Public Transport

Hi,

I am having trouble as I have revently got rid of my car and I am now using public transport full time. This is causing some difficulties with missing stops. Trains are ok because i can use alarms on my phone etc...and to some extent I can do so on busses although not as reliable as they are effected by traffic etc.

The other problem I have is when younger parts are around who cannot tell the time or read a timetable. This can cause big problems in that its easy to get strandes places without the skills to get home.

Does anyone have any advise on using public transport with DID

professional public transport user here

if you're riding to the same places often, pick out a landmark that is before your stop, that way when you see it, you can know to pull the cord/whatever. if you're concerned for younger parts knowing when to get off, pick something that would appeal to them.

alternatively, and especially if you're going places with which you're less familiar, when you get on you can ask the driver to let you know when you get to your stop (tell them which one).

finally, nowadays there are good bus apps in many cities. you can get realtime updates on bus arrivals and departures, and you can usually watch their progress on a map in realtime. that might be fun for littles to watch. this option may not work if you're in a smaller town, but most major cities should have something. in my city the app we use is called OneBusAway.

This is something I struggle with a lot, busses, trains, and -god forbid- the occasional taxi.

There was one time I was going somewhere, dissociated, missed my stop, got on another bus back, missed the stop again, then did it one more time and ended up just walking to my destination! It was horrendous. And just falling asleep/dissociating (can rarely tell which) on trains and ending up having to pay more money just to get home, argh, so frustrating!

I thankfully use the same bus route all the time, for about a year now, and I've established landmarks so it's quite recognisable when to get off, depending on where you're going. Like, when you see a certain shop, or a clock tower, or something like that.

One of my alters who is a dog refused to take the 30 minute ride home because he hates busses, and walked the entire way instead... He found his way somehow.

Anyway, a productive answer would be maybe to set an alarm on your phone? If you know how long the journey is going to take, I usually set an alarm or a timer to go off five or ten minutes before my stop comes about. It snaps me out of any dissociative state, and lets any other alters know to pay attention to where they are and get off.

Hope that helps?
Safe travels!

Safety is always paramount my smart phone's background is map of the train system. I think you need a travel benefiter ask for help from inside make agreements be as specific as possible, be patient go from there on any adjust expect a little arguing etc. I practice a lot on certain roles from the train conductor, to the train announcer, to actually just good ole repeating, and also honing my sensory folks hear see listen etc in the midst of the hectic environment. I ask for memorization when all else fails, I just be gentle with myselves.

I see lots of great advice here already. Here are a few more suggestions.

If you have a smartphone the public transit phone apps are amazing, if they are available, and so is just turning on location services and downloading a generic map app and its offline map files so you can see where you are relative to where you want to go. This works anywhere.

An inexpensive GPS can do this too, and you can program in your stop as a waypoint and set the GPS to alert you when you get within a certain distance of the waypoint.

I also like the idea of letting the driver know you may need a reminder to get off at your stop. They are trained to do that, as most children and new riders in general frequently need this help.

How do you spend your time on the bus? Reading or listening to music may be just too distracting for you, for now. Later it will be all so familiar that you'll be able to read and still notice when your stop is next. Like magic!