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Originally posted by Bill 2:

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... I have to say that the only ones giving up their seat were older men, asian and south asian.

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... only an older middle east man got up.

Bloody immigrants.

Bill2: Everybody here (in Canada)are immigrants, beside the First Nations, that have been here since ever, so my observation meant that especially caucasians are the least preoccupied for those that have a need for a seat in public transit. The so called Canadians are those that are here from few generations back, especially from UK and northern EU, some from Asia,but the Country population is widely made by immigrants from all over the world. When I said asian, south asian and middle eastern, I didn't mean immigrants, because we all are here.

Everyone on earth is an immigrant, including the First Nations, the Europeans and the Asians. Their ancestors all travelled to their present location from somewhere else.

Huh? Aren't we talking about Italy? Are you in Canada nostalgia? I think I've missed something... Anyway.

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Originally posted by Bill 2:
Everyone on earth is an immigrant, including the First Nations, the Europeans and the Asians. Their ancestors all travelled to their present location from somewhere else.

I believe that too, and also that God didn't make any borders on this planet, humans did, and we all are supposed to travel and settle anywhere in the world, pacifically and respectfully (what a fantasy!)

Tiffany: I'm in both, and I think rudeness or lack of respect is not only a matter of Italian public transit, it's everywhere. I reported my experience from where I use public transit, and I also said it's not a matter of geographic location but how people have been raised morally.

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(what a fantasy!)

See http://people.howstuffworks.com/human-migration3.htm

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I'm in both

Neat trick. How do you do it?

I just read the posts about politeness and public transportation... its funny how relative perceptions:
From my experience:
Avg. Rome bus waiting time: 5 mintues
Avg. Berkeley bus waiting time: 20 minutes
Avg. Rome metro waiting time: 3 minutes
Avg. BART (our train system here) waiting time: 15 minutes
Politeness in Rome vs. Politeness in Berkeley? depends on your version of politeness- I was just darn happy about the efficiency of public transportation, and the people I know in Italy are some of the most thoughtful and caring people I've ever met (Costa Rica still wins since this old dairy farmer gave us a lift 3 hours out of his way... that is a different forum though)

Here in Argentina (Buenos Aires) you have to hail the bus to stop for you! Just waiting at a bus stop does not mean the bus will actually pull over. You have to flag the driver down.

The polite part of it is that people queue up politely to get on said bus. At rush hour, I see a looong line of patient people along the sidewalk in front of my apartment. Nobody cuts, they all wait patiently. I think they figure since they got the bus driver to stop, the rest is easy.

We used to have to hail the bus in the UK, once upon a time. Might have just been the rural services, though it could have been the urban ones too. I'm not sure if you have to hail the buses anymore...

I never go on buses any more ever since a man sat next to me with incontinence, put me off. My mother uses buses every day and the word on the street is that if the bus that comes along is your bus you put your hand out, if you don't want that bus you stand back and it will pass without stopping. So hailing is alive and kicking in the UK. Actually I remember when I used to take the bus to work. If the bus was late I would walk to the next bus stop but more often than not it would come along as I was between stops. I would run along the street with my hand out to reach the next bus stop on time and just when I reached the bus, it would drive away! B***$$£%^!! Do you remember those old London buses that had no doors? They had them in Glasgow and I was waiting to get off at the next stop when it went around a corner too fast and I fell out!

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I was waiting to get off at the next stop when it went around a corner too fast and I fell out!

You're killing me!

In the part of London where I am (which has a villagy atmos) there are request stops, where the bus will only stop if you put your hand out. That said, at other stops I still tend to put my hand out as it just lets the driver know I want to get on.

Hopefully when Boris beats Red Ken, London will get its Routemasters back and we will see the end of the bendy buses.

I am currently in the UK for a few months with my son and as we don't have a car we have been using the local bus system - which isn't a patch on Bologna's! It's such a mishmash of different companies that getting from one side of the city to another is difficult and really expensive. Plus I made the "tourists' error" of jumping the queue the other day (honestly didn't notice that there was one!) and got a right telling off from another passenger - oops!

