Pet Peeve: Large Backpacks
I was sitting on an inside seat this a.m. when the seat next to me opened up. A girl with a JUMBO backpack was talking to another standing passenger and plunked down in the seat but continued to stay facing out into the aisle to continue her conversation. The problem: her backpack (still on her back) was covering 1/2 of my seat and smashing into me and she was somehow completely unaware!
I had to tap her on the shoulder and explain to her that her backpack was in my space ARGH!
I just don’t undertand how people forget that they have 25 lbs swinging around on their back smashing into people!
Jun 1st, 2007 at 10:41 am
similarly, my bus pet peeves: when people leave their bags on the seat next to them, even as the bus becomes more crowded or when people in the front don’t make room for the elderly / blind / pregnant / parents with children. argh!
Jun 1st, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Is so much worse in Europe with Americans traveling with their ginourmous backpacks. Whenever i was wearing one, i would take it off and carry it IN FRONT of me. That way i could set it on the floor at my feet so it didn’t take up anymore room than my body. Most people are just compleatly oblivious to anything going on around them. Take a walk in the skyways on a friday, it’s so frustrating!
Jun 5th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
I ride the bus with a sizable backpack, but I’ve sort of learned a technique for riding with it on the floor between my legs or on my lap… or if it’s a half empty bus, then yes, on the seat next to me - but I can’t even sit comfortably with it still on my back!
Jun 6th, 2007 at 2:34 am
I use the bus to commute to the U of M from Highland Park, Thus, I sometimes have to take the lively #16 bus. I sometimes put my backpack on the seat next to me and then if I see an “acceptable” person approaching the seat, I remove my backpack and put it on my lap.
Jun 14th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Your bag is not a defensive mechanism to keep ‘unacceptables’ out of the seat next to you. I have and *will* force people to move their bags to their laps in such situations.
Pet Peeve:
Anyone under 45 in the priority seating section, any part if it, without filling the rest of the bus. Yes, this means that being 19 and new to the 16/50 going to UofM does not entitle him/her to priority seating, let that person in the walker take your seat for crying out loud.
Pet Peeve #2:
Fold your stroller, please. Don’t bring your SUV stroller on the bus, either — leave that at home or with your car. They just don’t fold up enough to make room to get through.
Aug 13th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Hi, Scott? I am 27 and I have Fibromyalgia. This is an exhausting, painful and completely invisible illness. For a good story about what it’s like, I would recommend http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/2004/11/the_spoon_theory.php.
I often ride in the handicapped seats. If anyone challenges me, I explain this to them as nicely as I can.
About the stroller…. yeah, that was me, too, when I had a 3 year old (I had no car, and was a single parent). What I found worked was sitting in the first forward facing seat and wedging the stroller into the space between it and the seat in front of it. It would be really great if some people had an easier time of things and didn’t have to take their strollers with them. Unfortunately, there are times that a long day of errands is ahead and there’s no way to give the child the rest/nap/snack spot they need without that huge SUV stroller.