First, as a rider of ‘public transportation’ since 1993, when I wrecked my ‘money hole car’, I believe I can make the following observations, based on riding that transit in NY, OR, and LA (y’allsville, not Los Angeles):
1. the actual size of the seat has declined with each new bus design, in the city purchaser’s eyes to get more people on each vehicle, eeither light rail or bus.
2. there has never been actual measurements for the broadening of the glutemus maximus of the women who have been riding the same bus and light rail, and who are, ahem, forced, to take public transit, because they cannot afford a vehicle, yet can afford all those bags of empty calories they drag on the bus with them after shopping at Wal-Mart and the like, and expect to place on the seat next to them, because ‘gawd forbod’ they have to bend over to pick them up.
3. In the design of those seat, and the women who flow over them, they expect EVERYBODY to sit like Forrest Gump! To the lady who decided to raise this ruckus:
I got three things that you ain’t never gonna have, nor by writing this, ever gonna git, and the shrinking size of those seats, and the broadening of those females i have watched for all those years, makes it downright difficult, cramped, and I dare say, an invasion of my ‘personal space’!
You’re right about the size of the seats, but it isn’t always that people are fatter in this country. People might not be fat, but maybe they have broad shoulders or just a wider body in general — such as a football player. I don’t know about elsewhere, but most of our local buses are built in Japan where people tend to be more compact.