I must confess that since the dooring incident, I've become a front of the bus rider, or more precisely a front of the bus stander. That's right - I get on the bus and I stand at the front.

It used to be that I'd never really considered why people would sit in the Cooperative Seating area of a bus and not offer their seat if an elderly person or an obviously pregnant woman boarded. It's just common courtesy, right? And what about those people that stand at the front of the bus, even when there is plenty of room available towards the back?

For me, it's not due to selfishness. It's not because I'm inconsiderate. It's not because I want to get in your way. It's because I just can't ride the back of the bus. It's too bumpy back there! Same goes with upstairs on the double-deckers. There's a lot of bumping and shaking going on up there.

The worst are the Invero buses (hint: there's one in the cover picture. Incidentally, 4255 had a fire and is no longer being operated). In addition to having no convenient place for me to completely stand out of the way, they have overly rapid acceleration and a stiff suspension. When pulling away from a stop, everyone gets tossed. When hitting a bump, everyone goes flying or the bus absorbs the shock, passing it on to the passengers. Add the slow opening back doors and you officially have my least favourite bus in the OC Transpo fleet.

Prior to discovering the front of the bus, I'd often end up suffering from symptoms (usually headaches or chronic stupidity) by the time I reached work. I can think of one time where after a few hours I just got up and went home.

For my front of the bus standing efforts, I've been yelled at by fellow passengers. I've had resentful backpacks on backs swung at me maliciously. Elbows too. I've had a driver argue with me until he finally started listening and asked me why I couldn't move to the back. I told him that I had a head injury, and then he empathized. He wanted to learn more. And that's what this is all about, right? Raising awareness and teaching others that TBI is a thing, even if in many cases it's not visible.

So yeah, that's me riding at the front of the bus.

If you're up here with me and have no visible disability and the bus is relatively empty, I'm probably wondering if you're like me - with a hidden disability and unable to move to the back of the bus.

If you're somewhere further back and wondering why this guy is standing at the front of the bus, please notice that I'm trying my best to move out of the way. I get off the bus to let others off. I'll move towards the back to let wheelchairs on. And I'll wedge myself into a corner to let others through. And most of all, please don't judge me. Unless you've been reading here, you probably don't know my story.

As an appendix of sorts to this post, let me finish with my bus standing strategy. Yeah, I've given this too much thought but as I've said I'm not trying to be inconsiderate!

  1. Be one of the last to board.
  2. If there's a choice of bus type, prefer hybrid and articulated buses because of better standing space (see points 3-5).
  3. On hybrid and articulated buses, ride in the wedge behind the driver or behind the wheel well on the exit door side.
  4. On Invero buses, Nova buses and double-deckers, stand by the wheel well on the exit door side but lean forward to stay out of the way. Bag goes on the wheel well.
  5. On Nova buses, in addition to #4, wedge self in behind the drivers side wheel well as much as possible. Bag on the wheel well. Nova buses have the same sort of out of the way spacing as the hybrids but it's all blocked off by horizontal grab bars!
  6. Bend knees to absorb bumps
  7. Get off the bus to let people off, if necessary.
  8. Get off the bus or move back to let wheelchairs, strollers, walkers, shopping carts, families, etc on the bus first.

[ Photo by Loud-Invero ]