I try to mitigate my guilt for no longer saying thanks to bus drivers

The day buses in Ireland started using central doors is the day an important and implied social contract started its decline. For decades we had been unselfconsciously muttering our thanks to the driver as we exited past them. It was rarely commented on; rather, it felt innate. When exiting via central doors was introduced, we were faced with a dilemma. The instinct to thank remains but being forced to roar the thanks up to the front of the bus, where the driver might not even hear it, presents a problem of performance. Where previously the practice had been an intimate display of manners, now it has become a bit of a hokey routine, not helped by every piece of advice for tourists to Ireland on the internet implying that not thanking the bus driver is punishable by death.