Face it, green might be noble goal in transportation but at this point in time most folks outside major metro areas use mass transit because they can't afford private transit, i.e. their own car. They are often called America's underclass.
I joined them, at least in using mass transit in New Haven, Connecticut, after my car was stolen and that was after it had been towed, ticketed, and hit three times. The universe didn't intend for me to have a car at my current address.
What I have observed on the bus is that, unlike the upper middle class train commute into Manhattan, everyone talks. They talk to each other, across aisles. They talk into cell phones. They talk to themselves.
Is talk the recreation of a disenfranchised socio-economic group? Is it also the mouthings of a class who has nothing to lose by not being guarded? Up the food chain we have become increasingly circumspect as the economy shifted from affluence to scarcity.
For 14 months I have been on the bus. Each of those months I drift more and more into extremely measured conversations. Talk might be the most abused ability of the human race. Give me a bark any time.
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