Trapped on a Bus

**David Kestenbaum** (0:01)
A quick warning, there are curse words that are un-beeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org.
From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm David Kestenbaum, sitting in for hourglass.

**Aviva de Kornfeld** (0:17)
This morning on the subway, this guy brought his own chair. He was sitting next to him, but he was in a fold-out chair.

**David Kestenbaum** (0:27)
That's Aviva de Kornfeld, apparently our transportation correspondent. She came in the studio to tell me a story about a woman on a bus ride that went very strangely.

**Aviva de Kornfeld** (0:36)
Her name's Duck, or that's her nickname. That's what we're going to call her.

**David Kestenbaum** (0:39)
Okay.

**Aviva de Kornfeld** (0:40)
She takes this bus between New York and DC a lot, back and forth. So on this trip, she's going from New York to DC, Union Station, and she's leaving around 6 PM at night. And she has this whole routine around the bus, because she's done this trip a million times. This is Duck. I'll go get a margarita, get on the bus, take a nap, wake up back home in DC. I boarded the bus as normal. They checked me in. The guy had the app with all the passengers. He made a little announcement. And they even, I remember distinctly, they said, there's no stops planned.
You know, great. Are you good at sleeping on public transit?
I can pretty much sleep anyway. Oh my God, you're so lucky. My parents would always joke that I could sleep through anything. So she goes to sleep.
And then she wakes up around 9 p.m. to a bunch of commotion. And all the passengers are talking on the bus about what's going on. And what's going on is really odd. And so odd that Duck starts rating a thread about this online, which is how I heard about it. Here's the first post she writes. I just woke up from a nap, and somehow while I was asleep, everyone on the bus has figured out that we are not going to the right place.

**David Kestenbaum** (1:58)
Aviva, do they think there's like a mistake or something?

**Aviva de Kornfeld** (2:02)
Well, the driver of the bus is apparently telling passengers, like, I'm not going to the wrong place. You're on the wrong bus. This bus isn't going to Washington, DC. It's going further south to Virginia. And we're not going to stop. Suduk writes another post. He's refusing to talk to anyone while he's driving and is now driving really fast.
I think this is when it starts to... the attitude on the bus starts to turn a little bit towards maybe we're not in a safe situation.

**David Kestenbaum** (2:32)
And what do they think is going on? Like, is it possible they just got on the wrong bus?

**Aviva de Kornfeld** (2:36)
No, because every person on the bus has been checked in by the driver as going to Washington, DC.

**David Kestenbaum** (2:42)
And all their tickets say to DC.

**Aviva de Kornfeld** (2:44)
Yeah.

**David Kestenbaum** (2:52)
So, this is the situation. They're all basically trapped on a bus. And the driver is not doing what bus drivers have typically done in the history of bus driving.
I'm not sure exactly how to say this, but whatever you think of President Trump, maybe this is a feeling you have been experiencing. He's made hundreds of millions of dollars selling meme coins to his fans and other people. He is bombing boats off Venezuela. He's tearing down the East Wing and building a giant ballroom. Maybe this makes you feel like everything's out of control. Or maybe you're fine with it. Maybe the bus driver is a genius, and you think we should all just sit back and see.
In this case though, the passengers are not into it. And when a person has so completely left the normal script of things, the question is, what do you do?

**Aviva de Kornfeld** (3:41)
So the first thing they try to do is reason with the bus driver, reassert the normal facts and rules for the bus ride. Doug said that two guys went up to him at the front of the bus and said, man to man, we're going to Union Station.

**David Kestenbaum** (3:54)
And?

**Aviva de Kornfeld** (3:55)
He said, no, we're not. Didn't work.

**Tobin Lowe** (3:58)
What do they try next?

**Aviva de Kornfeld** (3:59)
After that, someone notices that he has a French accent. Okay. And thinks like, oh, maybe this is a language barrier issue. So they start talking to him in French and then end up arguing with him in French. And then it becomes very clear it is not a language barrier issue. Wow.