Public transportation in Dublin is pretty much what you pay for. Its cheap. And not reliable. The buses come late if ever at all and the drivers seems to have the aim of having all the passengers covered in bruisers before getting off, due to the very common phenomena of reckless driving. Of course it is an experience and a part of Dublin which everybody should do when visiting Dublin, but after a few months I really missed the Stockholm subways.
But one thing that happen when I was waiting for the bus at O'connell bridge, there was a blind man standing by the bus stop holding his stick in front of him. Now, I dont know how it works for blind people when they go on Stockholm buses, but how it worked here was that all the buses that stopped open the door exactly in front of him and without the blind man asking the drivers shouted out the bus number to the him. About three-four buses he shook his head to and finally the right bus came and he jumped on, people in the handicap space moved right away and he sat down, and about half a second later the driver was hitting the gas and away they went.
Very effective and I was wondering to my self why this kind of attitude towards service didn't apply for all kind of passengers. I suppose that there is a difference for the Dublin Bus (and maybe a lot of other irish service businesses) between the kind of service you pay for and the kind of "service" you give your fellow human being.
I found over all in Ireland that when you expect service and maybe even payed for it, it is not good at all. But when you are in need of help, looking lost or some other ordeal, you can always count on the best help from irish people.
