Case in point: this is what's hellish about public transportation in the States.  It's fine as long as it's not crowded.  God help you if it's crowded because these people are slow, inconsiderate, take up one seat per ass cheek, etc.  It's not the same as having every seat filled with thin people. The one time I chose a bad route, at a busy time, was eye-opening; the stuff I read about on FPH was real.  The fat on my right was nothing compared to the purple-haired ham in a wheelchair and her two daughters that got on (of course they had a bunch of grocery bags).  I thought purple hair was just something young obeasts got.  I had to hunch my shoulders in, lest the hams beside me be offended that my shoulders touched theirs.  And I have a functioning immune system; someone with a compromised immune system would have been fucked by such unhygienic contact. If bus companies don't find it profitable to carry only a few riders at a time, that's too bad, because America is too fat for Japan-style crowding.