Public Transport....filled with socially awkward decisions.

I'm just putting this out there, but does anyone else feel absolutely ridiculous as they hail a bus??

I often use those sneaky little tricks to get around having to hail it, by using the stop next to mine instead, so someone else can hail it. Or I always make sure that I catch the bus with someone else, and tell them my arm hurts...I can't.

I think it's a tricky business, because there is an entire bus load of people watching you expectedly. There are two ways my hailing usually goes, either far too enigmatic and it sort of looks like a bizarre dance. Very sort of "HAIL THEE BUS, FOR I WISH TO ENTER THY CONFINES". That is of course the one where you step out a bit onto the street, and then raise your arm high over your head....like an over eager tool.

Then there is the over eagers opposite, usually chosen after the humiliation of having waved frantically at a bus earlier. This is the subtle little hand flick, which really you just have to pray the driver sees you do. This has little risk of embarrasment, however the added risk of the bus missing you altogether makes it a tentative option for me.

I wish to create a new kind of bus hailing system, this one is far to awkward and filled with social pressures. I am yet to perfect the hailing of a bus, but until then I will continue to stumble awkwardly in the fruitless hope that the bus will stop without me doing anything at all. So far, no success.

I must point out, that it is not only the hailing of the bus that is the great social pressure of public transport. Oh no. There is of course the pressure of where to sit when you get on the bus. What if you see someone you might know? What if you do know them but dont like them? Attractive male? Nice old lady? The uni student who has his headphones in? The options are often abundant, a gold mine is when there is still an entire free row of seats. However if there isn't, you are left to make the public declaration that you find one person more preferable to sit with that all the others on the bus. You know they don't want to sit next to you either. This is why i try to make sure that i look at disarming and volatile as possible on the bus, to keep the new passengers at bay.