I love buses. I love them as much as I love my computer for always screwing up on me during some times when I needed it most. I am bound by forced love for buses because that’s the only mode of transportation that efficiently gets me from home to school and vice versa.
For our international readers, Philippine buses work a little differently than your bus lines. In the Philippines, we do not buy tickets before we enter the bus, we buy them once we get in. And those who sell tickets are not referred to as “ticket salesmen” but conductors, not the kind you see who waves a stick around in front of musicians but the kickass one who can withstand inertial forces in a bus while immediately computing the fare of the 40-53 sitting passengers, plus the unfortunate twenty or so who are standing on the aisle of the bus. Can you keep yourself cool and balanced while computing the fare of one passenger mentally while keeping track of the people who just walked in and are ticket-less? If you can’t, you’re not fit to be a Philippine bus conductor.
Another difference between Philippine buses and international standards is that we rarely have bus stops. Bus stops in the Philippines are self-established by the passengers themselves. A bus stop in the Philippines is somewhere where there’s a lot of people waiting for a bus and there’s no MMDA traffic enforcers nearby who are in the mood for ticketing buses.
That’s how the system works here in the Philippines. Like most other systems, this one has its flaws. Besides having completely undocumented, clueless, and unplanned routes that could kill somebody inexperienced in Philippine commuting, there’s also another flaw: the standing room.
When you step in the bus and all the seats are taken, would you [A] Get out and wait for another bus, preferably one with seats or [B] Stay? If you chose the latter, you’re gonna have to stand, sucker. Move over to the back so we can try to squeeze others in this standing room orgy.
So I made a comic depicting what I feel when I’m that unlucky person who gets to stand first.
