that it's a balance between legal restrictions on how the city can classify the street vs just wanting the throughput).
posted by straw at 6:04 PM
---------------------------
If I had a nickel for every time a musicologist went viral on a microblogging site for a post involving an East Coast public transit mishap, I'd have two nickels—which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
Phil Gentry
@pmgentry
I think a man on this train is coming to the slowly-dawning realization that he is on a train about to arrive in Newark, Delaware, but he meant to be on a train to Newark, New Jersey. I can't watch.
5:40 AM · Feb 22, 2022
posted by What is E. T. short for? at 6:04 PM
---------------------------
the night bus travels roads darker and unbound by reason or decency
I took Amtrak from San Francisco to Chicago and one night the train stopped in the middle of nowhere for several hours and the power went out - the train and everything around were pitch black save for moonlight and a few emergency lights on the train. It was eerie.
And yes, the linked story is a very apt metaphor for life in the US right now.
posted by bendy at 6:41 PM
---------------------------
I used to fly every week for work in a weird private charter but not really. Like the company would book approximately 80 seats on a plane each way 6 days a week so it was mostly employees of one company but they didn't actually book the whole plane so every once and a while there would be a family who lucked into some cheap seats to the middle of nowhere in the Canadian north. They'd stand out because every one else was a trade worker and it slanted about 90% male.
Twice I got on the plane and there were people who weren't going to where the plane was going on the plane. The first time it was three well past retirement age couples who were heading to Hawaii. They figured it out once it became apparent they were taking other people's seats.
The second time though the wayward passenger was in my seat. This flight was home bound and he was a company guy. Double booking would happen sometimes because we used to fly on two different planes. Both had twenty rows but one was numbered 1-20 and the other was numbered 1-12, 14-21. If the charter company switched planes while the travel coordinator was booking flights some seats would get double booked. (Or you'd be booked in row 13 and when you got on the plane you'd find they forgot to put your seat on the plane.) The plane was never full so you could always be accommodated once everyone was on the plane.
Anyways we confirm we are both in 17D and cause he's already settled I get placed in 21D. Everything is great until the flight attendants are doing their preflight check and I see the seat stealer booking it down the aisle. Turns out he's on the wrong plane and when the FA said "Our flight time to *home*" he freaked out because *home* isn't where he lives. Always pay attention to the safety lecture.
Both cases it was the setup where you have to walk out on the apron to get to the plane and they went left instead of right when they got outside. In the second case it was an easy mistake to make. Both planes were the same model painted in the same livery parked next to each other and leaving within minutes of each other.
posted by Mitheral at 6:56 PM
---------------------------
I've been saying for a while that I'm happy to ride on trains or subways because they can only go where the tracks go, but buses scare me because they could go just about anywhere and I'd be helpless to stop them. Now I can point to this story as support for my neuroses.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:30 PM
---------------------------
Coincidentally today I discovered this Josh Johnson story about being on a bus and feeling like the route isn't quite right.
posted by bendy at 8:18 PM
---------------------------
I took a Megabus once where a drunk guy went up the front stairs and the driver warned people not to go up the front stairs, it's illegal and dangerous, and then he went into the bathroom and smoked a cigarette and walked out to the front stairs and went up them and then drunkenly argued with the bus driver when he was told he was being removed at the next opportunity in Gary, Indiana.
Two of the most fit, muscular Indiana state troopers greeted him and did not look pleased.
It was entertaining as hell and hilarious to watch unfold. The story here with a mystery bus driver is not as fun.
posted by glaucon at 8:58 PM
---------------------------
Oh! Here's a story of my friend who visited me in Europe. She was flying back home to the US and flew into Gatwick then was supposed to take a shuttle bus to heathrow. It was supposed to take about an hour but the bus driver had no idea where they were going. It took four hours! Passengers were getting pissed and were not being nice about it. One couple even got off at a stop, the bus drove around for an hour, apparently in a circle because it stopped at the next stop and it was the same couple. Thank god my friend had an overnight connection or she would have missed her flight home. Oh man the voice message from that odessy!
posted by LizBoBiz at 11:21 PM
---------------------------
I've been saying for a while that I'm happy to ride on trains or subways because they can only go where the tracks go
That's true, but I'm afraid that still doesn't mean that things can't go impressively wrong on a train.
