When will you feel comfortable on public transport again?

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My son has been asking to go on a bus or train for quite a while and I keep saying not yet

When he asks me when we will I really don’t know

I’m hoping when restrictions fully lift. Will everyone be using public transport again like normal?

I’ve felt comfortable throughout. 4 buses and 2 trains every day. It never occurred to me to stop using public transport.

Where does he want to go and why do you feel so uncomfortable about it? Do you have extremely vulnerable people in your household?

Test

I haven't used public transport more then once or twice in ten years so it'll be a while, bus fare for the three of us into the city is more then the petrol and parking as it's £10 each way.

I’m using it like normal now.

I've used it normally throughout. It's so empty it's great! Always get a seat now.

Sorry about before, for some reason I couldn’t post so was checking it out before I lost another message!

A lot of people have never had the option of being afraid of public transport! I’ve had to get the tube throughout. I dont have to sit near anyone, the vast majority have their mask and you can distance on escalators etc.

I think many people are going to have to try and get over this fear at some point! You could ALWAYS catch a cold or whatever from being out and about with people. It was never totally risk free.

Lol I'm sat on a bus right now. Have been every working day throughout.

I can't say I'm thrilled about it but I can't afford a car and I've got to get to work.

I will tell you that buses are even more crap now than they were previously. The timetables are all to cock and fewer people can get on the ones that are running. Plus you do get arseholes on them. For example there's a bloke on this bus wearing his mask on his fucking hat. I wouldn't recommend it as an activity.

I use the tube every day. I have noticed more people dressed like office workers in the last fortnight so people are returning to offices slowly I think. Back in the summer, autumn up to Xmas it was mainly men that obviously worked in construction and others that looked like they did service jobs or nhs workers like me.

Pre pandemic we would just hop on the bus outside our house and go for a ride and come back.

Son was just 3 then so he found a bus ride fun and wasn’t bothered by going anywhere else
We would usually find a park and a coffee shop and then come home

Obviously we haven’t been allowed to do that during lockdown as it’s not an essential journey and I thought throughout the whole pandemic they said not to use public transport unless necessary

Just wondered when that would be lifted so just going for a ride on a bus wouldn’t be a problem

I've used public transport throughout the last year to get to work. So I've never really felt uncomfortable.

Personally once I’ve been vaccinated, I’m in London though so if I was stood next to someone with Covid on the tube there is no way I wouldn’t catch it.

Personally I’m enjoying the lack of teenage school kids and that I always get a seat!

I've liked that no on one is allowed to sit next to me.

I have no problem using public transport.

I've been using it throughout, but feel much more confident after my first dose.

@BanningTheWordNaice

Personally once I’ve been vaccinated, I’m in London though so if I was stood next to someone with Covid on the tube there is no way I wouldn’t catch it.

Not true. You could be living in the same house as someone with Covid and still not catch it. It’s not a given.

I have used buses and trains on occasions since July, but not in the last couple of months as the places I would go to are closed completely. I'm wfh and expect to for a long time.

Last bus journey I made was to give blood (in December) and because windows are kept open (for good reasons) it was very draughty.

If it’s for the legality or necessity of it then of course you can decide not to go on a bus until later on.

If it is because of Covid, the virus won’t magically disappear when the restrictions are lifted. We’ll be living with it for the foreseeable, less restrictions will only mean that hospitals are coping and not so many people are dying. Covid will still be around just like the flu has been around for years.

I feel happier now that infection rates have gone down. I was really worried after the Christmas mixing when they were high.

@BanningTheWordNaice that’s not accurate at all. I’ve been in London throughout along with about eight million others and working and using public transport and have not caught covid

Nor have the vast majority of people I know.

I’ve been getting the bus occasionally throughout (live in London). It's fine.

Bus drivers are one of the worst affected groups of employees for infections and deaths though, so it does spread on public transport. Which makes sense, confined space, closer to people than two metres, for more than 15 minutes etc.

Twice daily bus here pretty much every day throughout this nightmare. I'm more bothered about getting run over by a vehicle when crossing roads or having a heart attack.

Do you have lots of heart attacks then?

I think there's a difference between getting on the buses I see at the moment with a handful of people on them (if any), and getting on my usual commute of the train where it's standing room only and everybody's squeezed up against everybody else, then the tube which is the same.

I'd love to never go back to that commute, but realistically I guess it will happen. And I'm asking myself the same question - when will I feel safe to do it? I don't know! I wish there was an answer. When I and the majority of people are vaccinated I suppose it will be the time, unless work decide it's earlier!