October 20, 2006

If you are a frequent bus rider, you probably have a bus family. I don’t mean the random people you come across on one-off trips. I’m talking about the folks you see on your regular routes, day in and day out, over the months and years you ride. Even though you’ve likely never spoken to them, you know them quite well. You’ve committed their faces to memory and are familiar with their outfit rotations—including laundry day and casual Friday attire. You know what they are reading and the sound of their cell phone ring tones—and you’ve probably overheard at least one personal conversation. You know if they prefer coffee or tea, how long it takes them to read a novel, and if they can fall asleep sitting up. Sometimes, you know where they live, where they work, or both.

If you ride with your bus family members long enough, you will even witness their major life changes: new relationships (identified by: a spring in the step, a kiss goodbye at the bus stop, a sudden increase in whispered cell-phone conversations), marriages (identified by: the telltale band on “that finger”), household moves (identified by: a new embarking or disembarking location), break-ups (identified by: a new embarking or disembarking location, a sudden cessation of bus-stop goodbye kisses), religious conversions (identified by: study material, sudden changes in attire), pregnancies (I think y’all know how to identify that one), drastic haircuts, and tattoos.

Most of us prefer to keep a stranger’s distance from our bus family members. Bus time, after all, is precious and not to be relinquished lightly. While occasional bus conversations with true strangers can be fun, initiating one with a bus family member will permanently change that person’s status, thereby obligating us to conversations on future rides.

Still, we can’t exactly think of these people as strangers; they are part of our daily lives. If they aren’t on the bus on a particular day, we notice and wonder where they are. If we see one of them in a non-bus context—at a restaurant or concert or festival—we recognize them. We might even claim to the people we’re with that we know them. After all, you can’t call someone a stranger if you’ve memorized his grocery list and seen the latest picture of his twin boys.

Got something to say about public transportation in Seattle? E-mail Bus Chick at buschick@gmail.com or visit blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/buschick.