By Indah Setiawati

Nobody can stand multitudes of crude and rude people, and public transportation is no exception.

Passengers of Transjakarta buses said their comfort and safety were often at stake when others forgot their attitudes.

Miranti, a woman in her 20s, said she found fellow passengers annoying during rush hour.

A regular rider from Transjakarta's Dukuh Atas Dua shelter in Central Jakarta at around 5 p.m., she said she always had to jostle to be first to get into the bus.

"Everybody seems to lose their patience when the bus arrives," she said Sunday.

She said people who were still queuing would also push others who stood in front of them to get closer to the shelter door.

Rude actions including yelling, she said, which was especially predictable when the bus doorman did not allow more passengers to enter the bus.

"They might have been waiting for a long time. But why can't they hold their patience? Don't they know that other passengers in the next shelter are also waiting for the bus?" said Miranti, who said she often lost her nerve due to these attitudes.

Miranti's experience in Dukuh Atas Dua is common in busy shelters, including Harmoni, Senen shelters, in Central Jakarta and Blok M shelter in South Jakarta.

Ganjar Wibowo, another frequent passenger on the Transjakarta buses, said many people still ignored basic attitudes while using public transport.

He said it often happened that people who could not secure a seat stood near the bus' door, making it appear that the bus was crowded though it actually could still load more people in the aisle.

"I still often see young people sit down without a care while an elderly person stands in front of them.

Usually me and my friend will just throw a cynical comment, which most of the time works well to make them sacrifice their comfort," he said.

He said the impatient behavior of those pushing each other gave pickpockets opportunities to take action.

He said a male passenger who took the same bus with him from Senen shelter suddenly exclaimed upon realizing that his mobile phone had been stolen.

"The perpetrator must used the chance when we were boarding to the bus and escaped in the next shelter."

David Tjahjana, the chairman of the Transjakarta Busway User Community, said many people tended to be rude because they were stressed by delays and uncertain timings of arrivals, departures and journeys.

"These people can't be sure that the next bus will come in some minutes," he said.

If such a certainty existed, passengers would be calm as they could predict the time allocation to reach their destination, he said.

David said the late buses had something to do with the unclear busway lanes.

"We have calculated that actually the number of buses are sufficient to cater for the passengers. But buses are often late because their lanes are filled with other vehicles."

During a tour conducted by the Green Map Jakarta on Sunday, David explained the list of attitudes the participants had to remember when taking the Transjakarta busway.

-The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network