A-ha hush that fuss, "Everybody move to the back of the bus!"

I'm not sure where Penn State's University Park campus rates in terms of campus size, but with over 42,000 students, it's certainly the largest campus I've ever been on. As someone who lives a little off campus, I'm one of the unfortunate people who has to park in the "commuter lot," out by the stadium, and take one of the free "Loops" onto campus. So, I probably ride the bus 3-4 times a day Monday thru Friday, which makes me privy to some interesting bus riding habits of people.

One of the first, and most obvious things I have observed is the laziness of most of the people who ride the bus. For me, a walk from the commuter lot to my first class is about a 20-30 minute ride. While there's no doubt I could use the exercise, I'm not going to walk that far, especially during the winter. But, one of the stops the Loop makes after picking me up is East Halls, home to most of the Freshmen on campus. Here the bus swells to standing room only conditions, as people squeeze in like sardines. The thing that bothers me most about this is about 90% of the people who get on the bus at East Halls end up getting off at the next stop, which would be about a five minute walk - obviously this is a large contributor to that Freshman 15 you always hear about.

Another thing that I have picked up on is the way people decide where to, and where not to sit. A lot of times, when you get on the bus, where to sit isn't even an option as you grab the nearest hand rail and just hold on. But there have been numerous time that I have been sitting in a seat with the one next to me wide open, and I have seen people choose to stand instead of sitting next to me. Now, I'm certainly not going to be mistaken for a model any time soon, but what's the deal with that? Do I smell that bad? I mean I have a girlfriend, so I can't be that disgusting.

But in the instance that you do have someone sitting next to you, what's the proper etiquitte to determine when to leave that seat. For example, yesterday I was sitting next to a girl when I first got on the crowded Blue Loop. After a couple of stops the majority of people had left the bus, leaving a number of open seats, but is it ok to then get up and move? Doesn't this insult the person you were just sitting next to? "Excuse me, I know I was just sitting next to you, but that's only because my legs wouldn't allow me to stand. Now, I'm getting away from you, psycho."

But besides the loud cell phone conversations, smacking of gum in my ear, body odor and cramping, riding the bus is great. Plus I'm reducing my carbon footprint, thanks for the tip Al.