History Main / BusesAreForFreaks

How does an author demonstrate that their character lacks the resources to use "proper" transportation such as planes, trains, or automobiles? Why, they get PutOnABus (in the literal sense).

After the Great Depression in the United States, intercity bus ridership took off due to its relative affordability when compared to long-distance train travel. While the conversion of service to more affordable buses did help the private transit companies' bottom line, it was only a temporary relief; in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many private transit companies were folded into tax-supported publicly-operated systems.

As transit ridership decreased the public perceptions of customers changed dramatically. No longer was the typical transit rider likely to be your socially-equal neighbor; it was the weirdo who lost his eyesight in a shootout or the bum who is too lazy to get a job and become a "proper" member of American society. The popular image of TheCity during the late 20th century also contributed to how bus transportation was viewed; as cities tend to attract a disproportionate amount of people who stray from what society perceives as normal, and as transit ridership is highest in large cities, buses began to be perceived as full of "not normal" people.

Since the early 2000s, bus ridership, as well as the image of bus transportation, has increased positively. Compounding factors such as reinvestment in service, a newly-found focus on environmentalism, Millennials postponing getting their drivers license, as well as an aging baby boomer population reluctant to drive, have all contributed to increasing ridership. To some extent even intercity bus travel has shed its prior image; legacy operators like Greyhound as well as new entrants such as Megabus compete on factors such as internet availability and express routes that don't stop in every farming village with three people.

While buses are most commonly portrayed in a negative light, other modes of public transportation have been derided before. Additionally, this trope focuses on a US-centric viewpoint of public transportation; as for various reasons buses have historically been viewed in a more positive light in other nations, this trope tends to be downplayed or outright nonexistent in fiction originating from outside the United States.

* ''VideoGame/ScarletHollow'' opens with a bizzare conversation with a stranger on a bus. In short order, he confesses to making a hobby of pushing pedestrians into a lake, dating one of said pedestrians, getting her pregnant, and then states that he has strongly considered killing her. Then he reveals that she's currently in labor but he's considering just ditching her to go to New York City. Even better, he's based on a real person the developers met on a bus.

** His song "Another One Rides The Bus" (parodied from the Music/{{Queen}} song "Another One Bites The Dust") portrays the bus as being smelly and crowded, and makes mentions of bums, perverts and freaks riding it.

** Car ownership in Southern California is still highly expected, if not required but attitudes towards busses have softened. Highway congestion and the increasing cost of fuel are major concerns. One of the advantages of the long-distance routes is that they are able to use express-lanes at rush hour to bypass much of the congestion, and in some cases, the travel time can be no worse or faster than by car. Express routes naturally focus on limited stops and travel to major hot spot destinations.

* In ''Film/{{Speed}}'', passenger Annie Potts has to take the wheel of her bus after the driver is shot. Among the characters onboard are those people who don't own cars in Los Angeles: Hector Ortiz (a mechanic), Stephens (a tourist wanting to see the city), and a trigger-happy gang-banger. Annie has to keep the bus at 50mph or it will explode. Oh, the reason Annie was on the bus? She [[Main/{{Irony}} lost her license for habitual speeding]].

[[folder: Film]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''. Invoked in "Lost!", where Buster and Francine fear for Arthur when they learn he's taking a city bus down town to the public pool for his swimming lessons - Buster heard of a bus who picked up a passenger and never made anymore stops before blasting off into outer space, while Francine heard of a kid who was never allowed off the bus for not having enough fare. Arthur becomes understandably nervous when he finally boards the bus, and is a little uncomfortable to see every single one of the other passengers are adults preoccupied with reading the paper.

* This is subverted more or less in places such as UsefulNotes/{{California}}:

After the Great Depression in the United States, intercity bus ridership took off due to its relative affordability when compared to long-distance train travel. The conversion of service to more affordable buses did help the private transit companies' bottom line, it was only a temporary relief; in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many private transit companies were folded into tax-supported publicly-operated systems.

* This is subverted in places such as UsefulNotes/{{California}}:

** Highway congestion and the increasing cost of fuel are major concerns. One of the advantages of the long-distance routes is that they are able to use express-lanes at rush hour to bypass much of the congestion, and in some cases, the travel time can be no worse or faster than by car. Express routes naturally focus on limited stops and travel to major hot spot destinations.

** Also, due to emission regulations changing over time and the increasing complexity of cars (increasing maintenance overhead), the advantages are increasing for using the bus more often due to mitigating or even eliminating the time and money spent maintaining a vehicle. This became lampshaded by Riverside County's [=RTA=] who periodically offers a $0.25 promotional bus fare and encourages drivers to give their busses a try.

