I spent quite a bit of time contemplating what field observation I would undertake for this week's reflection.  As hard as I tried, I couldn't find anything which was 'something I had never done'.  Everything that I proposed to myself (i.e. sitting in the waiting room of the ER at VGH, 'Pigeon Park' on Hastings Street, etc.) seemed somehow wrong to me.  I couldn’t really understand why I had these feelings, until I started to ask myself what I was really supposed to be doing.  This led me to rethink the purpose of the observation, which I came to understand as observing and thinking about something I had never thought about before but which I had participated in.  This opened the door on a multitude of possibilities, or rather, a novel approach to something mundane - I began wondering if an observation of a public space, as an object unto itself, might be a worthy topic for this week.

I was walking to the bus on Broadway, about to head down to the Vancouver Public Library to watch people come and go through the main concourse, when I happened to look across the street at the corner of Broadway & Willow.  What I saw, the covered Translink bus stop, made me stop and think about the definition of public space and public objects, and in particular the bus stop as a shared public/private experience.  This act provided me with the initial focus I felt I needed (and had been lacking) in order to conduct a field observation, for it provided me the frame within which to view the bus stop and any potential research participants.  So, I entered a coffee shop directly across the street, ordered myself a large cup of coffee, and sat down looking out of the window at the bus stop directly across the street.  The window behind which I sat had a glare on it from the overcast day, so I am fairly certain none of the participants witnessed me watching them.  This in itself proved to be a slightly odd experience, for I felt the part of a voyeur, wondering what the participants were thinking as they waited, doing my best not to transfer my own perspective and insights as observer onto their waiting.

The bus stop shelter was one of the new extended covered versions, with two benches, and an open walkway in the glass of the shelter between the two benches.  It was situated near the intersection at Willow, and directly in front of an open plaza which was in front of a large multi-storey medical office building.  Before I began observing the bus stop, I found myself wondering why I had chosen this particular stop - I walk by it every day but rarely ever use it myself.  The bank ATM I usually stop at is right across the street, as is my favorite Falafel restaurant.  The answer as to why I chose this particular bus stop and shelter seemed to become clear as I began to look on the people standing there, waiting for their bus.  I sat at that window for a total of 60 consecutive minutes, the first 30 minutes just watching, and the later 30 writing down what I noticed about the people at 2 minute intervals.

The first 30 minutes provided me with time to reflect on the classifications I would use to describe the participants.  I found that I sketched an outline of the bus stop and its immediate surroundings in these first 30 minutes, thinking that I might situate the participants within this sketch when I began my detailed data collection in the latter 30 minutes.  However, when I began taking detailed notes, I discovered that I did not have the time to take too many notes of the location of participants, but rather focused on their actions.  The first thing I wrote down, was a classification of the posture of the persons waiting for their bus and their number (i.e. pacing = 1, leaning out into traffic watching for the next bus = 1, reading the transit map affixed to the shelter = 1, stationary = 3, talking on their cell phone = 2, kissing their partner = 1, etc. etc.).  I could say that these classifications came out of the first 30 minutes of observation, but I now realize that they were in part influenced by what I usually do when waiting for a bus.  This helped bring the reason I choose this bus stop/shelter into focus, as I think I saw characteristics of myself in the people waiting for their bus (and perhaps always had?).

For the next 30 minutes, at 2 minute intervals, I made note of the number of people waiting at the stop, their classification and changes in people’s classification.  I thought this was all I was doing, in an attempt to be concise, but I found myself watching the people around the bus stop, not necessarily waiting for a bus, but interacting with the ‘space’ of the bus stop/shelter.  The first type of people I noticed were those walking with ‘purpose’, or rather looking as though they knew exactly where they were headed.  It was interesting because it appeared to me that their body postures were exactly the same – head slightly down, ass slightly protruded, weaving in and out of the fellow pedestrian traffic.  Those headed to the bus stop/shelter, all had one interesting quirk, in that they never let up in their approach to the shelter, they simply walked right up to the pole with the bus numbers listed and stopped.

The second unexpected observation I had was regarding the types of people I saw walking up and down the street, and waiting at the bus stop.  I was watching this stop between 4 and 5 PM on a weekday, so expected to see quite a few people getting off work and using the bus stop for its intended purpose of mobility.  This was true in most cases, but I noticed something which I had never perceived before, almost everyone was carrying something – be it a bag, a box, an umbrella or a book.  This struck me as quite interesting, for the bus stop/shelter, and in fact the entire street, was populated by people whom were traveling through this public space, but not necessarily residing within it.  I made this ‘jump’ in my thinking as I pondered what it meant to reside in public space (streets, parks, nature in general), and whether this type of space really exists (or has it been co-opted into serving a purpose).

As I sat there, watching the people get on and off the buses that pulled up to the stop, I noticed that none of the people standing there were talking to each other.  This seemed logical, for even though they were sharing the same space and engaging in the same activity (waiting for a bus), they did not know each other.  However, this in itself was quite interesting, as I started thinking about other public spaces and how little interaction there is between people (i.e. a line at a bank, watching a parade, sitting in a waiting room).  Why is this?

Overall, I quite enjoyed this process of observing what I thought was a common location and/or activity.  As I thought about this exercise after the fact, I realized that I do not reflect on most of the experiences in my life unless I think them important BEFORE commencing in any reflection.  This is an incredibly narrow focus for any reflection, for am I not prejudicing any perceived importance, prejudicing any potential interpretation?  Further to this initial realization, I also realized that most of the people I saw waiting at the bus stop/shelter had some trait or characteristic I saw in myself when waiting for a bus, so I was left wondering how I perceived people who I saw no shared characteristics with.

Comments may be directed to Bhuvinder S. Vaid.

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