The wheels on the bus go round and round

I used to work with someone who declared that the only people who travelled by bus were women and poor people. Hmm, I use the bus and I sort of understand what he was getting at, but, and it is a point my former colleague would struggle to get round, I am neither a woman nor poor. I feel that the reasons you see women and people with less money (I don't think we can just label them as poor) could be more complex than their gender or their economic status. Possibly the biggest reason could be simply that a lot of people are totally opposed to public transport, particularly buses. On hearing that I sometimes use the bus, there are people at work who give me quite a pitying look and declare they would never use the bus (what, not even if the alternative was never to travel anywhere?). Those people are probably also the same people who are wedded/welded to their cars. If they can't drive somewhere and park outside their destination, then they won't go there. So back to "women and poor people" - is it because in a one-car household "the man" has the car. I acknowledge that I use our car more than my long-suffering wife, so guilty as charged. And running a car is expensive and in an area like North Devon where wages are low, many people would struggle to keep a car on the road. And in North Devon, where we have no rail transport - except to take you out of the area - buses are the only option.