(I have myself had a train sweep through a station that it was supposed to stop at (at least according to the app) and ended up ~30 km away at the next stop.)
posted by scorbet at 12:59 AM
---------------------------
Planes, too: Oakland, He Said, but He Went to Auckland Instead
posted by chavenet at 1:51 AM
---------------------------
Ah, the stories about the cheap buses from Boston (Chinatown) to NYC. Drivers getting lost. Buses billowing smoke with the driver not bothering to pull over until it was strictly necessary. I had a blind friend with a certified guide dog, and the driver refused to let them on. My friend tried to explain that she had a legal right to bring the dog on board, but the driver didn't speak English. The trip at the time was $15 IIRC, you get what you pay for. They got shut down eventually.
I took that route constantly during the first 7 years or so I lived in NYC. For a while Amtrak had competitive pricing if you bought far enough in advance, but then fares on Amtrak rose considerably, as Amtrak decided it was competing with planes, no buses. The company that was shut down was Fung Wah (wikipedia link if you want to read about their dismal safety record), I always tried to reassure my parents that I would be fine, I was taking Lucky Star. (I was ignorant of a bus catching fire in 2005 on the Mass Pike).
You got what you paid for. I generally feel that way about all bus travel, but especially the Chinatown buses. The seat will be uncomfortable, you may end up 8 hours late (the trip to meet my then GF's parents in DC took 12 hours due to traffic and other factors), there will be no wifi, despite advertisements, etc. There will most likely be air conditioning, although it may be weak or turned to artic blast. If you were lucky enough to be on a bus with electrical outlets, the odds of them working were 50/50.
posted by Hactar at 2:31 AM
---------------------------
Speaking of Fung Wah, I have a Fung Wah Bus hoodie. Fung Wah was the $10 or $15 Chinatown bus between Boston and New York. My wife got it for me because that's how we used to commute to see each other before I moved down. We had no money, but that was a price we could pay. I got her a hooded nudibranch hoodie and a bottle of watermelon scent spray, because hooded nudibranches smell like watermelon.
Nowadays I can afford the Amtrak, which is safer but no more reliably on time than Fung Wah. But the hoodie still gets lots of compliments from people with fond memories.
posted by novalis_dt at 4:37 AM
---------------------------
In the 80s I took a bus from Spokane to Calgary overnight when my connecting flight was canceled due to fog in Spokane. No other flights out of Spokane were cancelled so it seems likely they were blaming weather rather than taking responsibility for getting us there. They said the best they could do is bus us through the Rocky Mountains, in January no less. The bus had no heat and was a heap of junk, rattling and lurching around the turns. I got PNEUMONIA on the trip and could not speak when I arrived.
posted by waving at 5:36 AM
---------------------------
Greg_Ace: "If you know the exact timing, there is a speed that will take you the length of the island without hitting a single red light.
In most cities, this magical speed is known as "the speed limit," but nobody's ever thought to try it.
Back in my youth when I rode zippy and easily-maneuverable motorcycles, I learned that traffic lights timed for 35mph were also timed for 70mph."
There's a stretch of a road in Northeast Philadelphia just before you hit the county line where the "lore" is "multiples of 11mph." The speed limit is 35, but everyone's favorite uncle insists that if you stick to 33 or 44, you'll roll right through all the lights. The stickler in me wants to do the math, but the magical-thinking-gnome that wants to believe in arcane avuncular acumen is afraid to pop that bubble.
posted by adekllny at 5:51 AM
---------------------------
[One comment deleted at poster's request. ]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:40 AM
---------------------------
I commuted on Amtrak for several years. Can confirm that things go wrong.
One of the more disturbing kinds of incidents (which happen every couple years, on a given route) are the euphemistically dubbed "trespasser incidents": This means a train running over a human being on the tracks, often as a form of suicide (by the human).
After you've been a passenger during one of these, you know almost immediately what's happening the next time: The train comes to a screeching halt in the middle of nowhere. It sits there for a long time, and after an hour or so, there's an announcement. You're not going anywhere for several hours or more.
