An enthusiastic user of the bus services

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.

Lucky you to get a 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.

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I assume you posted this for correction, if not please ignore.

  1. sit in the driver’s seat (not on), but we would normally just say “drive”
  2. user of the bus service is probably more common than services, but we normally just say “bus rider”
  3. sitting in the bus seat (not on), but we would normally say “riding the bus”
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Tha’s hilarious, indeed!

Do you sit “in” the bus seat or “on” the bus seat? Does it depend on the shape of the seat?

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).

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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.

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Where I’m from, it’s “in a bus seat”; doesn’t depend on shape

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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)

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