The upper deck of a KMB bus becomes the talk of the internet

The most classic case of all is the “Bus Uncle incident” — its catchphrases remain memorable to this day. One evening in 2006, on the upper deck of a KMB (Kowloon Motor Bus) service from Jordan to Yuen Long, a young man, annoyed that the middle-aged man in the row in front was talking too loudly on the phone, tapped him on the shoulder to signal him to lower his voice. The middle-aged man responded by kneeling on his own seat and berating the young man with foul language, repeatedly declaring: “You’ve got pressure, I’ve got pressure!” Even after the young man apologised to try to calm things down, the man kept repeating: “Not resolved! Not resolved! Not resolved!” Unlike today, when everyone carries a smartphone and can instantly film and upload to social media, online video platforms were not yet widespread at the time — yet the clip racked up 780,000 views within a week. The man was thereafter dubbed the “Bus Uncle”, and lines from the quarrel became the catchphrases of the moment.

In fact, passengers and bus captains can easily fall into arguments too. Many incidents have arisen from passengers breaking the Public Bus Services Regulations — standing on the upper deck or the staircase of a double-decker while the bus is moving, eating or drinking on board, or one person hogging two seats.

Among videos beloved by netizens in recent years, the “Thai man and the bus captain” deserves a mention. In 2019, when a bus arrived at its terminus and the captain was about to get off, a Thai man insisted on arguing with him, refusing to alight and asking baffling questions. Netizens deduced from the pair’s talking-at-cross-purposes exchange that the Thai passenger was roughly complaining that the journey had taken as long as an hour; in the end the captain had to phone the terminus supervisor for help. The bus company later responded with a post on its page, translating the exchange’s catchphrases into Thai — and, tongue in cheek, attached a Thai-language version of its hotline details, suggesting passengers call the hotline if they had any problems.

Still, there are exceptions to everything: as long as both sides are willing to give a little ground, a dispute can be defused. One member of the public recounted taking a bus at night: the next stop should have been A Kung Ngam Road in Shau Kei Wan, but the captain mistakenly drove into the Eastern Harbour Crossing, ending up across the harbour in Lam Tin. The captain apologised to the passengers again and again, saying he had momentarily misremembered the route. Not only did no passenger lose their temper — some said that for $4.4 they would treat the harbour crossing as a lucky detour, and one passenger even walked up to the driver’s seat on alighting to comfort him, telling him not to blame himself.

Although some of the clips above became hot topics of everyday conversation and brought a little amusement, if every passenger thought of the safety and comfort of others and followed the rules and instructions for public transport, Hong Kong would have a little less conflict and a little more harmony!

Reading guide:

• The “Bus Uncle incident” and the “Thai man and the bus captain” were both filmed and uploaded to video platforms, drawing an enormous response, including enthusiastic comments from netizens and derivative parodies
• Disputes very often stem from passengers breaching the Public Bus Services Regulations, provoking the displeasure of the bus captain or other passengers
• If both sides take a step back, a quarrel can be defused — as when a captain took a wrong route and the passengers on board accepted his apology
• Whatever transport you take, remember to be a courteous little passenger

Mini challenge:

Suppose that while riding a bus you come across two passengers quarrelling: Passenger A thinks Passenger B should not be sitting in the priority seat, while Passenger B thinks Passenger A should mind his own business. Would you film it on your phone and post it online? And how would you mediate their dispute?