Depending on the nature and location of the incident and its aftermath, the passengers might be asked to de-train, or they might just have to stay on it for six to eight hours while things get resolved and the train can move again. The train staff may have to be replaced if they want to leave b/c of trauma. Or the local authorities may have to conduct an investigation of the incident. Invariably, there is some gruesome cleanup that must be done, although I've been fortunate enough never to be exposed to the carnage.
To compensate for the delay and inconvenience, Amtrak gives out vouchers worth a few bucks in the snack car.
It's a weird thing to go through...
posted by mikeand1 at 7:07 AM
---------------------------
(I have myself had a train sweep through a station that it was supposed to stop at (at least according to the app) and ended up ~30 km away at the next stop.)
That's just proof you can't trust apps, not trains.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:50 AM
---------------------------
I once had the bright idea that I could drop my car off to be serviced at a garage and take a local RTA (regional transit authority) bus the rest of the way to the office. I thought I had studied the bus schedule, but like Lisa Simpson I accidentally boarded a bus that was running a variant of the route I wanted. We got to within a mile of my workplace and then the bus suddenly took an unexpected left hand turn. I should have just immediately pulled the cord and gotten off at the next stop, but I was completely frozen with feelings of uneasiness and with each passing moment the bus moved farther and farther in the wrong direction until it became too far to make a difference. I ended up riding the bus all the way out to it's alternative terminus at the commuter rail station and then walking four miles to get to my destination.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:22 AM
---------------------------
Using an unfamiliar transit system/route for the first time can be such a trial!
I enjoyed reading this conversation where a New Zealander successfully got advice that helped them overcome their worries and start taking buses:
Can someone explain the process of when I get on the bus what I need to do? Do I just hand over my card? Do I need to say something? How do I calculate what "zones" I will cross? Would they kick me off if I got this wrong? I will use google maps to know what buses to take, but being as specific as possible here will really help alleviate my anxiety.
posted by brainwane at 8:31 AM
---------------------------
In weird synchronicity, Josh Johnson's latest video includes a very similar story, but on a city bus in Brooklyn
And the funny part is that Johnson's whole (quite impressive) shtick is telling a funny story from his life and the big punchline is suddenly noting how it's a metaphor for something ridiculous that happened this week. (Which means he's doing completely new hour-long sets every week, which is CRAZY).
So my first thought was he must be kicking himself for burning that story just 2-3 days before this happened. But it's just that the same thing happened to him, which isn't as funny as what he actually compared it to.
posted by straight at 11:25 AM
---------------------------
Fung Wah! I spent probably a sum total of 4 weeks on Fung Wah buses between NYC and Boston in 2005. Many stories, my favorite being a bus that couldn't make it up a hill on the way into NY for unspecified reasons, and the driver decided the solution was to call another bus over to ram it and attempt to push it the rest of the way up. It didn't work.
I also took Shawty once. Shawty broke a strut in the middle of nowhere and we had some quality time in rural Connecticut.
posted by q*ben at 3:03 PM
---------------------------
While a college student in DC, my daughter decided to catch one of those El Cheapo bus rides back to New York one evening. She and others soon realized that the driver seemed drunk and angry and was driving wildly. She started texting and trying to call me surreptitiously (she was seated right behind the driver and didn't want to get caught.)
But he soon caught on to the fact that others were trying to report his behavior to the company and started shouting at the passengers, threatening them. I told her to get off at the next stop which was somewhere near I-don't-know-where-New-Jersey but because luggage had been loaded by destination, her bags were in the far back of the compartment, and he refused to allow her to collect her bags. He also wouldn't tell her how to collect her things when she got into New York. Where he dropped her finally was basically a car lot with a sketchy gas station, not an actual rest stop.
I managed to reach NJ State Police on a 911 line, which is nearly impossible to do from another area code, and two troopers went and picked her up and ferried her a few stops forward, to a real rest stop. i drove over to her from about three hours away and retrieved her and got her home.
The next day, we drove into the city and picked up her bags after demanding on Twitter that the company tell us where they were. I also badmouthed the driver, and for about a second, the company feigned sympathy but then stopped responding. But I heard from two other passengers about how horrible things were and complimenting my daughter for standing up to him.
