I read this article about a woman on a crowded New York train who had put her bag on the seat next to her and had refused to move it to let somebody else sit down, all because she wanted her ‘personal space’.

This reminded me that come hell or high water, I will never travel again on the free shuttle bus that is provided for hospital workers who have to park their cars in a rugby club a mile away because there are not enough spaces on the main site.

When I do work at the hospital (I currently work from home) I usually park my car at the rugby club and walk. The majority of workers refuse to walk and crowd around the bus stop to be first on and grab a seat. A couple of times over the past 12 years since the shuttle bus has been in use I have got on the bus when the weather has been really bad, but if I ever go back to working in one of the offices I will carry on walking to work despite everything that Mother Nature might throw at me.

And why? Because of the selfish people who travel in it. On the two occasions when I have boarded the bus, I have seen everybody sitting in a window seat with their bag on the seat next to them and headphones in their ears. They all stare down at their phones and pretend that they cannot see me walking up the middle aisle looking for a spare seat. At one point I had to ask somebody to move their bag so that I could sit down. There was silence as they tried to ignore my question, and so I asked again. I heard an audible sigh as they snatched their bag away and put it on their lap. I then soon picked up on negative vibes from some of the normal bus users, and I even heard a conversation nearby where one person complained to another in a voice loud enough for me to hear how the bus becomes too overcrowded in bad weather.

From my point of view I felt like picking up the bag blocking the seat and chucking it out of the door. Thankfully the journey only takes about five minutes if traffic is light, but these selfish and seasoned bus users quickly turned me off of travelling on it again for good. Apparently they are all entitled to their own personal space, and to hell with people like me who usually walk.

It’s been lovely since December. I’ve been working at home and haven’t needed to fight with an umbrella blowing inside out or arrive at work soaked to the skin. I will do it all over again though if they ever need me to go back and work at the hospital. Some things, like travelling on a bus full of selfish people, you just don’t want to repeat.