Banning alcohol on public transport seems admirable, but until “they” get serious about simply being able to enforce such rules as already exist on public transport, it seems all rather pointless to add to the list.
Here in Glasgow it was a reasonably frequent occurrence (at least once a fortnight) that somebody would light up on a bus when I was travelling to or from work. Despite the no-smoking signs, despite the packed bus, nobody piped up (excuse the pun). I’m too cowardly to do so here, at the risk of being confronted by a heavy, and unintelligible, Glasgow accent, especially as it invariably happened as we passed through Ibrox, to actually confront anybody doing so. I’ve done it before in London (getting no support from fellow passengers), and felt better (if rather stressed about it afterwards), but I’m still a bit too green to try it.
However, as my friend Jon pointed out on his “Man on the 73 omnibus” weblog, bus drivers won’t get involved in any trouble, or enforce rules. Drivers in Glasgow do sometimes stop the bus and say something when somebody causes trouble up front. I’m yet to see that regarding smoking - but that may be easier said than done: there’s a problem to be sorted out in that I’ve spotted at least one driver (and suspected others) of smoking whilst driving.
So until existing rules are enforced - either by bus drivers or inspectors - the idea of adding further to the rules of what you can and can’t do on public transport - seems entirely a pointless exercise. Although it does, I think, further demonstrate the Government is currently at something of strange juncture with power shifting in Browns direction….
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November 1st, 2005 at 2:05 pm
you know what they should really ban, is people driving while using mobile phones. I’m always seeing it, and it’s dangerous, and … oh … wait, you were talking about enforcing existing laws…
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:48 am
Hey, careful with the talk about unintelligible Glasgow accents!
Aside from that… Thank God you haven’t complained to anyone about smoking on the bus through Ibrox. Please don’t ever try that. A lot of the people that smoke on buses are not to be so much as looked at, never mind complained to, if you want to go on living. Having said that, you do get some reasonably civilised looking people smoking upstairs on the double deckers - it’s basically seen by a lot of people as the smoking section, despite the no-smoking signs. Take my advice, and stay downstairs if you really want to avoid the smoke - complaining in cases like that really is not worth the risk to your own safety.
This is no doubt the same line of thinking adopted by most of the bus drivers who don’t try to enforce the rules. It’s their job to drive a bus - it’s really not worth putting their life on the line to save other people the discomfort of sitting next to a smoker for a few minutes. Their bus-driver’s uniform isn’t going to offer them any protection from being assaulted. I’ve seen one or two bus drivers in some pretty nasty situations when they have tried to enforce such rules as smoking (or even paying fares). Sometimes with the rule-breakers you’ve just got to look the other way - that’s not a weakness, it’s just sensible.