I told her, no more El Cheapo bus lines for her (and if that's the actual name of a bus line, sorry, it probably wasn't actually you. I can't remember whick godawful but cheap services many immigrants and college students use running up and down between New York and DC).
I wrote a letter to the Jersey police, praising the two troopers but also trying to alert them to this awful bus company. But I think all they heard was the thanks, not the dangers posed by the company.
posted by etaoin at 3:21 PM
---------------------------
Just wanted to share 2 quick counterpoint bus stories: Missed the last bus in Sydney one night but then a "Not In Service" bus pulled up, turned out to be my neighbour, drove me home from the city to my Vaucluse door, back streets and all, before returning the bus to the depot and; I caught the wrong bus in Paris one night a few years ago, slightly worse for the wear, woke up and realized I was a) going the wrong way and b) the only passenger left...explained my plight to the driver in high school French and he took me back to Ménilmontant and familiar streets...Hail to the Bus Drivers...
posted by E.C.Snapper at 10:53 PM
---------------------------
one night the train stopped in the middle of nowhere for several hours and the power went out - the train and everything around were pitch black save for moonlight and a few emergency lights on the train. It was eerie.
This is a scene towards the end of Atlas Shrugged, in that case the train crew just leaves, fading into the darkness, eaving only a couple of lanterns on the tracks; thanks to mikeand1 for the alternate, real-world explanation for why this might happen.
posted by Rash at 9:25 AM
---------------------------
I have ridden the Chinatown bus between DC and New York a couple times, without incident. This was around when there was a news item about a competitor whose driver, after hitting something, brought the bus to a stop along the shoulder, opened the door and disappeared, running into the woods, never to be seen again.
posted by Rash at 9:29 AM
---------------------------
My family moved from Boston to NYC when I was a teenager so I spent many hours on the Chinatown buses to visit my friends (Fung Wah and/or Lucky Star - they were basically interchangeable and both had hourly departure times on Friday & Sunday evenings for $10). In retrospect, I am shocked at how lax my parents were given the widely known safety issues (my dad had been on more than one Chinatown bus that broke down, though never on one that caught fire) - not to mention navigating treacherous winter driving conditions since I usually visited Boston over my winter breaks - but my dad does love a good deal, so I guess the $10 price tag outweighed any parental anxiety. And, to their credit, the drivers were reliable and I had many, many uneventful (if slightly uncomfortable) trips.
The only trip that really stands out was when I met a guy my age and we spent the bus ride chatting and flirting. He was an odd character and told me a story about camping with some friends and slaughtering a chicken which they attempted to roast over an open fire (yikes). When the bus trip was over, I thought he was going to try to kiss me but instead he... licked the side of my face. Safety concerns aside, my own poor judge of character probably would have been a good reason for my parents to insist I stay home. Thankfully nothing scarier/sketchier ever happened.
Last year, I visited NYC and was excited to finally treat myself to a train ticket since I'm an Adult now. I took the bus one way (because it saved me about $100), but booked a train ticket for the return trip. I had visions of sipping a glass of wine while enjoying the onboard WiFi and streaming a show on my laptop. The morning of my planned train trip, I got an alert that there was a downed power line outside D.C. and my train was delayed. The one-hour delay quickly stretched into two, then four, then an indefinite delay. I had to get home for work, so I cancelled my train ticket (got a full refund) and booked a last-minute ticket through a bus company I had never heard of, called FlixBus. I took the subway to the departure location and found myself in... a repurposed Lucky Star office in Chinatown (the Lucky Star logo was still on the window) eating $8 worth of delicious food that I purchased at a nearby restaurant (bringing my trip total to $18) and watching a group of middle-aged Chinese people have a joyous dance party and crack jokes in Mandarin. The bus trip was truly delightful - the bus was half empty so I had plenty of room to stretch out, the electrical outlets and onboard WiFi worked perfectly, and we arrived forty minutes ahead of schedule. The next morning, as I was getting ready for a work meeting, I got an email that the meeting needed to be rescheduled because the person leading it was on a train from D.C. that had been delayed/rescheduled from the day before (the same train I was supposed to have been on).
Moral of the story: the Chinatown bus remains, and has always been, a perfect form of transportation.
posted by sleepingwithcats at 3:50 PM
---------------------------