women and the bus
My daily bus, bus #902, has a high female-to-male ratio, maybe about 10-to-1 or 15-to-1.
For a couple weeks I thought about how all the ladies must be completely in love with me.
But then I began thinking about why there might be such a ratio. My best guess is something along these lines: in Taiwan it’s more common for a couple or family to have one (or no) cars than two. Because of the norms, the husband would be seen as the one that “needs” the car so the wife is left to take the bus.
Some families, I’m sure, have a car and a scooter–there are scooters everywhere here–but a lot of the companies along the bus route tend toward white-collar and I’m not sure how much people ride scooters in business dress, so I think the bus is perhaps a preferable option.
Either that or the bus has a sign that says “females only” and I just can’t read it because it’s in Chinese.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:16 am
When I lived in Northern Virginia, I was often the only Anglo* on the bus, which was weird, after riding the bus in Pittsburgh, where everyone rides. It’s interesting how the bus can be an indication of the particular sociology of an area.
*mostly the riders were Hispanic women.