In Front of The Yellow Line

Bus Dimensions

By Shawn Wells

Busses aren’t easy to drive. Correction: Busses are easy to drive, once you know how. Take your average licenced driver, put them behind the wheel of a bus and give them no instruction… Chances are something is going to go wrong. It isn’t a skill that translates easily from your little Honda Civic.

Your average bus is approximately 8 feet wide (from mirror to mirror) and 40 feet long. To put that into perspective, consider the fact that the average residential road lane is only around 10 feet wide. (So, next time you consider getting angry at a bus that starts creeping on your part of the dotted line, keep in mind what we have to work with out there. Very little extra space.) There are even areas in the city where we are encouraged to ride right down the middle of the line. This happens most on narrow bridge decks. This means that the first adjustment you have to make when driving a bus is lane placement. From your seat, you are uncomfortably over on the far left of a lane.

The second thing to realize is the placement of the wheels on the bus. Sure, like the song says, they go round and round. But the thing that song neglects to mention is that the front wheels are also behind the driver. This is a very unique concept to wrap your mind around the first time you get behind the wheel of a bus. In your own car, when you go to make a turn, you dive into the corner with the nose of your car because that’s where your wheels are. In a bus, you actually go past the corner, into the intersection, before you even start to turn your wheels. (So, keep this in mind the next time you decide to park over the stop line at an intersection. Those are there for a reason.)

The third thing to adapt to, is no back window. Sure, some of the older busses have them, but they’re useless anyway. You always hear, when it comes to large trucks, if you can’t see their mirrors, they can’t see you. This is just as true with a bus. I spend half my time looking in mirrors. Have you ever helped someone move, with your back seat piled high with boxes? This is the best way to describe the lack of visibility while driving a bus. Now, with the same scenario, imagine those boxes that you’re moving for a friend are also piled in your front seat as well, so you have trouble seeing out the passenger side window… this is what it’s like to drive a full standing room only bus. Add to that the challenge of a bike rack in use on the front of the bus, icy roads, fogged up windows, screaming children (sometimes all of the above)  there is so much to adapt to. (So, keep all this in mind next time you get frustrated being behind a bus and pull around and cut it off)

Those are the top 3 challenges to deal with when you go from your own car to a bus. There are of course others such as signal lights being on the floor, rather than a stick on the steering column. Considering I already drive a manual transmission in my own car, I’m already used to using my left foot while driving. Regardless, those first couple weeks driving a bus I kept reaching for signals on the steering wheel.

Anyway, now you know the dimensions and what I have to work with. That being said, last week I competed in our local “Transit Skills” competition. (Also known as “The Civic Roadeo”... no that isn’t a typo) This is a fun event where I take all the things I’ve learned about driving a bus and try to translate it into an obstacle course. I had to slalom through a serpentine of pylons. Try to back up in a pathway of pylons and stop within 6 inches of a target. Pull up to a stop and try to land my ramp on a bullseye. Left turns. Right turns. All with hitting as few traffic cones as possible. And it all wraps up with accelerating to a minimum of 30 km/h between two rows of water barrels that form a path barely wider than bus itself and then stop within 6 inches of a target at the end.

The biggest thing a competition like this shows me is that driving a bus is freaking tough. But if they really wanted to test us, they would think of a way to also have pedestrians jump out in front of us while driving. Because really, when you add in things like that you realize that every day is a skills competition.

From in front of the yellow line, that’s how I see it.

     In front of the Yellow line:

For Whom the Bell Tolls

By Shawn Wells

Me to kid: HEY! BLUE SWEATSHIRT! Stop ringing the bell or get off!

Ugh… The stop request bell. This is my nemesis.

People have weird habits regarding the use of this bell. I find it fascinating, often in a head shaking kind of way. For some reason, and I don’t know what that is, I can sit at a red light for 2 minutes, bus stop on the other side of the intersection, and it isn’t until the light turns green and I start moving that come will ring that bell. I wonder what is going through this person’s head. Are they worried that, because I’m already stopped, that I’m going to open the doors in the middle of the intersection? ( Not true, by the way) Are they worried that I’m going to forget that they pulled it if I sit there for 2 minutes after they pull it? ( I have handy reminder lights on my dashboard and a better memory than that, by the way) What drives these people’s motives are a big mystery.

There are 2 extremes that I tend to deal with most commonly. The first is the late ringer. These are the people that ring the bell when I’m only a few meters from a bus stop and expect me to make the stop without sending people through the windshield. For all you people out there like this, this is dangerous, and if you do this I promise you will not be let off at that stop. I will try to pull over as soon as I can and you may get lucky that I drop you off within a few bus lengths of that stop, but for safety reasons, you will not be exiting right at the stop.

