I will NEVER get on a greyhound bus.. OMG...

[LuckyTexan]

Date: 8/10/2008 10:50:41 PM
Author: arjunajane

Date: 8/10/2008 7:53:57 PM
Author: LuckyTexan
They have NO security, and they also have NO passenger accountability.

I wanted to surprise my parents by coming home from college for Thanksgiving. I was only 17.

I had saved all the money I had made from my little job I had after class... and I got a Greyhound ticket... Chicago to San Diego.

They LEFT ME in the rest stop in BLYTHE California.

I was in the bathroom... Everything I had carried on was STOLEN...

So, UM. YA. I''d NEVER ride Greyhound!!!

Oh LT that sucks!

Were you able to get any form of compensation??

NOPE.... I barely got an apology!!! The woman at the bus depot in Riverside actually scolded me for not getting back on the bus like I was supposed to... like it was my fault!!! They said 10 minutes... and I swear it hadn''t even been 5!!!
The worst part about it, was that I had to call my parents from Blythe, and tell them I was stranded, without any of my things... THANK GOD I had taken my little handbag with me!!!
JERKS!

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 8/11/2008 1:55:26 AM
Author: LuckyTexan

Date: 8/10/2008 10:50:41 PM
Author: arjunajane

Date: 8/10/2008 7:53:57 PM
Author: LuckyTexan
They have NO security, and they also have NO passenger accountability.

I wanted to surprise my parents by coming home from college for Thanksgiving. I was only 17.

I had saved all the money I had made from my little job I had after class... and I got a Greyhound ticket... Chicago to San Diego.

They LEFT ME in the rest stop in BLYTHE California.

I was in the bathroom... Everything I had carried on was STOLEN...

So, UM. YA. I''d NEVER ride Greyhound!!!

Oh LT that sucks!

Were you able to get any form of compensation??

NOPE.... I barely got an apology!!! The woman at the bus depot in Riverside actually scolded me for not getting back on the bus like I was supposed to... like it was my fault!!! They said 10 minutes... and I swear it hadn''t even been 5!!!
The worst part about it, was that I had to call my parents from Blythe, and tell them I was stranded, without any of my things... THANK GOD I had taken my little handbag with me!!!
JERKS!

Grr! yeah, thank gawd you had your ID etc.I guess in your case its understandable that you wouldn''t want to travel with them again!

 

[Delster]

Date: 8/10/2008 7:59:45 AM
Author: Independent Gal
Even with the random violent crimes that occur, you''re still WAY more likely to get hit by a car. And your chance of being murdered by a crazy stranger is about 100 times lower than your chance of developing a psychotic disorder and becoming the ''crazy'' stranger yourself. And more sane people (%-wise) are violent than ''crazy'' people. ''Crazy'' people just get more creative about it.

Indy, thank you for highlighting this. I get angry listening to the news because (a) I don''t understand why as a society we persist in scaremongering about ''stranger danger'' when the reality is that the familiar is the most likely to cause us harm; and (b) I find it appalling that ''sanism'' remains an acceptable form of discrimination and from what I can see there are no signs of that changing any time soon

blondebunny I think you''re right to be cautious and responsible about your own safety! Just don''t live your life in terror of things that are (thank God) unlikely to befall you

For my two cents, I travel by public transport a lot. A lot a lot. In ten years of a lotta lotta public transport, I have only felt scared once. That time I told the weirdo that I was going to sleep, end of discussion, and I promptly pretended to be instantly fast asleep. Thankfully, it worked. I''ve seen a whole lot of odd stuff, but for the most part, I find that if you leave people alone, they''ll leave you alone. If I ever encountered a true scary, I''d make a whole heck of a lot of noise about it, and change seats. In the worst case scenario, there''s usually a fold-down spare seat for conductors up beside the driver.

 

[fieryred33143]

I had a guy expose himself to me (well not to me but he was sitting on the other side of me) and then continue to...um...relieve himself. I was barely 18 at the time on my way home from college for Christmas break. I had no idea what to do so I got up and told the driver what was going on. He stopped the bus, the guy was arrested and I refused to get back on the bus. I was about 2 hours away from home and in the middle of the high way but I called my mom and my uncle made the trip to pick me up. One of the police officers gave me a ride to the nearest plazas and I stood there waiting.

I have *never* gotten back on a greyhound again.

 

[Independent Gal]

Date: 8/11/2008 10:16:05 AM
Author: fieryred33143
I had a guy expose himself to me (well not to me but he was sitting on the other side of me) and then continue to...um...relieve himself. I was barely 18 at the time on my way home from college for Christmas break. I had no idea what to do so I got up and told the driver what was going on. He stopped the bus, the guy was arrested and I refused to get back on the bus. I was about 2 hours away from home and in the middle of the high way but I called my mom and my uncle made the trip to pick me up. One of the police officers gave me a ride to the nearest plazas and I stood there waiting.


I have *never* gotten back on a greyhound again.

I had this happen to me in a Starbucks once. It was totally disturbing and gross. But I still go to Starbucks.

I guess we all just have to decide how cloistered and restricted a life we want to lead and how comfortable we feel being exposed to people who lead very different kinds of lives to ours. Personally, I'm glad I get to see the whole tapestry - from the friendly stranger who offers a seat, to the toothless man who clearly hasn't had enough to eat in a while, to the crazy people, to the kids on their first trip alone, to the 16 year mom yelling at her 2 yr old kid that "kicking is only allowed when you're in a fight!", all colours, all shapes, all sizes - the whole darn tapestry that comes with taking public transport.

