Pete,
The point of many of good protest is to stop business as usual. That means getting "to work" late sometimes. People complaining on the bus going to work, is a good thing - it means they know about it.

A couple of years ago, I was at a store right before another IMF protest. The staff was busy arguing about whether the IMF was squeezing Jamaica dry with debt, and not paying attention to me the customer. If you ask me, that makes all the protests of any kind, completely successful.