TTC, for the kids.

Admittedly, most of my delightful TTC adventures are to and from work, and therefore involve the bus. I can't speak with any degree of authority on the subway lines, though they seem to have a more intelligent ridership.

With that nice little disclaimer out of the way, is the general populace of Toronto devoid of any intelligence?

The front half of most buses nowadays have a row of single seats on the left, and double seats on the right. This means the corridor between these seats is biased to the left side of the bus (when facing the front of the bus).

Scenario: The bus is now standing-room only. You a)Stand on near the single seat on the left-hand side, thereby leaving the actual middle of the bus clear, and blocking the path of 1 person instead of 2; or b) Stand on the right-hand side, blocking said 2 people, and also blocking the middle corridor since other standing passengers are already on the left.

Why do so many people choose b? If I'm on the left, why do you need to stand right beside me, instead of somewhere along 12ish feet of empty space behind me? Do you get some joy out of people having to tiptoe around us that I'm clearly missing out on?

Next beef: Exiting of said bus. Odds are you're getting off at a fairly major intersection, which means it's also quite likely that several people are getting on at that stop. What the hell is wrong with the back door (shhh)? Why does everyone have to wait for you to make your graceful exit before they can get on the bus? Does getting off the bus 18 feet closer to your destination really make that much of a difference? Unless you've got a stroller, you're a genuine Grade A asshole.

Moving right along, suppose I've sat in one of those double seats. You sit beside me. Fine. You see me pull the super fun happy ding cord to indicate I'm taking my ball and going home. Is it really that hard to get up for a whole of five seconds? It seems like more and more people prefer to just turn their torso, getting the knees out of the way, ignoring the fact that my body and their torso are still on a collision course. I'm forced to make the Tyler Durden-style ass or crotch choice. I should really start crop dusting these people.

Final gripe, this one on the subway. Most of the seats are in a kind of L configuration. A row of three seats perpendicular to two seats. I'm in one of the two seaters, in the "crotch" of the L. Someone else is at the top of the three seater in the L. This means there's one open seat next to me, while the three seater has one space where they don't have to rub hips with somebody. I thought this was supposed to work like the urinals. Whenever possible, you take the spot where you're free and clear of other people. TONS of people seem to miss the boat on this one. If there were three urinals, with a guy pissing on the left, with the centre and right available, you bet your ass that guy would WTF? in his head if I dropped trou in the middle urinal.

Maybe I'm crazy, or people just lack common sense. Mayhaps both.