The author expresses that they meet the people in a different context. Sure, you see bus drivers doing their job, but you're not talking with them about life while they're at the wheel.
In the tech bubble, chances are that the cook and the bus driver and the janitor just works there - they don't live there (because they can't afford it), they don't go to diners and pubs there much, it's as if they live in a different society that just "visits" that world during work. In the semi-rural area, they were part of the same society, in the tech bubble they're two separate societies increasingly growing apart from each other.
In the tech bubble, chances are that the cook and the bus driver and the janitor just works there - they don't live there (because they can't afford it), they don't go to diners and pubs there much, it's as if they live in a different society that just "visits" that world during work. In the semi-rural area, they were part of the same society, in the tech bubble they're two separate societies increasingly growing apart from each other.