TEN RULES OF ETIQUETTE IN THE JEEPNEY

If you want to ride the jeepney, either because you want to experience it, or because you have no choice, be aware that the jeepney is a community, and as a community, there are rules. Follow these rules and the jeepney ride will be a more comfortable one.  Neglect them and run the risk of getting into a verbal sparring with a pesky passenger.  And that passenger could be me.

(Photography by Luster Lai, used with permission)

First Rule:  Sit up straight.  You are in the jeepney; not in your living room; not in your bedroom.  So refrain from stretching your legs too much; someone might step on them.  You may not only get a sore leg, somebody might trip and punch you in the nose. Put your back against the back rest, not on the arm of the person sitting next to you.  Moreover, the jeepney is made to seat as many as possible; so move as much as you can to accommodate the other passengers.  There will be more passengers seated if you sit up straight.  If it is the rush hour, and you know when that is, please do not sit diagonally, because when you do, you deny the other passengers a chance to be seated properly.  This rule has a sub-rule:  Do not cross the imaginary line. When you sit, imagine that you are sitting inside a box: you can only move your arms, legs, and body up to a certain point.  Otherwise, you will be encroaching on the personal space of other people.  The fact that it is public transportation does not take away a person’s right to his personal space.  Do not intrude on that space.  For instance, do not place your feet where your neighbor is supposed to put his.  I have seen a lot of passengers put their baggage on the floor in between their feet, thus pushing their feet out and making them rest on the space that should be for the feet of their neighbor.  Place your bag on your lap, or if there is a space under the seat, put it there.  If there are no other options available, tell the driver or the conductor that you will be paying for an extra seat.

Second Rule:  Take a bath before you leave your house.  It is going to be a long ride, so it would be more comfortable for all if you do not stink.  A short trip to the shower will do well for all of the commuters taking the ride with you.  There is no need to soak in bath salts and all those expensive stuff.  A few minutes of soap and water will do just fine.  And since you’ve already bathed, you might as well put on some freshly-washed clothes, or all of that body scrubbing will be for naught.

Third Rule:  Do not put your arm behind your neighbor.  Especially if your neighbor is a young lady and you are a guy; the young lady might not want people to think that you are her boyfriend.  She might not also want you to touch her.  Many people, in order to ease the crowded atmosphere, put their arm on the railing behind the back rest.  But this action will cause the arm of that person to touch the back of the person seated beside him. Also, by the time that the jeepney is full, you will be sweating buckets, and your neighbor surely would not want a share of your body fluids.  Yuck!  Yes, the jeepney is crowded and it is impossible not to touch anybody.  But an arm behind one’s back is just too intimate for comfort and people do not like that.  Unless you are Brad Pitt or Leonardo di Caprio.  In that case, go ahead; put your arm behind my back.

Fourth Rule:  Say “Please” and “Thank You.”  Jeepneys usually have conductors who collect the fare.  If there is none, you give the fare to the driver.  But because the jeepney is a crowded long vehicle, it might not be possible for either the driver or the conductor to collect your fare personally.  People most often give the fare to their neighbor who passes on the money until it reaches the conductor or the driver.  But I have often seen people who pass on the money to their neighbor without even saying a word, as if it was that person’s obligation to receive it.  No, no, no.  Say “Please” nicely.  And thank the person who receives your fare.  It is good for you.

Fifth Rule:  Stand by your things.   The jeepney is a very accommodating mode of transportation:  most often we do not pay for baggage.  Unless you are bringing with you a very big bag—or construction materials (they happen)—your baggage will get a free ride.  But unless you are also paying for an extra seat for your baggage, do not put them on the seat:  that is for the paying passenger.  Worse, do not put them where they could block the entrance and exit of the other passengers.  I once rode a jeepney where there was this one big bag that was completely blocking the middle part of the jeepney and the passengers were just avoiding it, until the time came that the back portion of the jeepney became full, and the middle and front portions had to be occupied.  And there was nobody who was acting responsible for the bag.  I called the driver and told him that there was a bag that had no owner and had to be thrown off because it might have a bomb.  Then this woman who was sitting at the very entrance of the jeepney immediately grabbed it and denied that it had a bomb.

Sixth Rule:  Stand by your kids.  This rule is pretty much the same as the previous rule.  People bring with them their small children and get them seated on their laps.  They get a free ride.  These children could be ages 0 to 20.  (Hahaha!)  The problem with having a child on one’s lap is when the child is restless.  The child’s muddy shoe could land on your white pair of jeans or your white uniform and you need to appear presentable and clean for your appointment.  Who would want a muddy skirt during a school presentation or a job interview?  Yes, it’s true:  life is hard, and we try to get by as much as we can.  The jeepney allows us to save on our transportation expenses by letting our kids ride for free as long as they sit on our laps.  But please ensure that the child sitting on your lap will not disturb the next passenger, or make the ride uncomfortable for the next person.  Do not act like you are more entitled to a hassle-free ride just because you have a kid with you.