I'd much rather see what's out there, the different modes of life, the scent of different kinds of troubles and joys, even when it's sometimes deeply sad or even disturbing, then live in a little bubble of people just like me.

How else are you going to have any idea where you live (or where you're traveling) and why things might be the way they are? Without meeting people, and seeing the world in all its horror and glory for yourself, how can you begin to understand the world you live in?

Sure it's scary sometimes. But you know what? Sometimes it's very educational to be scared. And the chance of something truly scary actually happening are pretty remote.

But each to their own.

 

[fieryred33143]

Date: 8/11/2008 12:04:39 PM
Author: Independent Gal

Date: 8/11/2008 10:16:05 AM
Author: fieryred33143
I had a guy expose himself to me (well not to me but he was sitting on the other side of me) and then continue to...um...relieve himself. I was barely 18 at the time on my way home from college for Christmas break. I had no idea what to do so I got up and told the driver what was going on. He stopped the bus, the guy was arrested and I refused to get back on the bus. I was about 2 hours away from home and in the middle of the high way but I called my mom and my uncle made the trip to pick me up. One of the police officers gave me a ride to the nearest plazas and I stood there waiting.


I have *never* gotten back on a greyhound again.

I had this happen to me in a Starbucks once. It was totally disturbing and gross. But I still go to Starbucks.

I guess we all just have to decide how cloistered and restricted a life we want to lead and how comfortable we feel being exposed to people who lead very different kinds of lives to ours. Personally, I'm glad I get to see the whole tapestry - from the friendly stranger who offers a seat, to the toothless man who clearly hasn't had enough to eat in a while, to the crazy people, to the kids on their first trip alone, to the 16 year mom yelling at her 2 yr old kid that 'kicking is only allowed when you're in a fight!', all colours, all shapes, all sizes - the whole darn tapestry that comes with taking public transport.

I'd much rather see what's out there, the different modes of life, the scent of different kinds of troubles and joys, even when it's sometimes deeply sad or even disturbing, then live in a little bubble of people just like me.

How else are you going to have any idea where you live (or where you're traveling) and why things might be the way they are? Without meeting people, and seeing the world in all its horror and glory for yourself, how can you begin to understand the world you live in?

Sure it's scary sometimes. But you know what? Sometimes it's very educational to be scared. And the chance of something truly scary actually happening are pretty remote.

But each to their own.

Well I never got back on because I found another bus that takes you directly from Miami to Orlando for cheaper and less time

And I agree that people should have open minds and some fear is healthy...but I rather keep a closed mind when it comes to the exposure of the bodies of others unless it benefits me directly

 

[Independent Gal]

That''s true, Fiery! Not to mention the fact that on a bus or in any enclosed space you can''t leave, it is DEFINITELY scarier than in a Starbucks, where you can just walk out!

 

[WishfulThinking]

Date: 8/11/2008 8:16:55 AM
Author: Delster

Date: 8/10/2008 7:59:45 AM

Author: Independent Gal

Even with the random violent crimes that occur, you''re still WAY more likely to get hit by a car. And your chance of being murdered by a crazy stranger is about 100 times lower than your chance of developing a psychotic disorder and becoming the ''crazy'' stranger yourself. And more sane people (%-wise) are violent than ''crazy'' people. ''Crazy'' people just get more creative about it.

Indy, thank you for highlighting this. I get angry listening to the news because (a) I don''t understand why as a society we persist in scaremongering about ''stranger danger'' when the reality is that the familiar is the most likely to cause us harm; and (b) I find it appalling that ''sanism'' remains an acceptable form of discrimination and from what I can see there are no signs of that changing any time soon

Thank you for saying this, Delster, and Indy as well. People can be exceedingly cruel with it comes to the stereotype of the "evil crazy person" who is going to come kill us randomly while completely ignoring the data available, which shows us that this is extremely unlikely to happen, and that the so-called "crazy people" perpetrating violent acts are so often considered "sane" by most clinical definitions. I find it pretty disappointing when people constantly make comments about how people with a mental health disability that I HAVE are so dangerous and psycho [not statistically true for the most part]. That they say these things so loudly and clearly and without any fear of repercussion, knowing that it is socially acceptable to do, so smacks of the "sanism" you pointed out, Del. It''s sad.

Back on topic...
Countless tragic, scary things happen every single day in every corner of the world. People experience them when they occur. How we react to the things we''ve experienced and how we react to stories of the things other people have experienced have a pretty big effect on the day-to-day quality of our lives. The most we can do is be informed about the things that are most likely to happen to us and do all we can to avoid them. If we can''t it''s not our faults, it''s the faults of the people whose actions make the world a less safe place to be. Worrying about us isn''t really going to help, but educating ourselves will. Strangers killing and eating us on the bus, though, is pretty low on that list; personally, I don''t spend a lot of time worrying about it.

 

[purrfectpear]

If mental disease were a typical cause of violent crimes the homeless would be whacking people left and right. A lot of the homeless (at least the ones I''ve met in Los Angeles) were pushed out of the hospitals during funding cutbacks. They might have schizophrenia, they might be manic/depressive, but they''re harmless IMO. Not saying I want to spend the night with them in the local parks, but I''m not afraid of them. I''d worry more about gangs of kids when I''m walking my dog at night.

BTW, anyone who rides the subways of NYC has had a least one or more people expose themselves. Wieney wavers are disgusting but probably not too dangerous.