Civilized Australia

I was riding the trams in Melbourne when I had the most astonishing experience.

A hulking young man entered the tram with his bicycle. As a Seattleite, it's not that odd to see people who commute with a combination of mass transit and pedal power. In fact, many Seattle buses have racks on the front to transport rider's bikes while they take the bus.

Anyway, this big guy gets on the tram with his bicycle. It was mid-afternoon and the tram wasn't particularly crowded -- I hardly even noticed.

The driver certainly did. He emerged from his little sealed driver's compartment, came back to the younger, much bigger guy, and told him that he couldn't bring his bike on the tram. The bike guy replied by asking the driver how he was expected to get home then (it was a day of record-setting winds in Melbourne, though I don't know if that had anything to do with this bike rider's decision to take the tram). The driver told the bike guy that it wasn't the driver's problem and again urged him to leave the train.

The bike guy refused. The driver then left the tram and started calling for security assistance.

Now, if this scene had happened in America, we would have been treated to the sight of muscle-bound, para-military security guards confronting the big bike guy and who knows what would follow next...

But not in Australia. The tram driver returned with the security guy. The security guy looked a lot like Wilford Brimley, but with a wacky Australian hat. He was certainly no match for the big, buff bike dude. So, the Australian security guy repeats what the driver said, that the guy couldn't bring his bike on the tram and would have to leave. And, guess what?

The bike dude left the tram peacefully without a word of complaint. The security guy exited, the driver re-entered his locked driving compartment, and off we went, just a few minutes late.

It made me feel bad to be from the barbarous USA.