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.