Commuting in an Introvert's Paradise Print
Sunday, 17 June 2007
The daily commute.  Of the hard-to-avoid necessities of so-called civilized life, this is the one that grates the most.  In the morning it is an un-enjoyable trip, started at a time when you would rather be asleep, to take you to a place you would prefer not to be. The commute home is even worse. It is like an obstacle course has been set up between where you are and where you desperately want to be, and you have no choice but to scramble over every wall and slog through every mud pit to get there. There are some blessed individuals who are able to walk or ride a bike to work. But these modes of transportation require a certain proximity to your place of employment, as well as a level of physical fitness, that is not attainable or sustainable by many people.

But I am happy to report that I have found my road to commuting nirvana, and that road is traveled by bus. It is quite simple: commuting by bus is an introvert's paradise.

To explain this, I will have to define what it means to be an introvert. Yes, I am an introvert. This does not mean that I am shy, nor does it mean I have poor social skills, nor am I a lousy speaker. Introverts are people who are more concerned with the inner world of their own mind than the external world of others, to the extent that they find interacting with others to be a draining experience. So although an extrovert will find interacting with other people an energizing experience and will want more and more of the same, an introvert will need to follow social interaction with time alone. I find that for every hour I spend socializing, I need at least another hour to myself. I will lock myself in the bathroom, if necessary, to get it.

What does any of this have to do with commuting by bus? It sounds backwards. How could being packed on a vehicle with dozens of other people possibly be an introvert's paradise? It sound more like Introvert Hell. However, the fact is that on a bus almost everybody is an introvert. You might be surrounded by people, but you can take comfort in the fact that not a single one of them is going to talk to you. This leaves you free to read a book, do a crossword or sudoku puzzle, read the newspaper, listen to music, catch up on some paperwork, sleep, or just sit and think.

Compare this to commuting by car. Nothing is more mind numbing than navigating rush-hour traffic. In a car you can try to entertain yourself by listening to music or an audio book, but there is no escaping the fact that sitting in a traffic jam is the equivalent of mental limbo. It is boring enough to let your mind wander, but requires enough concentration that you cannot productively do much else. The result is a tendency to dwell on the problems of the day and generally work yourself into a tizzy. It is almost the opposite of relaxation.

When riding a bus, on the other hand, your are free to completely concentrate on the task at hand, leaving all the traffic troubles to be handled by the bus driver. On a bus I can get so absorbed in my chosen task that I am sometimes sorry to arrive at my destination. In the morning, I tend to read the newspaper, get started on a crossword puzzle, and get through a chapter or two of whatever book I happen to be reading. I might also review some documents or software designs for work. In the afternoon, I complete the crossword I started in the morning, read some more of my book, or maybe just fall asleep. I arrive home relaxed and refreshed, recharged after a long day of social interactions at work.

Of course, there are some caveats. First, on the bus you must have a seat. It is hard to read a book or do a crossword puzzle when your hands are occupied just keeping you on your feet. Second, almost as important, there must be no long wait times. Riding a bus might be relaxing, but waiting for one is not. It is important to know the schedule of your bus, in order to avoid long periods spent standing around at a bus stop. This assumes, of course, that the bus will on schedule. It is an unfortunate coincidence that many of the things that make buses late (such as rain, snow, and freezing cold temperatures) also make waiting for buses a miserable experience.

Then there is the bane of the introvert bus rider's existence: the incompetent extrovert. Most people, even some mild examples of extroverts, do not talk on buses. When you are going to be stuck sitting with somebody for the next half hour or so, striking up a conversation can be a dangerous thing to do. Unless you can keep the conversation going until the end of the bus ride, you end up in a stale-mate of awkward silence. You won't be able to return to your introverted activity (your book or the newspaper), because that would be rude, but you won't have anything to talk about either. A dead conversation is a good bus ride ruined. Most people instinctively know this. The incompetent extrovert, however, will strike up a conversation about almost anything, reveling at the good fortune of having a captive audience. So instead of, say, enjoying another chapter from the latest Harry Potter novel you are instead forced to listen to a detailed description of the feeding habits of some stranger's year-old Siamese cat, to the point where given the opportunity you would cheerful throttle them both.

The dangers of the incompetent extrovert are not to be under estimated. But you have some defenses. The book or newspaper is, unfortunately, an ineffective shield, easily blasted away by incompetent extrovert's garden to his take yesterday's weather. It can completely backfire with the simple question "Hey! What are you reading?" An mp3 player, preferably an iPod, can do wonders. Even if you you are not listening to anything, just stick in the ear buds. On or off buses, nothing says fuck off and leave me alone more effectively than an iPod.

Another defense is to cultivate a bus-friend. A bus-friend is somebody who rides the same bus as you who you regularly sit next to and engage in some idle chit-chat, and who will also not be insulted when you start ignoring them. This thwarts the incompetent extrovert, but because of the aforementioned dangers of striking up conversations on the bus, finding a bus-friend can be difficult. The safest place to start up a conversation is at the bus stop (if the conversation dies, you can always lose one another when the bus arrives) or a few minutes before you arrive at your destination. If you hit it off, you and your bus-friend will every day be safe from unnecessary conversation for the duration of the commute, as long as you can keep your schedules synchronized.

If you are an introvert armed with a book, an iPod, a bus-schedule, and a bus-friend, you will have all the tools available to enjoy a happy, relaxing, and productive commute. What are you waiting for? Hop on the bus and experience paradise.