Is there a caste system in the United States? Absolutely, and the great divide is our means of transportation. When I lived in the city, I believed a bus is a bus is a bus, but it’s not so.

Riding the bus – or subway - in New York City or any other major city in America, is different from taking mass transportation in suburban areas, where cars are the preferred means of transportation and you might stop short of robbing a bank, to obtain one.

Everyone takes the bus in New York City - without regard to finances, in many cases -because it takes forever to get anywhere by car. Parking costs can outpace a teenager’s daily cell phone bill and expense aside, taxis are impossible to get when it rains, is bone chilling cold, or around rush hours. Even the mayor of NYC takes the subway to work in the morning, although I suspect some politics is mixed in with expediency.

Walking is an option in the city, as opposed to the suburbs where sidewalks are almost non existent in some places. Suburban traffic lights seem programmed to favor the motorist, and crossing a wide intersection is almost impossible in one light change, unless you’re in training for the marathon. Maybe.

In the burbs, not every family has 2 cars and some don’t even have one. Beyond the initial cost of the vehicle, there’s insurance, gas/ liquid gold, repairs, and the one time you forget to feed the meter or lose track of time, you end up in thrall to the DMV. Often, it’s the secondary wage earner who takes the bus, and it’s not uncommon to see a mother with an entourage of infant, siblings, stroller and other equipment, struggling to board the bus. It’s also not uncommon to see riders helping one another, performing what I view as mitzvahs, although many of them would not know the word. At an early age, city babies learn to say mommy and daddy, with ‘taxi’ frequently added to their vocabulary. Not so for suburban tots, who learn at an early age to scramble for seats.

When I moved out of the city I was car- less and as I was teaching in the area served by the Hudson Line of Metro North, and I lived adjacent to the Harlem Line, I took the bus every morning and the Metro North and a bus home every evening. One afternoon, the train was unusually crowded for the time of day and from conversations over heard , a group of “suits” were on their way to a business conference at a Marriot Hotel in Tarrytown. Their voices were not so much loud, but firm and resonant, and obviously city folk. Topics ranged from mention of Pete Seeger, a former resident of the area we were traversing, to the latest Blackberry law suit. If I were asked for a one word description, “confident” would immediately come to mind.

After my train ride it was on to the bus. If the train people were guests at the Marriot, the people on the bus were hotel employees and here are some of my observations about the train and the bus people.

Train people share their seats reluctantly. They will remove their belongings from the adjacent seat when that seat is needed, but often a sigh or a look of annoyance accompanies such removal. They got there first and you are the interloper. Have I ever been such a guilty party? To my shame, the answer is yes, but not any more.

Bus people? They also occupy a second seat but they expect they will have to share and even push over to ensure there is room. Entitlement is not so strong in their vocabulary. They don’t have that same feeling that things are coming to them, because often they are not.

* I don’t claim this to be a scientific study, but merely observational, with a very small population sample. In part II, I will continue with my observations as to why we have two Americas.