As a broke college student, saving money is very important to me. I commute and take the bus to school every day, because it is free. When people find out I ride the bus they tend to get concerned about my safety. There seems to be a false rumor that the only people who ride city buses are drug dealers and criminals. People who have never ridden a bus, for some reason, believe that I am in grave danger from the “sketchy” looking people who frequent the bus stop right next to school. When I first started riding the bus, I allowed these misguided biases to dictate my view of the people I was sitting next to on the bus. It has now been two years that I have been riding, and let me tell you that I have learned a lot about the prejudices that surround this population.
These prejudices seem to stem from the belief that only “poor people” ride the bus. While it is true that wealthy are not riding city buses, it is awful presumptuous to assume that only poor people ride the bus. There are plenty of middle-class who ride simply because it is a cheaper alternative to taking a car. Also, why would someone’s economic position make the bus more dangerous? Yes, violence is no doubt increasing in our city and country, but assuming that those who live in poverty are going to attack me at the bus stop doesn’t seem to factor into that.
The other assumption is that the buses are used by drug dealers and criminals. I can honestly say I have only met one “drug dealer” in the past two years, and it was clear that he was lying. The population that rides the bus are mostly just normal, everyday people. Mothers taking/picking up kids from school, people coming/going to work, broke college kids (like me) trying to save money. People who ride the bus are no different than you, they are just people going about their daily lives and trying to find cheaper options of transportation.
Now, I am not saying that city buses are so safe that you never need to pay attention to what is going on around you. Obviously you should be smart and stay aware of your surroundings at all times. Things happen and there are bad people in the world. However, what I am saying is that not everyone who rides a city bus is a threat. They are not there to do harm to you, just to get to where they are going.
