Whenever I’ve gone to cities like London, I’m always shocked by the number of people who leave the bus without saying thank you to the driver.
Growing up, I was always taught to say those two simple words and no matter how I felt on the day I’ve always made a point to say it.
Maybe because my dad worked as a bus driver for over a decade and I’d hope others would be nice to him.
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However, some time has passed since I’ve actually paid attention on buses to see whether this is still something passengers do.
Recently, a reporter in London spent an hour on a bus in the capital and saw only one person say thank you to the driver - and even then they weren't 100 per cent sure the thank you was meant for them.
With this in mind, we wanted to see if passengers in Leeds were friendlier and more grateful to the driver than our Southern counterparts.
So on a cold Friday morning I decided to take matters in my own hands and see how many people actually still said those all two important words.
I boarded the 164 Arriva service which heads to Garforth from and estimated the journey would take around an hour or so including the journey back to the city centre.
I sat near enough to the door so I could hear people but not too close to the door because of how freezing it was.
The plan was to take a tally in my notepad to count the people saying thank you but this was pretty impossible as my hands, despite wearing gloves, were freezing cold so decided to count the amount of people who didn’t say thank you instead.
Throughout the bus ride there were roughly 30 passengers, of all ages, and only five didn’t say thank you.
We got to the last stop in Garforth before the bus headed back into town, the driver asked me if I was going to get off the bus.
Full disclosure, I was embarrassed to admit I was counting the number of people saying thank you so said my plans had changed and I needed to head back to town.
However, the guilt of the white lie got to me and I ended up telling him who I was and what I was doing.
He didn’t judge, he simply laughed and said: “not very many (people say thank you), depends on the route.”
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This was probably the most surprising thing. I had always assumed the majority of people say thank you.
It’s a simple and polite way to show gratitude to the drivers for getting passengers where they need to be PLUS it only takes two seconds.
The journey back to town was quiet, probably two people got on and off before even reaching York Road - they both said thank you.
When I got off the bus I made sure I said thank you and I probably always will because it’s nice to feel appreciated even if you’re just doing your job.
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