The Joy and Freedom of Transit Stations

First written on 2021/04/24 07:76 (metric, UTC-4) in Kitchener, ON, CAN

I love riding public transportation and I love spending time in public transit stations. 

I'd say sitting in an airport or train station or coasting along looking out the window of an airplane or train or bus is the one of the most relaxing settings I've experienced in life (I'm serious).

You're so constrained that you're free. You're not in control of whether the ride is going to be late or not and you're not in control of getting the vehicle to where in needs to go all you can do is trust that it is going to where it says it is and that is in the operator's best interest to get everyone on the vehicle as quickly and safely and comfortably as possible. 

You don't have to worry about anything. There's no point in worrying about anything because there's nothing you can do about anything outside of the vehicle; you can get off at specified stops but there's nothing you can do to change the direction of the vehicle or stop it. 

It's so relaxing, it's so freeing; I've never found a better place to get lost in a good book than on a multi-hour plane or train ride. 

And somehow sitting in a moving vehicle makes watching TV shows or movies more enjoyable. You aren't subjected to the feelings of guilt or anxiety related to procrastination and unproductiveness that you sometimes feel when at home and you're binging screen-based entertainment.

You're just another person, everyone's equal when you're on public transit. It's so interesting being together, sharing space, sharing experiences with people you would never be with otherwise; everyone's going somewhere different, everyone's going through their own life experiences, everyone has different reasons for travelling but everyone's on the same vehicle, everyone's sitting in the same kind of seats, everyone's hearing the same safety announcements, stop notifications, being served or offered the same kind of food or refreshments. 

It's a great catalyst for meaningful, interesting conversation - I've heard a number of amazing life stories of people I would never expect to talk to on long bus or train rides. Public transit is the great equalizer. It's beautiful.

There's a sense of universality to the experience; every station or airport has some common features but that also allows for a location's culture to be put on display through the variations in a station's design or the kind of art and hospitality that is displayed at a station.

Lots of negative emotions are felt at public transit stations from my experience: impatience, stress, sleepiness, hunger, worry (that you will miss you're ride or lose something). But with this comes the opportunity for relief of these negative emotions, services or acts of hospitality sometimes in surprising ways. 

One time I had a 6-hour layover at the Detroit Greyhound station. I was pretty exhausted from the travelling I'd done that day already and I hadn't eaten much - I was getting pretty hungry. I heard a group of people travelling together talking about ordering some pizzas to get delivered to the station. I was pretty jealous. I didn't have enough American cash left to even buy anything from the vending machine. But I went back to reading the book I was reading and didn't think much of it.

An hour or two later, with the sun now down outside and my expected bus departure time delayed for another three hours, I sat reflecting on the experience I had had on this trip and still felt a bit of misery and frustration about my situation. I saw a guy walking by holding a pizza box, one of the group who had ordered it earlier. 

I assumed it was empty but then he casually looked around at the group of people sitting in my section of the terminal and calmly asked "Anyone want some pizza? I'm going to throw it out." I looked around no one was saying anything and he seemed to be asking just out of courtesy to not feel guilty about throwing out good food but I pounced on the opportunity: "I'll take it!"

It was a large, BBQ chicken pizza with pepperoni. Why would someone throw this out? I inhaled a couple pieces but then I looked around and thought - there must be others who would like some that didn't have the guts to step up and admit it. 

So I walked around the seating area asking people directly if they wanted some. The first couple people declined but then I got to a man with a scruffy beard and a ball cap on and he said "Sure, I'm really hungry actually."

I ended up sitting up sitting beside this man for over an hour. We ate the pizza and discussed our life situations, why we were where we were. He was headed back to his home state of California. He was a truck driver but had been laid off because he didn't make his delivery on time despite putting in 12-hour days on the road. He cursed and complained about the lack of empathy of the employer and horrible working conditions he was subject to. 

We also got into an in-depth discussion of our religious beliefs - at the time I was reading Shane Claiborne and was deeply engulfed in the modelling my life after Jesus philosophy - it made for an interesting discussion. He also talked about some relationship issues with his ex-wife and his family but he was looking forward to going back home and seeing his brother.

"Normally", "regular". These words are part of the historical etymology of the word "station". Stations seem normal, seem regular, seem like everyday places but they are full of life, stories, emotions, people of an irregular nature.

Vancouver, Ottawa, London ON, Paris FR, Toronto, Mississauga, Kitchener, Reykjavík, Detroit, Kalamazoo, Houston, San Antonio, Toledo, Winnipeg, Calgary, Montreal, Chicago, Huntsville, Vaughan - locations of stations I've spent long periods of times at - some I've even slept at.

Where will the next stop be?