** Highway congestion and the increasing cost of fuel are major concerns. One of the advantages of the long-distance routes is that they are able to use express-lanes at rush hour to bypass much of the congestion, and in some cases, the travel time can be no worse or faster than by car. Express routes focus on limited stops and travel to major hot spot destinations.

** Also, due to emission regulations changing over time and the increasing complexity of cars (increasing maintenance overhead), the advantages are increasing for using the bus more often due to mitigating or even eliminating the time and money spent maintaining a vehicle. This became lampshaded Riverside County [=RTA=] who periodically offers a $0.25 promotional bus fare and encourages drivers to give their busses a try.

** Also, due to emission regulations changing over time and the increasing complexity of cars (increasing maintenance overhead), the advantages are increasing for using the bus more often due to mitigating or even eliminating the time and money spent maintaining a vehicle. This became lampshaded by Riverside County who periodically offers a $0.25 promotional bus fare and encourages drivers to skip driving.

* This is subverted in places such as UsefulNotes/{{California}} for example, as highway congestion and the increasing costs of vehicle ownership are major concerns. One of the advantages of the long-distance routes is that they are able to use express-lanes at rush hour to bypass much of the congestion, and in some cases, the travel time can be no worse or faster than by car. Also, due to emission regulations changing over time and the increasing complexity of cars (increasing maintenance overhead), the advantages are increasing for using the bus more often due to mitigating or even eliminating the time and money spent maintaining a vehicle.

* This is subverted in places such as UsefulNotes/{{California}} for example, as highway congestion and the increasing costs of vehicle ownership are major concerns. One of the advantages of the long-distance routes is that they are able to use express-lanes at rush hour to bypass much of the congestion, and in some cases, the travel time can be no worse or faster than by car. Also, due to emission regulations changing over time and the increasing complexity of cars (increasing maintenance overhead), the advantages are increasing for using the bus more often.

* This is subverted in places such as UsefulNotes/California, as highway congestion and the increasing costs of vehicle ownership are major concerns. One of the advantages of the long-distance routes is that they are able to use express-lanes at rush hour to bypass much of the congestion, and in some cases, the travel time can be no worse or faster than by car.

[[folder: Advertising ]]
* General Motors. GM ran [[https://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/9006896 advertisements]] in Vancouver, BC promoting the Chevy Cavalier in 2003. The destination sign above the windshield reads "Creeps & Weirdos", a not-so-subtle dig at common preconceptions of transit users. Due to public outcry about the implied offense against bus riders, the advertisement was pulled shortly afterwards.

[[folder: Film ]]
* In ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', after two close attempts to kill Senator Amidala on Coruscant she decides to retreat to her home world of Naboo. However, instead of a gleaming royal yacht, she and Jedi Skywalker take the Star Wars equivalent of a Greyhound shuttle, arriving on Naboo with other morose plebes.
* ''Film/PlanesTrainsAndAutomobiles''. Neal and Del have to resort to Greyhound after their train breaks down. A couple in the adjacent row makes out passionately, with the woman reaching across the center aisle to Neal. Intercity bus travel fits in with the eccentric nature of Del, but is contrary to the conservative character of Neal.
* In ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', Kirk and Spock are riding a San Francisco bus with a mohawked punk with a boom box. When Kirk asks if the punk will turn it down, the punk flips him the bird, and cranks the volume up even louder. Spock does the logical thing and Vulcan neck-pinches the guy, turns the boombox off, and the rest of the riders applaud.
* ''Film/TheSureThing'': After Gib gets into the shared-ride car and finds Allison, she says "I knew I should have taken the bus", and he says "What, and get stuck sitting next to some sleaze bag?" Sure enough, when they do go to a bus station, there are dirty homeless people sleeping on the benches.
* In the film ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'': Chris' friend Brenda has run away from home, and is waiting for Chris at the bus station to pick her up. While Chris and the kids are getting into dangerous and zany hijinks, Brenda is having her own misfortunate adventures at the gross and creepy bus station.

* David from ''Film/KeepTheChange2017'' is reluctant to take the bus because the homeless people creep him out. When he finally boards the bus towards the end to talk to Sarah, it's a sign that he's starting to overcome his hatred of weirdness.

[[folder: Literature ]]
* In ''Literature/BloodsuckingFiends'', Jody ends up on a bus shortly after her vampiric transformation, and this trope is in full force, exemplified by the flasher.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''. Invoked in "Big Shots," where Ray says he doesn't want to drive four hours with Robert because his feet smell, but when Marie suggests taking a bus, Ray retorts, "A bus? That's a smelly feet convention!"

