Um... Move, Dummy

The crowd on my first morning bus usually thins before it gets to my stop, and today is no exception. Perhaps a dozen riders remain on the bus, including a young native man in a wheelchair, with his right foot bound in a heavy cast.

He is in the wheelchair-friendly spot up front. Seeing his next bus ahead of ours, he asks the driver to signal to that bus to wait for him at the next stop. The driver obliges and honks his horn, the unofficial sign bus drivers in Winnipeg use to make that request. Ah, we live in such an amazingly advanced technological world.

But the other driver doesn't hear the horn, or ignores it if he does, and pulls away before the young man has a chance to disembark.

"Maybe at the next stop," the driver calls out, over his shoulder.

At the next stop, the light turns red and both buses stop. There should now be ample time for him to get off this one and reach the next one.

But as the doors open, a young white man, ears stuck in iPod oblivion, boards the bus just as the wheelchair-bound native man advances to the front door. There isn't more than 2 inches to spare on either side of the wheelchair, and yet this new passenger somehow expects the chair to slide sideways to make room for him to pass.

They face off like this for several seconds. The white man is gazing stupidly, looking much like a lab rat stuck at a dead end in a maze. Suddenly I feel hungry for cheese.

Eventually he tries to back into the corner at the driver's seat and the fare deposit box, but he is really having a hard time understanding the laws of fitting into places - the chair still cannot pass; any 3 year old could see this.

Finally the bus driver states the obvious. "You're going to have to get off the bus." Reluctantly, the man obeys and backs off. The wheelchair ramp extends and the native man thankfully makes it onto his connecting bus without further incident.

Somewhat sheepishly, the white man boards the bus again after the ramp is retracted and makes a beeline for the back.

What an idiot.

There's my stop.