The second extreme is the early ringer. There are 2 different types of these people. One is the person that rings the bell immediately after you close the doors of the bus. These people are ok in my books. Advance notice. When the roads are icy, I really like these people. However the other early ringer is the person who rings the bell for the NEXT stop before you’ve even finished passing the current one. You get into this questionable grey area where you try to read their mind. It’s tight, but I could make this stop… or do they mean the next one. I usually head to the next one. Sometimes I guess wrong. I’m not actually a mind reader.

Some passengers, however, expect you to be. It amazes me how many times I’ve pulled into a stop to pick someone up and have had someone yelling at me to open the back door to let them off. But they didn’t ring the bell. They just expect me to know. All I can think about is, you would’ve been out of luck if it wasn’t for this person getting on.

I also get the people who pull the bell by mistake. It happens. But did you know, that only half the time they actually speak up to admit their mistake? The bell rings, I pull into the next stop, open my doors, and no one moves. Blank stares. A very frustrating situation. At least have the decency and say “Sorry, wrong stop”. Or “Ooops.. Next one.” But as mentioned, only about half of the people out there do that.

The last group of people are the Transit Center ringers. These are the most confusing of all. Here’s the situation. As a rule, I stop at every bus station. These are major hubs for transfers, so almost guaranteed, someone is getting off or on at these stops. Many times as well, unless I’m behind schedule, I actually have a short layover built into my schedule at these stops. But, some people still don’t trust that I’m going to stop there and ring the bell as I enter the station. If it’s a young child who has been dying to push that button, that’s one thing. But that’s usually only the case 1 in every 20 times. University students are the worst for this habit.

Maybe there are bus drivers out there not making these stops and it has made passengers paranoid. There could be a deep seeded reason for this behavior. I’m convinced though that it is mostly just ignorance. They ring the bell and I stop, so they think they are the reason for it. But know this; in a transit center, I will stop. ESPECIALLY if the station I’m pulling into is the one listed on the destination sign on the front of my bus. If my bus says “University” and I’m pulling into the University station, I promise, I’m going to stop.

So keep this in mind the next time you ride transit. A driver cannot stop without proper notice. And if you ring the bell in error, fess up.

From in front of the yellow line, that’s how I see it.

In Front of the Yellow Line

Seasons of the bus

By Shawn Wells.

Man getting on my bus: Man, are you a sight for cold eyes!

Me: Ahhhh… I see what you did there!

Quick… Name all the seasons!

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… Right? Normally yes. But as a bus driver you experience more than 4 seasons. You know how the Inuit have a bazillion words for snow to describe the different types? Same idea.

There’s an old “joke” in my city (and probably many others) that there’s only 2 seasons here… Winter and Construction. And although this wasn’t even funny the first time I heard it, there is definitely truth to the statement. For me, I’ve actually discovered many sub-categories to the seasons.

Right now, we are smack dab in the middle of “dust season”. The snow has melted, the roads have a fine coating of sand and gravel on them and the street sweepers are trying to catch up. “Dust season” is one of the worst. Much like “Puddle season” which happens just prior to “dust season”, these are seasons where you have to be very conscious of people on the sidewalk. The big difference between these 2 seasons however, is with “puddle season” you can usually slow down enough to avoid splashing pedestrians. This is much harder with “dust season”. No matter how slowly I pull into a bus stop, I still kick up enough dust to nearly choke out everyone at the stop. It’s extremely hard to avoid. And let me tell you… people hate me during dust season. It doesn’t matter how much I apologize, or how much I try to avoid attacking people with a dust cloud, the laser beams from their eyes fall on me every time. Between coughing fits, that is.

Now, “dust season” and “construction season” tend to overlap. I’m actually dealing with both of those right now. Construction is definitely a challenge with a 40 foot long vehicle. Ever found that they put those pylons and other road signs so close together that you have trouble navigating the slalom in your car? Imagine your car being 3 feet wider and 30 feet longer. And then to top it all off, everyday is a guess as to what you’re getting into. Sometimes your bus gets put on a detour, taking you out of your comfort zone and definitely making passengers nervous that you don’t actually know where you’re going.

“Construction season” also overlaps with “Festival season”. “Festival season” is chock full of detours. These are the days you’ll be avoiding parades, the fair, marathons and so on. Always high volume. Always in the way. And often, times when there are extra charter busses on the road. It is the combination of the festivals and construction that make this all very high stress.

From there you move through “Back to School Season” and “First snowfall season”. First snowfall of course, is a fun day because everyone has to relearn how to drive in winter conditions. But it’s also one of the shortest seasons. You then get “Here to stay snowfall season” and “make up your own lanes in the road season”  which turns into “Snow plow season” and “Narrow road season” (aka “windrow season”) “Narrow road season” is one of my least favorites. Busses already take up nearly an entire lane. Now take away 2 feet of road, in icy conditions. This is the time that I hope my passengers have good snow boots on, because they may be climbing a snowdrift.

