The Joy and Pain of Public Transport

Using the public transport system is the frequent way I convey myself from one place to another, as I don't have a vehicle of my own, and using this medium can sometimes be fun and, on other occasions, annoying. I've experienced both, and when I look at how some of the worst experiences are, I just find myself wishing I had a vehicle to convey myself from one destination to another so I won't have to experience such again, and in this article I'll be telling about some of my worst and best experiences of using the public transport system.

The experience I'll be sharing for both the best and worst experiences will revolve around my journey to the north. I remember about eight years ago when I traveled from Lagos down to Yobe State, Nigeria, by land using public transport. The vehicle I boarded was an eighteen-seater bus where we had to squeeze each other four on a seat, and the boot of the vehicle was loaded with luggage of the passengers, making it impossible to close the boot of the bus, as most of the bags were tied with rope to the bus as we began the journey.

If I had known how long the journey would take, I probably would not have sat where I sit in the bus; neither would I even want to journey with them given all that happened during the journey. First, immediately after we moved, the vehicle exhaust started smoking and formed into the car. leading to having blurry eyes, difficulty in opening my eyes, and inhaling toxic gas throughout the almost 37-hour journey, and that's not forgetting how uncomfortable I was with the tight space in the bus and how four of us managed the place that ought to only accommodate 3 passengers.

To make matters worse, the road is very bad with many potholes on our way, and the drivers speed into them without considering how it affects those of us at the back. Each time he runs into a pothole, given how tall I am, I find the effect lifting me up, and I hit my head on the roof of the bus when we complain without significant changes. I had to rest my head on the front seat throughout the remaining part of the journey to avoid the same thing recurring. Overall, I really regretted entering that, and it stood tall as one of my worst experiences in public transport.

After that particular experience, I've traveled from Lagos to other northern states, and it's always a bad experience, but one particular one changed my opinion and lived on to become one of my best experiences in public transport. Then I was based in Kano State, and one of my friends wanted to get married. Since I'm one of his men in a suit, I had to travel down to Lagos to attend the event, and when looking for a bus, I was lucky to see all those luxury buses, like coaches commonly used to travel to the eastern part of Nigeria, that were going to Lagos.

journey in that bus from Kano to Lagos was premium comfort. I didn't even know how time passed despite the fact that we spent around 18 hours on the road. The seat was comfortable with enough space to stretch my feet, a headrest, and each seat even has individual charging ports to charge your devices on the go, not forgetting that it's fully air-conditioned throughout the journey and has a mini television to entertain us as we journey down to Lagos. Given the height of the bus, I didn't feel the impact of the bus entering any potholes; in fact, I slept for most of the journey and was surprised when I overheard amidst my sleep that some people had already gotten to their destination and wanted to alight from the bus. That's when I realized they'd passed my stop a few minutes ago.

I didn't mind the fact that I was taken a little ahead of my destination, I step down all comfortable and ready to do anything, unlike other journeys that'll leave me tired and wanting to just sleep for hours to rejuvenate.

All photos are mine.