There was more of a sense of community in those days, for good and for bad. People cared about their neighbours, but the flipside of that was a willingness to exclude the antisocial from society entirely. The article mentions racial segregation which is one prominent case, but more generally, 30 years ago if there had been a junkie or someone who stank or what have you on the bus, the driver would've thrown them off and the "decent" passengers would've supported them in doing so, and conversely if someone who seemed respectable had mislaid their ticket then that same driver would've been more understanding.