On occasion (I’m guessing because I tend to have strong opinions in this area), people come to me with questions about bus etiquette. One I receive quite frequently and wish I had an answer to:

If there are a lot of people waiting at a stop, how do you decide the boarding order when the bus arrives? After all, not everyone has the same beliefs about who deserves deference, and (as drivers can attest) politeness isn’t common among folks in a hurry to get where they’re going. It makes sense to have some sort of neutral, bus-boarding system.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any rules (or even generally accepted practices) for boarding buses in Seattle. As far as I can tell, it’s every bus chick for herself. People stare straight ahead so they can pretend they don’t see the other people (old folks included) who are also waiting to get on. When the passive-aggressive tactics don’t work, they often resort to pushing . Those who say no to rudeness usually find themselves at the end of the line.

Some people have suggested that boarding order should be based on order of arrival–the first person to arrive at the stop is the first person to get on the bus. I appreciate the simplicity (and apparent fairness) of this system, but it’s mighty hard to put into practice. People don’t usually line up at bus stops the way they line up to get into a movie, and trying to keep track of who arrived when is too complicated.

The only place I’ve ever seen any kind of boarding system (loose though it may be) is at Montlake Freeway Station, where I wait in the mornings on my way to work. At Montlake, people stake out positions based on where they think the doors will be when the bus stops. This system favors those who get to the stop first, because they tend to choose the best positions, but it doesn’t require people to remember, acknowledge, or defer to those who arrived before them.

Of course, choosing the best position is a challenge in itself. It’s never clear exactly where the bus is going to stop, and even the slightest miscalculation can result in disaster. Then there’s the door dilemma. If you choose a position near the front door, you might have to wait for other passengers to get off, and by the time you get on, all the open seats have been filled by people who waited by the back door. If you choose a position near the back door, you might get one of those drivers who inexplicably refuses to open it (it’s pay as you leave) and find yourself behind all the front-door waiters.

The Montlake system also favors those who are willing (and able) to stand for the entire wait. Come to think of it, there is one constant for bus-awaiters across our fair city: Bench warmers (like yours truly, these days) almost always get on last.

Your turn. Seen any effective systems for crowded-stop boarding? If not, in your ideal world, how would it work?