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.