I've been living Seattle since September and I realized recently that it's an easy city to love.

Sure there's rain and fog but the trees turn red, orange and yellow. Sure there's seemingly a Starbucks at every corner but there are also plenty of local coffee shops to frequent. Sure there's the Seattle Space Needle but there are lots of great neighborhoods to get lost in.

So far I like Seattle.

The street signs are easy to read. The buses are pretty straightforward to use. The bars aren't too fancy but there's plenty of good beer to pick from.

Yesterday evening on a very crowded 40 bus from Downtown to somewhere in upper-Ballard, I was shocked by how polite everyone was being. The bus had filled up but wasn't packed. The way the bus works everyone needs to enter the bus at the front door to pay but people weren't scooting back to fill up the bus very well.

In Washington DC, someone would be yelling: move to the back and everyone else would be sighing audibly. In Sofia, Bulgaria, people would just be jamming on to the crowded bus at every door, which they are allowed to do, but no one would be happy or polite about it.

So the bus driver was saying: you can pay here and then it's probably best to enter the bus at the back door. At the back door, the standing passengers were moving around to make room and said things like: it's crowded but do you have room.

I couldn't believe it. Are people allowed to be this polite on public transportation?