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "Ghost Light", the Doctor's list of things he hates includes cruelty, tyranny, unrequited love, ... and bus stations: "Terrible places full of lost luggage and lost souls."
* In the ''Series/BroadCity'' episode "Destination: Wedding", the main characters board a bus to Connecticut filled with highly shady folks, one of whom proceeds to upset a tray of full of fish on Abbi.
* On ''Series/AllMyChildren'', fed up with her father not letting her see her mother, then-8-year old Bianca Montgomery runs away from home and hops a cross country bus that takes her from Seattle to Pine Valley. Her mother Erica is aghast that "my daughter rode across the country on a ''bus''!" It seems elitist of her, but considering the length of the trip, Bianca's young age, and the fact that she was indeed harassed by a creep throughout the trip, her outrage is completely understandable.

[[folder: Music ]]

* The Fatima Mansions' song "Only Losers Take the Bus" takes the form of an unhinged rant by someone who believes this ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin check the title]]) and protests a little too strongly that he's not one of them.
* Jonathan Richman's song "You're Crazy for Taking the Bus" is a little more ambivalent than its title suggests. Jonathan admits that long-distance bus travel is disgusting, but he likes it for the people-watching (and because air travel is even ''worse''.)

[[folder: Webcomics ]]
* ''Webcomic/{{IDGet}}''. One gag strip shows WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake clearly uncomfortable taking the bus, as other passengers gather around her to smell her hair.
* ''Webcomic/SomeoneStoleMyPanties''. In one strip, Mosi fawns over a cute guy she sees on the bus - which doesn't go unnoticed by him; after she gets off at her stop, he thinks to himself what a weirdo she is.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''. Invoked in "Lost!", where Buster and Francine fear for Arthur when they learn he's taking a city bus down town to the public pool for his swimming lessons - Buster heard of a bus who picked up a passenger and never made anymore stops before blasting off into outer space, while Francine heard of a kid who was never allowed off the bus for not having enough fare. Arthur becomes understandably nervous when he finally boards the bus, and is a little uncomfortable to see every single one of the other passengers are adults preoccupied with reading the paper.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Dipper and Mabel arrive by bus to visit Grunkle Stan. But when he tries to send them home in part one of the first season finale, he sends them by bus because it's all he can afford, having lost the Mystery Shack to Gideon's evil machinations. To emphasize the grossness of the bus, Mabel tries to cheer up Dipper by playing a game of identifying the stains under the bus seats.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

Since the early 2000s, bus ridership as well as the image of bus transportation has increased positively. Compounding factors such as reinvestment in service, a newly-found focus on environmentalism, Millenials postponing getting their drivers license, as well as an aging baby boomer population reluctant to drive have all contributed to increasing ridership. To some extent even intercity bus travel has shed its prior image; legacy operators like Greyhound as well as new entrants such as Megabus compete on factors such as internet availability and express routes that don't stop in every farming village with three people.

* ''Series/TheInBetweeners'' has the titular insufferable immature jerks letting it go to their collective head when they finally get access to a car. Driving down the street, they cannot resist leaning out of the car windows and jeering at people waiting for the bus. Unfortunately, shortly after yelling "BUS WANKERS!" at people in thw queue, they can go no further before being caught in standing traffic. A rather large man who had been in the bus queue strolls unhurriedly down the street to point out he isn't greatly impressed.

** "[[http://www.theonion.com/articles/30-miserable-lives-lost-in-greyhound-bus-crash,2339/ 30 Miserable Lives Lost in Greyhound Bus Crash]]"
** "[[http://www.theonion.com/article/man-with-serious-mental-illness-committed-to-city--37823 Man With Serious Mental Illness Committed To City Bus]]"

* Greyhound, the dominant intercity bus company in the United States, has been referred to as the poor mans' 4-feet-high, 65 mph airline. Due to the less stringent security buses feature, with minimal to non-existent identification checks as well as basically no screening of the passengers or their luggage, buses are often used to move significant amounts of illicit drugs. See more [[http://www.citylab.com/commute/2012/08/how-not-make-friends-greyhound-bus/2839 here]].
** Despite the uncharacteristic nature of the event, a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tim_McLean gruesome, random, murder]] on a Canadian long-distance bus in 2008 confirmed a lot of people's prejudices.

* In ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', Kirk and Spock are riding a San Francisco bus with a mohawked punk with a boom box. When Kirk asks if the punk will turn it down, the punk flips him the bird, and cranks the volume up even louder. Spock does the logical thing and Vulcan neck-pinches the guy, the boombox turns off, and the rest of the riders applaud.