It's not only a tourist thing to jump the queue. Have you ever been at a bus stop with a load of pensioners? You could have been at the bus stop for ages, next thing a bunch of pensioners come along and you're elbowed out of the way so they can get on first! An old man hit me with his stick on my shin as I stepped on the bus just so he could get on before me. My mum is over 60 herself but still works and the amount of times she has allowed elderly people onto the bus before her only to find that the bus is full and she is left behind and has to wait another 1/2 hour for the next one!

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An old man hit me with his stick on my shin as I stepped on the bus just so he could get on before me.

You should have grabbed his stick and broken it over his head. That would have taught him some manners.

Some pensioners get away with murder though, don't they. I've been brought up to respect my elders, always give up my seat, hold doors open but some people are just born with no manners. I don't know how many times I have been in a busy supermarket standing in the 10 items or less queue with a pint of milk and there is a pensioner in front of me with a trolley clearly with more than 10 items (I counted them) and the person at the checkout will say no trolleys allowed but the pensioner refuses to move. If you say anything you get "I fought in the war for you, if it wasn't for me you'd be speaking German now" even though clearly she would have been about 2 when the war ended!

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Originally posted by Bill 2:

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An old man hit me with his stick on my shin as I stepped on the bus just so he could get on before me.

You should have grabbed his stick and broken it over his head. That would have taught him some manners.

Problem with that Bill is, that if he's like me and has to use his stick to get around, and often needs to fend off inconsderate able bodied younger people, he would have fallen over - but then perhaps that is what you consider to be the only solution!


I've been knocked over on more that one occasion by people who don't give a 'monkeys cuss' whether I can get out of their way or not!
Evviva i pensionati!!!

Well - most of 'em

Carole, did you read RS's thread? He wasn't fending off inconsderate able bodied younger people. He hit her in the shin so he could jump the queue in front of her.

Please read the context of the post before making a snap judgement.

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Originally posted by Bill 2:
Carole, did you read RS's thread? He wasn't fending off inconsderate able bodied younger people. He hit her in the shin so he could jump the queue in front of her.

Please read the context of the post before making a snap judgement.

Yes I did read the thread Bill. But I was responding to your comment :

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"You should have grabbed his stick and broken it over his head. That would have taught him some manners."

Nowhere did I say that the pensioner in question was right to hit someone with his stick. He was NOT. Nor was he right to queue jump...

I was suggesting that he just 'might' have become used to being either 'not seen' or just pushed around by most people. I say tyhat because it is my experience that pensioners are often treated with disdain.

...and after all - my closing comments were:

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Evviva i pensionati!!!

Well - most of 'em

Alright, if you put it that way I agree. A good rap on the shin effectively precluded RS from pushing him around and/or treating him with disdain. Lesson I'm taking away from this, if you see an old guy with a stick, watch out!

Bill, you never fail to amaze me. In one breath you're shrieking about illegal immigrants being mistreated because they aren't accorded the exact same rights as long-term citizens, in the next breath you slam some old codger, who has probably been pushed around long enough to have earned the right to a certain orneriness, by suggesting someone actually do the poor old git bodily harm (break his cane over his head).

Where are you coming from?

Volo Libero likes to shake things up a bit here on Expats......SCORFANO SCORBUTICO! (I adore him - can't help myself!)

It is amusing seeing people think "grab his stick and break it over his head" is a literal suggestion. Wanna try thinking outside the box?

Ok, easy now... god knows I've had my fair share of disputes with our Bill through the years, but even I (ESL and all) could tell that he was only joking this time. In fact, I thought his comment was really funny.
Lighten up, ok?

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Originally posted by Annika:
Ok, easy now... god knows I've had my fair share of disputes with our Bill through the years, but even I (ESL and all) could tell that he was only joking this time. In fact, I thought his comment was really funny.
Lighten up, ok?

Yeah - right. lighten up...

But that means I don't get to the "handbags at dawn" scenario if it was me in the wrong and because I don't have a sense of humour...

Nobody gets to complain more about the elderly than me... I lived in Trieste where I swear 90% of the city is elderly- I got attacked by an old woman in a supermarket because she thought 90 came before 89 (we took numbers for the bread line, and yes, she hit me with her cane)- and I didn't react since, well, I have a grandmother and I wouldn't want some young lady getting all fired up at her! I am going with Filomena on this one, lesson: if you make a habit of pointing out potential hypocrisy all time then you must be prepared for the backlash-