You use words for I need to get off here, please allow me to exit my seat?? Barbaric. A good rustling of your belongings, maybe a shift in the position your sitting and, if all fails, judgemental but thankful eye contact should be absolutely sufficient. Maybe MAYBE paired with a mumbled excuse me.
Verbal communication is naturally a last resort if your fellow passenger does not pick up on your non-verbal cues.
This naturally also comes with the responsibility of not accidentally showing non-verbal cues and making someone think you need to get off and as such leave their seat.
Ah yes, the dread all too sudden move in the seat. In such a case the only reasonable thing is to get up and stand for the rest of the ride. Worst case you might just have to walk home. The damage is already done.
I remember crying all the way to the next stop as a kid because I was too awkward to let my seat neighbour know that I needed to get up to press the stop button. In defence of the bus and its inhabitants everyone was very supportive. Good times!
This always blows my mind as an American. Considering how our country is... How are we so much more friendly and talkative than the rest of you people?
Well yeah, of course I mean I'm not saying you aren't in general. But with strangers like that, how Americans can be. I'm constantly having random conversations with strangers and it completely blows my foreign friend's minds when I talk about stuff like that.
Not bothering strangers with inane conversation is more friendly to me. Forcing strangers into conversations is rude. But I live in Vancouver, we have similar transit culture to Europe.
Thats what the digital displays are for. only reason to talk to someone is to bitch about a certain bus always being late, which they then agree with and the conversation ends.