Although I have a car, I don’t use it often these days. When I was working full-time, I used to sit in the driver’s seat for about 80 minutes every day to go to work and come back home. Since I retired last March, I have been an enthusiastic user of the bus services in the city where I am living. I visit a dentist about once a week by bus; I visit a friend from Australia, who teaches me English, once a week by bus. I enjoy the time when I am sitting on a bus seat.
(Edited)
to sit on the driver’s sea. —> to sit in the driver’s seat
I enjoy the time when sitting on the bus seat. —> I enjoy the time when I am sitting on a bus seat.
I’ve had my free bus pass for a number of years now and occasionally make trips to Brighton (after 9.30 once the pass is valid), they have a fairly good library there and the beach is only a minute or two away. As the trip takes 90 minutes each way, I can get a lot of listening and/or reading done. Unfortunately, I am not the only little old lady wanting to go to the seaside for free. I quite often have to “invite” younger people to offer their seat to someone who looks old and frail. By that I mean some of the other little old ladies, not me!
You must like your dentist to go on a weekly visit. I adore mine (a lovely Dane), but I do draw the line at visiting him or his equally lovely Danish dental partner once every six months.
The minute I post my reply there’ll be people coming in with lots of wonderful links, so I shan’t bother:) I’ll just write how I would use sit in and sit on:
I sit in the seat I am offered. I sit on a stool, a chair, a bench or a bean bag. I sit in my armchair. I like to sit on the armrest. “Please, sit on the sofa, not on there, it is a Louis IX chair!!!” In a taxi I sit in the back, but not on the driver’s side. With friends I sit in the front in the passenger seat. I prefer to drive myself, though. I like being in the driver’s seat. (This is not a metaphor as to how I would like to lead my life).
I use different words in English to talk about these concepts.
When I lived 2 miles from work, I would say “I drove to work” or “my daily drive is five minutes”.
When I was driving more like 150 miles a day, I then referred to the hours I spent driving back and forth to work as “my daily commute”. Or my “carpool” because I brought people with me and let them help pay for gas.
For buses I refer to them as “public transportation” in more general terms, and “mass transit” more along the lines of replacing commuting in a car. When I was younger, I did use mass transit to get to work. I’d only use “I ride the bus” in terms of the immediate action that day. Like if I was invited to an after hours event with coworkers, I might have to explain … I ride the bus and getting to that end of town is too time consuming. Thanks, but no thanks.
Grinning here:)
I sit on the bus, but I sit in my bus seat. I’ve used public transport all my life. My new high-schooler uses the bus service. I tell my kids to sit on their chair at home, but to sit and stay in their bus seat (when I need to be firm).
If I have to use a taxi, I always sit next to the driver (unless my young son is with me, as I have to keep him restrained). Most of the taxi drivers here are Indian or Pakistani. I hate the feeling of being “chauffeured”! Plus I like to chat to the driver as an equal. Just my idiosyncrasy :)~ (Nothing wrong with sitting in the back seat)