Dislike of public transport (response)

(posted by Simon Baddeley in the carfree_cities list)
Nice thoughts, good practice. Power to your elbows, Debra.

You made me recall the moment described my Gaskell when a worker's
representative in Mary Barton realises that one of the people to whom
they are making a plea has been sketching them!

I bet you'd find a publisher for a book called "in transit". Otherwise
keep collecting the incidents. Make two or three line notes on each
with date and place and your memory and imagination can expand and
connect them later. Did I tell you about the time I was taken off a
train in Birmingham New Street by Transport Police for attempting to
incite passengers on an overcrowded train not to pay a first class
supplement after they'd found seat there. I didn't have to pay my
fare and eventually the company gave up after I'd begged them to take
me to court - something the better off can afford to risk.
Or shall I describe the time a few weeks ago when I entered a train
carrying a scythe (folded) after attending a scything course in
Somerset - what a theme for opening conversations with immediate
ribaldry about "grim reapers".

Or the time when I had a very smelly camembert or was it Chaum or
stinking Bishop on a journey from Paddington to Newbury.

Or the time on the train from NY to Philadelphia when a blind man sold
me a Braille guide on a ticket sized piece of cardboard and I showed
it to the inspector by mistake while continuing to read my book and he
started signing to me and I thought he'd gone mad...