<story><title>A beautiful, broken America: what I learned on a 2,800-mile bus ride</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/jul/26/america-roadtrip-greyhound-bus</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>gottorf</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a good read. Even over 15 years ago, as a newcomer to this country, I found Greyhound rides to be fascinating, while certainly not being well-run by any stretch of the imagination. And it does expose you to parts of American society that those on the right-hand side of the distribution don&amp;#x27;t often see.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; something I saw repeatedly: the exclusion of those without smartphones or credit cards. The cashless society appears to be winning.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “As of 25 January 2023 – you will need photo ID to buy tickets.” Yet another barrier between those with little money, no fixed address, no car, no passport or credit card and their ability to travel.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m in favor of retaining (both legally as well as culturally) cash as a medium of exchange, as well as maintaining and restoring a high-trust, cohesive society where most private transactions don&amp;#x27;t require showing one&amp;#x27;s papers.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, powerful forces are against both. Cash transactors have long been treated with suspicion by authorities, and the coming age of CBDC will further demean what it even means to have money. And the security state continues to impose one checkpoint after another on civil society, which I have no doubt was behind Greyhound&amp;#x27;s policy on requiring ID.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d certainly vote for a congressperson that would take action on either of those matters.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Greyhound stations now often close between buses to keep homeless people out – yet another communal space closed to those without the money to access private spaces&lt;p&gt;Greyhound stations shouldn&amp;#x27;t also need to be homeless shelters, and it seems like smart business to spare paying customers from the antisocial, erratic behavior exhibited by many homeless people. This seems like a strange ding on Greyhound.</text></comment>
<story><title>A beautiful, broken America: what I learned on a 2,800-mile bus ride</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/jul/26/america-roadtrip-greyhound-bus</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>RandallBrown</author><text>I took a long greyhound trip from Los Angeles to the small border town of Lordsburg New Mexico as part of a longer trip from Seattle.&lt;p&gt;It was awful.&lt;p&gt;The trip started off &lt;i&gt;okay&lt;/i&gt;. The Greyhound station in LA isn&amp;#x27;t in a super nice part of town and it was pretty run down and dirty. There were probably about 15 of us on the bus at first and we had plenty of room to spread out and put our luggage on the seats.&lt;p&gt;Eventually we kept picking up more people and by the time we got to San Bernardino, the bus was full and people would need to move their luggage. This was at about 1 am and the people getting on without seats were ANGRY. I thought several fights were going to break out but luckily none did. The driver didn&amp;#x27;t speak very good English so he wasn&amp;#x27;t super useful in helping with the conflict.&lt;p&gt;All through the night about a dozen people were watching movies or playing games on their phone &lt;i&gt;with the sound on.&lt;/i&gt; There was also a pair of kittens someone had that meowed quite a bit. Lots of talking all night long as well.&lt;p&gt;Every few hours we would stop for gas or a rest break. On one of the longer legs people started complaining that they needed to stop and smoke. Every stop people would rush off the bus and light up immediately.&lt;p&gt;We stopped in Tucson to switch busses but due to the driver&amp;#x27;s poor English and most people&amp;#x27;s misunderstanding of the bus schedule, I somehow became the only person that could answer the questions like &amp;quot;Why are we stopping? Why are we changing busses? How long do we have to wait?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The lady that sat next to me had a giant pillow covered in stains. She was a nice lady, but clearly was having a pretty rough go of it. Most of the people on the bus seemed like that.&lt;p&gt;Eventually we got to my destination and the stop was a McDonalds in town. The driver gave everyone time to get off the bus and get some food. A homeless man with no shoes got off and was asking people in the McDonalds line if they could buy him a coffee. I bought him a whole breakfast before walking straight to the Comfort Inn next door and booking a room to finally get some sleep and take a shower.&lt;p&gt;It was an interesting experience, but I would never do something like that again if I didn&amp;#x27;t have to. I had originally booked a train all the way from Seattle. My train from LA to Lordsburg got canceled and I needed to scramble to make it to my destination. The first leg of the train trip was delightful.</text></comment>