Bus wars

Why do people on public buses refuse to move to the back of the bus when they are standing up? Clearly, it must occur in some part of their self-centered brains that anyone else who gets on the bus is also going to have to stand up. And simple laws of science and space (think one of those school math problems: if a farmer has a plot of land that is 4 ft. by 4 ft. and he wants to plant x number of trees....) dictate that there will not be enough room on this front portion of the bus for all of the future passengers. With this common knowledge, it seems simply human courtesy to move as far back in the bus as you can to allow room for anyone else who gets on. Yet, without fail when I get on a full bus, I have to maneuver through all the people in the front to find a space to stand. This game of pinball gets irritating. Sometimes I just want to yell out, "Why won't you people move to the back! Don't you know that more and more people are going to get on here? Where do you think they are going to stand you idiots?" Or even worse, when there are so many people standing in the front that you try to get on the bus and you can barely fit. You have to squeeze your body against all the other passengers just to stay behind the yellow line. And you can see as you look through the clustered mass of people that there is a large empty space at the back of the bus. Whenever I see this, I long to be there, but sometimes the other passengers have kept me from reaching this oasis of space. It's not like there isn't a door in the back of the bus as well. I just don't get it and I would like someone to tell me why. Why are we living in such a self-centered society that we prefer to cause others difficulty rather than give up our so-called "prime real estate?"