Use of ところに here

Question

The following sentence is from the 日本語パワードリル N1 book, in a section where you get an article or a passage of text, and have to pick the answer which fits the surrounding sentence(s).

日本製のマイクロバスだが、14人乗りの ______ 32, 3人は詰め込んで走る。

1 ときに　2 もとに 3　場面に 4 ところに

Upon first glance, my instinct was that none of them really felt right. The answer is 4 ところに, but my issue is that I have learned ところに as "at the time when~, just when I was about to~", in sentences such as:

私はちょうど家を出ようと思っているところに、小雨が降り始めた。

駅に着いたところに財布を忘れたことに気づいた。

I'm not sure how ところに is being used here?

Answer 1

ところ has many abstract usages, one of which is to describe an ordinary/regular/expected situation.

• Use of のところ for comparison?
• Does ところを always mean the same thing as のに? What is the difference between ところへ and ところに?

For example, on home shopping programs, you can often hear something like "10000円のところ(を)3000円で販売します!" (We'll sell this for 3,000 yen instead of the regular 10,000 yen!)

So you can say the following (を after ところ is optional):

• 14人乗りのところを30人は詰め込んで走る。
• 14人乗りのところ30人は詰め込んで走る。

In your case it says ところに. I think this is acceptable because this ところ is also referring to a physical place (the bus).

• 14人乗りのところに30人は詰め込んで走る。

Similar examples of ところ:

• ごめんなさいと言うところでありがとうと言ってしまった。
  I said thanks when I had to say sorry.
• そこは「はい」と言うところだよ！
  You're supposed to say "Yes" in such a situation!