Bus Stop Etiquette

There's an inane unwritten rule here that the first person who arrives at the bus stop is the first person to get on the bus, which also gives that person the responsibility of flagging down the bus. I suppose the idea behind this is fine in theory, but it becomes complicated in reality because you don't know which bus each person is waiting for. The routine I see play out each morning at my bus stop is extremely comical.

In my mind, it's very easy to tell when a bus is approaching that someone is waiting for because they start moving toward the front of the bus stop (the spot where you flag the bus down). So if no one is moving, it's a very safe assumption that no one else is waiting for that bus and therefore you need to flag the bus down yourself. However, it seems that some people are so nervous about going first and potentially offending that they will wait until the very last minute to move, and by then the bus has passed by. I know they've missed their bus, because they then get on the same number bus that next arrives. It's so crazy that they'll take the chance of missing their bus!!

There are probably times that I've cut ahead of someone unitentionally, but I'm certainly not ever going to miss my bus because someone doesn't move when they see their bus coming. I know it's my bus and I'm getting on it :) Riding the bus is definitely an adventure. There always seems to be a faint smell of urine and I've had some of the strangest people sit down next to me and strike up a conversation. However, it's definitely worth it to not deal with the hassles and cost of owning a car here!

We'll be renting our first car here in March for Chris' parents visit and I'm anxious to see how it goes because neither of us has ever driven here (only Chris and his Dad will attempt to...I'm not brave enough yet, especially because it will be a manual tranmission car). We have quite an ambitious itinerary. We'll be gone six days and we plan to drive through South-West England (Stonehenge, Bath, Cheddar), then north through Wales, and finally spend 3 days in Scotland near Edinburgh.