A stop or two after I boarded the #8 bus near the Rose Quarter last night, two African American guys in their early-to-mid 20s tried to board. One paid or used a transfer, and the driver said nothing. The other fumbled in his pockets, pulling out a wad of crumpled cash, and an equally crumpled transfer. He presented the transfer to the driver, who examined it, and deemed it expired by just a few minutes.

The two friends stood at the front of the bus, annoyed, and seemingly unsure what to do. The guy with the expired transfer didn’t have coins, and didn’t seem particularly interested in using two ones to overpay the $1.70 $1.75 fare… he seemed to be trying to outlast the driver. But the driver wasn’t about to budget—he was not going to pull away until the guy paid up.

With riders getting agitated, the bus driver tried to, um, hurry the guy along.

“If you want to buy drugs, you pay the full price,” the driver said. “You want to ride the bus, you pay the full price.” Um? What the hell?

I think the guy was just as taken aback as those of us who heard the driver from our seats. He paid, and he and his friend sat down. The driver continued his lecture… he seemed to have realized that his comment may have been a bit out of line, and it sounded like he was trying to recover. “You want a beer, you pay the full price!” he argued.

The guy’s friend jumped in, asking the driver what the hell he was talking about referring to drugs. “When I buy aspirin, I pay the full price,” the driver clarified. Okay, sure. He was totally talking about over-the-counter painkillers earlier.

Speaking of bus fares! We’ll be posting a video shortly, of bus riders’ reaction to the TriMet’s proposal to limit the hours of Fareless Square. Stay tuned!