Inflation

Coming to work this morning, I line up with a dozen other sleepy-eyed commuters to board the bus. An animated young guy, about 20, asks the woman in front for a quarter. He doesn’t look homeless or anything, in fact was dressed kind of trendy, so she gives it to him and he gets in line right behind her.

Cutting in line, but everyone’s too sleepy to care.

Animated young guy drops the quarter into the driver’s fare box and starts dancing to his seat.

“Hey, hey, hey!” the older driver shouts, “Bus fare is $2.50!”

Young man looks genuinely shocked; “What…are you sure? I thought fare was still 25 cents. Did the prices just go up?”

Driver responds, “Son -- it hasn’t been a quarter since before you were born, and before I was born. And I wasn’t born yesterday.”

In New York or Detroit, that’d be the exact moment when driver-foot pushes would-be rider body to the curb -- but this is Seattle, and the driver lets him ride.