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During my "tour of duty" in West Los Angeles, I usually rode the bus to work and to some shopping. This was for about 6 years. Even if the bus ridership in Los Angeles/Santa Monica can range from the nicest people on earth all the way to screaming nut-cases that should be locked up...there was only one time I got off the bus because of one of the other passengers. An fellow that had a cough that made me wonder if he was going to hurl up a piece of lung. OK, call me prejudiced, but he at least looked like about a million other day laborers from Mexico that inhabit the city.

I noticed other riders moving away from him when seats opened up...
and I just got off the bus at the first available stop.
And waited about 20 minutes for the next bus.

People are always talking about Bird Flu and the like- I'm more concerned about an influx of uninoculated persons bringing back diseases most Americans assume have been wiped out. You have an additional problem of alot of those people being relatively uneducated and ignorant about disease prevention, and living in very crowded conditions.