Footboard travel
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Footboard travel, in India, is a means by which the commuters just stand in the footboard of the bus or train, hanging in the bars across the windows, with one feet in the footsteps and the other set loose. Associated with this are get-in-running, wherein the passenger gets into the bus after it sets motion and get-out-running, the reverse process. The latter two activities are common only in buses.
Though footboard travel started as a result of huge crowd in buses, owing to huge population in India, later it evolved as an act of thrill and style. Youngsters and college students indulge in this very often, either to show off their virility or to impress their girls. Girls, who are generally seated inside, reciprocate the footboarding romeos by offering to hold their back packs and books. It has become such a thing of style that people footboard even in empty buses leading to heated arguments with the conductors (In India, apart from drivers, buses have managers, who are known as conductors). Also,some college students who have separate buses occupy the footboard to show their seniority over their juniors.Ticketless passengers and pickpockets benefit from footboarding, as they cannot be noticed easily by the conductor, who is generally inside the bus. Though women abstain from footboarding in buses, one can see them do it in trains, where there are separate compartments for them.
Footboarding has led to tragedies too. People fall from the buses/trains and have lost parts of their bodies and their lives too. Particularly, the get-out-running and the get-in-running are considered dangerous, due to their erratic inertial force. In India, more than half the accidents involving buses are caused by footboarding. In city buses and trains, one can notice the following two slogans: No Footboard travel, No Ticket less Travel.