Loco-Motion

MAY 27 2010

Gluteus-maximus muscles are mainly used to power the usage of the legs and keeping us erect (upright posture, to be clear) – they were NOT designed to be used to hang on to POLES while riding city busses!!! Well… I didn’t think they were used for that, I didn’t even think it was POSSIBLE until today.

There are a few things that are different about busses in Ternopol/Ukraine vs busses in Toronto/Canada:
1) I’m riding busses (and even perhaps liking it) in Ternopol!
2) The bus is one fare for all riders: 1.50 hrv which isn’t an awful lot of money for the residents here, and works out to approximately 20 Canadian cents for me.
3) In a very uncanadian way people bud in line and SHOVE themselves into the bus regardless of whether there is room.
4) The busses come when they get there, and take the routh they want (especially if there is traffic)
5) The busses are not even a little bit accessible to people with disabilities (or stroller as Mike found out…)
6) No one opens the window no matter what the temperature inside the bus
7) The busses are JAMMED – so jammed, infact, that today I learned that I can manipulate my @$$ muscles to grip onto a pole!!

Now here’s what REALLY shocked me…
8) No matter how packed the bus is, or regardless of any other circumstances some one ALWAYS gives their seat up for the elderly, pregnant, or women with child(ren). Some of the men will also give up their seat for a woman – infact I’ve had fights with people, particularly men, who will jump up out of their seat for me, and I’d much rather stand. This is the way it should be, but I remember traversing the Toronto transit system and no one would budge – didn’t matter who got on the vehicle. I’m not sure why this is. Especially considering the force with which people force themselves onto the bus… shock and awe, shock and awe I tell you.
9) There’s the other major shocker: The first time I was on the bus alone ( a couple weeks ago now) someone tapped me on the shoulder and handed me money and said “bood laska” (please)– I wasn’t particularly sure what to do with it, but the person in front of me had their hand out so I out the money in their hand and before I could blink the money was whisked up to the front of the bus hand to hand until it got to the driver – then even MORE surprising – the driver gave change and it was passed back in the same fashion - hand to hand – until it reached it’s rightful owner. There are 2 things at play here – in a packed bus where anonymity is high, the person that gets on at the back of the bus pays their fare. And the second thing is that the whole bus handles other people’s money and so far I have not yet witnessed any disagreements over payment or change. I defiantly asked myself if this type of honesty would be possible in Canada (Toronto specifically is my frame of reference)and I’m not convinced that it would be possible. In fact one can not even board a Toronto TTC bus at the back doors for fear that people would try and cheat the system! This surprised me because there are many more people here that could benefit from not paying their fair, or pocketing the odd amount of bus fair (I’ve seen 50hrv bills being passed up, and then 48.50 hrv back without a cent missing) than there are at home, but there is a culture of honesty here.
10) The last thing that totally freaked me out – yes Mike, I finally saw it happen – was a multi tasking driver. You have to understand (“tea rozimeeish” = you understand) that there is no such thing as automatic transmission vehicles here (most of Europe prefers manual, but here it’s not and option) so even the bus drivers must manipulate the stick shift while driving the bus. Bus drivers also must give calculate and give change (as mentioned in point 9). The drivers of these busses must navigate the terrible roads, and the very unpredictable traffic. This driver was doing all that with ease, and managed to fit in some extra curricular activities. While driving stick, calculating, counting, navigating and driving, this particular driver was also talking on his cell phone AND smoking a cigarette (yeah, I’d be stressed too). He did this with such ease that I wasn’t even the least bit nervous - just couldn’t believe my eyes. I was pretty impressed.

So I was standing on the bus this morning – well I didn’t have to be standing, there were so many people I was kind of pressed up against the pole with very little wiggle room! - Still so impressed with the passing back and fourth of fare, and change and I began to think of the society as a whole, through the lens of their transportation system – seeing as this blog is getting really long I’ll say only this much for now (I will carry this theme throughout the rest of the summer) – this society and culture is post (Russian) communist. The former Soviet Union has definitely left it’s mark upon these people and this culture – some of these marks are deep, ugly, and still festering, but others of them are more like well done make up… the bus system seems to me to be more like make up, but then again, it’s only been a few weeks.

*love*