Seventh Rule:  NO SMOKING.  This for me is the most important rule.  There is already a law in the Philippines that bans smoking in all modes of public transport.  But many Filipinos still find a way to step aside that law.  Even without the law, out of consideration for the other passengers, we should not smoke in the jeepney.  People are freshly-scrubbed, wearing their newly-ironed clothes, and expecting to look good when they arrive at their respective destinations.  To smell like burnt ash is not on their priority list.  Nor is the possibility of them getting lung cancer from second-hand smoke.  I have often seen fathers smoking while carrying their babies.  Surely there is a better example.  And to the smokers, know this:  even if you hide it, we non-smokers can still smell a lit cigarette.  And we can distinguish it from the smoke generated by the moving vehicles.  So wait for the time when you can go to a smoking area and smoke to your heart’s content.  Or throw away that smoke habit forever.  You will have contributed to the betterment of the world.

Eighth Rule:  Dispose of your garbage responsibly.  You won’t believe how many people eat and drink while riding the jeepney.  And who can blame them?  Everyone is in a hurry that we barely have time to sit for a meal; so we eat en route.  Candies, chewing gum, potato chips, oranges, ice candy, barbequed chicken, fried bananas on sticks, pizza, ice cream.  They drink from plastic bottles, plastic bags, tins.  All of these produce garbage.  Many jeepneys have containers for garbage, but it is unbelievable how people can just throw away their garbage elsewhere:  on the floor, on their seat, or worse, over the window.  Talk about littering!  If you can’t reach the garbage container in the jeepney, take your garbage with you and dispose of it in the nearest garbage bin. 

Ninth Rule:  No hair, please.  Yes, we love to look at long, shiny hair, especially those being advertised on TV.  (I’m sure there’s a lot of editing involved to make those hair look gorgeous.)  But who likes hair when it’s scratching at your face?  Especially when that hair is not yours?  Many young ladies let their long hair loose while riding the jeepney.   Maybe because when they left the house their hair was still wet.  Or maybe because they are not used to tying their hair.  Or maybe because they are proud of their hair, they want to show off.  Whatever it is, who would want other people’s hair on their faces?  You may not know it, but hair being blown by the wind against your face really hurts.  So ladies, (and some gentlemen) keep your hair to yourself, or your boyfriends.

Tenth Rule:  No PDA, please.  When you are in a park and you see two people holding hands, caressing each other, the guy kissing the girl’s hair, the girl’s hand on the guy’s leg, you say to yourself:  “How romantic.”  But when you see people doing the same thing while riding the jeepney, you scowl and want to shout at them: “Get a room!”  Yes, the jeepney is a public mode of transport, but it is not the place for displays of affection.  It’s just gross.  So wait for the time when you can be alone, or at least in a more appropriate place, before you caress each other.

If these rules could be summarized in one rule, it is this:  Be comfortable, but not at the expense of others.

I am sure there are more rules that you can think of.  But since my title is 10 Rules, I have to stick by it.  I did not include nursing babies in this list, because if you really think about it, nursing babies is one of life’s most pleasurable activities.  So how could it be taboo?

Now, you may take your first pleasurable jeepney ride.

The Jeepney Ride: A Ride to Last My Lifetime

I have created this blog to unload my thoughts and the thoughts of many of those people who like me take the jeepney on almost a daily basis.  

I take the jeepney because I have to.  I don't have a car, and I don't know how to drive.  And it is really cheap.  I don't need to pay for annual registration, I don't need to pay for maintenance.  And if I need to go somewhere real quick, there is the taxi.  And now that everyone is into environmental protection, public transport is really the way to go.

In a hot climate such as the Philippines, the jeepney ride can be the most frustrating part of one's day.  For one, there is no privacy; it is really a crowded place.  And since it is public transport, you cannot complain about your neighbors.  They can smell like hell and all you can do is cover your nose or risk getting a black eye and tell them that they stink.  

But there are pay-offs.  This mode of transportation allows the ordinary folk to go to their destinations cheaply, and for the most part, safely.  The jeepney also suits the collective personality of the Filipino:  friendly, accommodating, hospitable.

One of my very good friends once said more than two decades ago that she likes to ride in jeepneys because she can hear the conversations of people and she can learn something from them.  And it is so true.  We have become so busy with our lives that we continue to unload our thoughts while riding this most public of all transportations.  

I have heard about family problems, family breakups, heartbreak, victories, life philosophies, gossip, sports, opinions about anything and everything from people’s conversations in jeepneys.  As a very private person, I could not believe at first that people would allow others to listen in on their conversations, how they could allow others to know about their lives, and how oftentimes they even talk about themselves and their lives to complete strangers like those people taking the commute with them.  But then I realized that the very public nature of this mode of transportation makes these conversations anonymous; it’s just like those people are talking to themselves—just like those thoughts would remain private—because unless they know everybody in the jeepney, there is very little chance that one’s life will become the fodder of gossip.  People will just know the story, but the story becomes random.  The life lessons are learned, but the source is unknown.  There is no need to be embarrassed.

And so I listen.  And I hope I have listened well.