Flexibility of New Yorkers

It is turning quickly to autumn here in NY.  Have been busy settling down but it will take quite a while to make the apartment habitable.

I put a title to this as I find Americans are more flexible compared to Japanese and thought it would be interesting to compare the two cultures from this aspect.

[I took a cross town bus from 96th Broadway to the east side in the late afternoon.  Since the cross town bus starts right in front of my building I was able to get a seat.

As the bus made stops towards Central Park it got very crowded. At the Central Part West’s bus stop it just seemed impossible for all the people waiting for the bus to get on. However there was some standing room at the back of the bus where I was seated. So when some  people saw that only the front part of the bus was jammed,  people started to get on to the bus from the rear door which is exclusively for passengers getting off.

I would say there were almost ten people who got away with this which meant they got a free ride. I am not sure whether the driver noticed that people were getting on the bus from the back door but the fact was nobody complained but just seemed to
ignore and the bus started again packed with people.

This is very similar to ignoring the traffic signal when people in NY cross the street. New Yorkers will cross the street even though the light may be red. However they always make sure that there are no cars in sight. People in Japan will wait obediently when the signal is red and wait till it turns green although there may not be any car in sight.