Finally the year rounds out with “Holiday Season” when the schedules get all out of whack for Christmas and New Year’s. And then after “Bitterly cold season” and “Slush season” we are right back to “puddle season” all over again. Close to 20 seasons in total. Not 4. Now you know.

It’s also fun watching the fashion on the bus change as the seasons progress. The rain jackets during any of the wet seasons paired with the fogging of my bus windows due to humidity can be a real nightmare to drive in. The additional bulk of winter jackets paired with the heaters on the bus (a little side note on heaters… I have 2 settings… “on” and “off”. Keep that in mind next time you don’t like a hot bus in the winter) are warm enough to make people forget it’s freezing out, but not enough to melt that dangerous ice buildup at my front door. Next to no clothes in the summer months (the hipsters still wear toques) and every single window and vent open, is still no cure for the heat.

And no matter what, no solution for dust season. Except maybe a mask. And really, I have actually seen that solution before.

From in front of the yellow line, that’s how I see it.

In front of the yellow line:

The Greatest Show on Earth

By Shawn Wells

Guy getting on my bus: Can you believe this is my first time riding a bus?

Me: Hey! Me too. Let’s make some memories.

It started with the occasional Facebook status update. Every time something funny happened on my bus, I would share it with my friends and family online and always received very positive feedback. “You should write these stories down for a book!” they would say. So, in these times what is the next best thing? Blog!

I guess I should start by saying who I am. My name is Shawn. I am a city bus driver. Some of my colleagues would be insulted by that term, insisting that I am referred to as ‘Transit Operator’. Potato, Potato. The fact remains, for a living, I drive a bus and I thoroughly enjoy what I do. I think something that helps with my love of the job, is that I’m also an avid people watcher. I’ve never been the type to be in the middle of a party, but rather a casual observer from the side lines. There is no better location to people watch than this . You experience one of the most diverse cross sections of society on a city bus. At any given time I could have business people getting home from work at the same time as homeless drunks trying to get to a shelter. Seniors heading to bingo. Stoned teenagers going to the mall.

Each bus tells a story and everyday I enjoy finding out what that story is. I can drive the exact same route at different times of the day and get a much different adventure. A route in the morning feels completely different than one at night, or on the weekend, or on the weekend at night. School special busses (which I dreaded at first) have a much different atmosphere in the morning than they do at the end of the school day. On the way there, all the kids are still tired and chat quietly. On the way home, they’re loud and all hyped up on sugar.

As I watch in my rear view mirror, the people are a constant vortex of activity. It’s fascinating to see, really. It’s like a beehive. I see people, obviously unhappy that their favorite seat is occupied, immediately take over that seat when it becomes vacated. On a full, rush hour bus I watch as people jockey for position to be near the doors when their stop comes. People moving aside from priority seating to allow someone in need to sit.

Some people just need to sit at the back. I see busses that have a dozen people on it, all strangers even, and they’ll all be crammed in that back third of the bus. That’s human nature. Every day I see the truth in the expression ‘creature of habit’. We very much are. People are thrown off their game so much by a backdoor on a bus that doesn’t open as fast as the average one. (By the way, pushing on them doesn’t make them open faster)

Some people need to sit at the front. Some people like to stand in the entranceway at the back door. One little old lady who was slow moving got on my bus, sat in the front seat. And each time I stopped she switched seats, moving one aisle back at a time. Finally, when her stop came, she exited out the back. This little old lady was concerned enough with the flow of traffic on the bus she wanted to make sure she didn’t exit in the front. But, she also knew she was slow and didn’t want to hold people up that way. What a great old lady. And then, on the other hand I’ve also had the people that insist on exiting out the front. I once saw a group of University students come from the very back seat, down the stairs, all the way down the aisle, just so they could exit out the front (holding up people trying to get on.)

It’s funny how many times I’ve also seen someone exit out the front at the same time as someone exiting back, and once they’re out on the sidewalk they pass each other on the sidewalk because they’re going the opposite direction of where they exited. Make sense? The person exiting the back door heads towards the front of the bus and vice versa. It’s a strange phenomenon. Why wouldn’t you exit from the front if you were heading further forward? Creature of habit. Human nature.

I’ve been on a bus, filled with tired looking people after a long day work, everyone silent staring straight ahead. I was driving into the sunset, when someone pulled out a harmonica and started playing a mournful tune. It very much felt like a movie showing an Old West type trail ride, or a prison bus. It was beautiful and surreal all at the same time. And I have the best seat on the bus to watch it all from.

From in front of the yellow line, that’s how I see it.