London is a city of rules. From riding the tube to walking along the street, there are signs everywhere telling you how you should behave. It seems that in a city the size of London, such signs are inevitable in order to keep society in check.
It was a rainy Friday evening, on the last day of February, and the bus was making its way through the winding streets of the city. The windows were fogged up and it was close to impossible to distinguish which part of the city we were in, except for the occasional light from shop fronts. The bus was quickly filling up and there were no empty seats left on the top. The lower deck had to be filling up too because the familiar announcement of “please move down inside the bus” was being played at every stop. A man had wondered up onto the upper deck and decided to stand there, no doubt because it was too crowded on the lower deck.
“No standing on the upper deck or stairs please”, came the recorded announcement.
The man looked around. The bus had stopped and the announcement had clearly been directed at him. He decided to ignore it and a few seconds later came the announcement again.
“No standing on the upper deck or stairs please”.
People sitting on the upper deck began looking around to see who was causing the delay. Feeling the stares from people around him, the man did something that must have surprised the entire bus.
He sat down in the aisle of the upper deck.
Someone started laughing and a few people joined in. Here, on the upper deck of a London bus, was someone taking the recorded announcements literally and in his own way, fighting the system. He was no longer standing on the upper deck, but sitting on the floor.
“No standing on the upper deck or stairs please”, the announcement came again. Yet the man would not budge. He was determined to stay.
“Closed circuit television is in operation on this bus”. The bus driver, using the limited recordings at his disposal, was determined to get the man off the upper deck before he would drive off again. Still refusing to move, the original recording of “no standing on the upper deck or stairs please” began playing repeatedly.
At this point people were starting to feel annoyed. Someone shouted “friend, he’s not going to move until you get down”. A few others chorused in, some watched in amusement, while others just appeared bored. Finally, the man got up and slowly walked down the stairs.
This amusing incident highlighted the interaction between the city and its occupants. Cities require a certain set of guidelines to ensure safety, tolerance and livability. Yet the tools in which such messages are conveyed often leave room for interpretation. How this message is interpreted lies at the discretion of the people and results in intriguing interactions with the city.
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