Greetings, Miss Manners I am a doctoral student in a college town where students receive free transportation on the local public bus, which doubles as the campus bus. Because of this, it is frequently packed, primarily with undergraduates.
At the advanced age of 30, I have discovered—or at least believed I had discovered—that it is customary to exit a packed bus for a short while in order to allow others to exit if you are obstructing the door.
However, it appears that nobody does this. While five to ten individuals attempt to exit, undergraduates stand there blocking the door. As though there is no way out of the situation they are in, they are dumbfounded. The fact that everyone—including myself, to be fair—is wearing headphones makes this worse.
For years, I’ve been putting up with this. I recently became so agitated that I screamed MOVE! in a cow-like voice at those obstructing the door. It didn’t feel very good.
Is it correct that the best course of action in this situation is to get off the bus for a short while? If so, how may I gently explain this information to these inexperienced bus passengers?
I once found myself blocking the door, so I got off to be fair to these poor kids, and the bus attempted to depart without me. I had to shout at the driver to wait, and he did. I believe they are simply too scared or unskilled to speak with the driver because they are afraid that this may happen.
PERSONAL READER: Miss Manners worries that no one will step in as the bus police, so you will have to focus on getting out yourself even though it would be simpler if everybody got off the bus.
The majority of individuals associate being impolite with raising their voices in public because they feel embarrassed to do so. However, in a noisy setting, one can talk loudly—even shout—without resorting to mooing or worse. GETTING OUT, PLEASE! functions.
You can also attempt to make things easier by alerting the person ahead of you that your stop is the next one, but you will be caught off guard when they inform you that they are also getting off there.
Hold the bus door open for anyone getting off if you do step off to let others out.
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