The Dolmuş Experience

I live about a 10 minute drive away from where I go to school, and every day, there and back, I take a dolmuş. A dolmuş is like a bus, but not. They are small, privately run (as opposed to the state run bus system), and they go along a set route but you can get on at any point by catching the drivers attention with a wave of the hand. The name dolmuş means literally 'full' or 'stuffed' and they do get full, especially during rush-hour. What really interests me about the dolmuş system is the manner in which people pay for their rides. Instead of getting in at the front of the vehicle, paying first and then sitting down, one boards the bus through a door towards the middle of the bus and immediately sits down. Then, at some point during the ride, one pays by handing the fare up, from person to person, till it reaches the driver. The driver takes the fare and puts it in his special compartmentalized coin box and makes change, all while skillfully negotiating the traffic. The change then gets handed back from person to person till it reaches its rightful owner. Often someone will pay for two passengers with, say, a five lira note . They tell the person they initially hand the note to how many people it is for, and that piece of information is also transferred up to the driver who is making change. This system works extremely well and everyone participates in the communal job of making sure everyone is able to pay and get their correct change.



Maybe I'm cynical but I just can't see this system working in the United States. Generally Americans just don't have a sense of shared responsibility. They would say 'bring your own damn money to the front of the bus, it's everyone for themselves donchta know'? I don't know maybe I'm wrong. But I definitely think that this system says something about Turkish culture... something that I can't put my finger on and that I find a lack of where I come from.