我左手拿叉右手拿刀，将生活慢慢享用

It is the rush hour before school. Your heartbeat accelerates with exuberance as the bus that you have been waiting for finally approaches the bus stop. However, you notice that the front of the bus is packed with people, squashing into each other and into the glass panels of the bus. Oh no, you murmur, as the familar ominous feeling rises again. Indeed, the bus finally reaches the stop... and zoom pass it. As your heart sinks and you come to acceptance with the fact that you will afterall be late, you realise that the back of the bus was practically empty, with only a few people standing far apart from each other. Frustration and anger now fills your chest....

You wake up fifteen minutes earlier than usual on a monday morning, hoping to get to school earlier in order to prepare for a class test that you have not finished studying the day before. You are lucky and the bus come quickly. As the bus moves from stop to stop, more and more people board the bus. You sense that the bus is moving slower and slower as the clock ticks away. People are taking such a long time to get onto the bus that you are getting annoyed why they are not moving a little faster. How hard can it be to get onto a bus any way, it is at most three stairs. Nevertheless, the bus seems to spend a eternity at each bus stop before moving on.

Finally, you arrive in school, having used up all the extra time that you are suppose to have for studying on transport. You grumble about having sacrificed your precious sleep time for nothing and drag your feet to the central plaza as the assembly bell rings....

Have you ever experienced the above, or any similar unpleasant experience with traveling in a crowded bus before?

A crowded bus is often like the outcome of a density-gradient centrifugation - with a diffusion gradient that never reaches the equilibrium. This bewildered me. It seems strangely unnatural that people at the front door remain squashed while others at the rear of the bus are standing shoulder width apart. Shouldn't people have the natural instinct to space out as far as possible?

Having been squashed for a very long at the front door, people who finally moved further into the bus may think that they ought to have some fresh air now. It might be subconsicous predeposition of the idea that it should get more spacious as one moves further into the bus that make some lose the awareness that there is still the need to move in and stay close to the people further inside to make more space for the ones that follows. (perhaps we are not comfortable with getting close to a stranger unless absolutely necessary as well?) Or could it simply be another demonstration of the old adage 'out of sight out of mind'? Once the person move far from the front door where they are directly engaged in the struggle of others to get onto the bus, or when there is the need to get onto the bus themselves, they will indeed squeeze to make way. Yet, once they managed to get to the back of the bus, all of these are out of their concerns?

No matter what, moving to the rear of the bus and make as much space as possible at the front of the bus is perhaps the wisest thing a traveller can do. Just think of all the benefits. If everyone adopt this habit, obiviously more people can get onto the bus and there will be less congestion at the front of the bus. If everyone move towards the back, it will be easier for people to get onto the bus as there will be more room at the front of the bus for them to do so. This will greatly reduce the time the bus spends at each bus-stop. Imagine just saving 5 secs at each bus-stop and if it takes you about 25 stops to get to your destination, it will be 2 minutes and 5 seconds saved (more for the really crowded days)!! Oh yes, and there will definitely be less work for the driver in terms of shouting across the bus for people to move, and of course less of this unpleasant reminder early in the morning to start off your day (especially of the driver isn't using a kind tone). Now consider the draw backs of moving to the back. Oki perhaps it is a bit more difficult to get out later, but surely there isn't much of anything else.

Well, it seems that the above benefits will only apply if everyone on the bus co-operates. I have always tried to move as fast in as possible on bus. It is particularly funny when i try move to the back of the bus but the rest of the people along the way barely move a inch, they merely shift forth or backward a inch or so to let me pass. Interestingly yet unsurprisingly, i find myself comfortaby finding a place at the back of the bus without anyone having to 'purposely' make a space. Well, the effect of one person shifting to the back may be minimal, however positive outcomes can already be observed. One thing is that the rest people squashed at the front will at least have a extra space for one person. This can mean that one less person need to miss the bus or at least the people squeeshing at the front door need no longer be in the back to face position. (to think about the volume of one person, dividing it up actually gives quite a bit of space)

Anyway, my point is MOVE no matter what. It is good for you, the next person getting onto the bus and the whole bunch of them gasping for air at the front. If no one starts to 'move it', no improvements can be made to our traveling condition. Who knows, it might turn out to have a cascade amplification effect such that everyone else along the bus are reminded to 'move' once someone initiates it. :D