In Front of the Yellow Line

Look out

By Shawn Wells

I’m surprised that I haven’t killed any pedestrians with my bus.

I’ll put it this way, some people are so clueless. I remember one time last winter, on one of those super icy, low visibility type days, I had a passenger come running for the bus waving his arms. The problem with his approach was that it was in the middle of the road coming towards me. I guess he wanted to make sure I saw him. I did. Nearly killed him too. This Mensa applicant decided that standing in front of a vehicle that weighs several tons on slick roads was the best way to make sure I didn’t overlook picking him up. You know the part that makes this story scariest? The fact that this was at our local University. Common sense is obviously not a course that’s offered.

For clueless pedestrians that don’t think, the university students are the worst offenders. They just walk wherever they want, whenever they want without any regard to their safety. Not to say that they are the only people that don’t use their heads. There are plenty of others. There is a shopping mall in my city that comes in a close second to the University.

If you’ve ever heard the saying “Common sense isn’t so common” I’m here to confirm that fact. People waiting for a bus are a good example. In case you haven’t noticed, a city bus has mirrors. I know… shocking revelation. The thing a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that the mirrors stick out almost a foot wider and are set right around average head height. The other thing to realize, is when I pull up to a stop, one of my goals is to get my bus as close to the curb as possible. For some reason, some people waiting for a bus insist on standing right on the edge of the curb. These people are lucky I’m paying attention. I get the same thing with people waiting to cross the street when I turn a corner. I have come close to running over toes or knocking someone out with my mirror on numerous occasions.

What is it about people having to be right at the edge of a curb? Take a step back! You aren’t saving a significant amount of time by being a foot closer to the curb.

Many people take for granted what we, as bus drivers, go through on a daily basis. And they expect us to be sharp and alert at all times. I’ll be honest… we aren’t. Just like anyone else that drives long hours my focus can slip, my reflexes can become dull. I’m human. When you see me on road, you don’t know if it’s my first hour on the road or my ninth. You don’t know if my baby had me up in the middle of the night or if I’m feeling sick or if I’m busy thinking about a fight I had with someone.. The people on the street don’t know the distractions I have on my bus; the sounds, the smells.

In fact, I have an incredibly high list of things that are all going on other than my actual physical or mental state. Look at the actual driving. Anyone who drives knows how much goes into operating a vehicle. Yes, it eventually becomes second nature but re-evaluate what actually goes into the act of driving. Obeying the laws, making decisions based on your surroundings. Red lights, other traffic, pedestrians. Now consider that when driving a bus, I don’t have a rearview mirror (anyone with experience hauling a trailer can relate to this challenge) I am busy watching the back of my bus in my side mirrors when I turn corners. But while I’m busy watching my back end clearance, I also have to make sure no one is going to dart in front of me to cross the road. Or that a car will cut me off.  Quite often coming around a corner I’m focusing on the mirrors and only watching out the front windshield with my peripheral vision.

So as I drive down the street, I do all the regular driving stuff and obey all the laws. (And you know I HAVE to more than other motorists... I constantly have an audience and I drive in a giant billboard.) Now, unlike other drivers I am constantly scanning my environment, watching for people waiting at stops and reading their body language (do they want my bus or a different one), people running for the bus (if you’re running for a bus, give a wave… LOOK like you want the bus) and people requesting stops on my bus. Making sure my transfers are set right, trying to keep my bus on schedule, driving with a full, loud load. And the whole time I have to make sure I’m going the right way. My mind is full.

And then to top it all off, I have to be hyper-aware of the movements on my bus as well. There’s something most other drivers don’t have to think about… people standing in their vehicle. I’ve had people fall on my bus before, mostly because they forget that they are on a moving object. I pride myself in being a fairly smooth, safe driver… but if I have to slam on my brakes because of an unexpected situation, you want to be holding on. Let this be a lesson to you if you’re standing on a bus. 3 points of contact. Inertia is a bitch.  

One final note on pedestrians waiting for a bus, keep the line moving. Have your fare ready. I’m Canadian and the Canadian stereotype is politeness. I remember one day, sitting at a stop while I watched 3 different strangers play the “after you” game. (“After you.” “No I insist after YOU.”) It took at least 30 seconds for one of them to take the initiative to step on the bus. I appreciate the politeness rather than the entitled pushiness I see on other occasions, but there’s a limit. I was tempted to close the doors and drive off. Leave them to sort it out. So if someone says “after you”... take it. Keep the line moving.

And take a step back from the edge of the curb!

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

In Front of the Yellow Line

Bus Games

By Shawn Wells

If you’ve been following my blog, you understand how entertained I am by everyday life. It is definitely the grind of the job that forces me to do so. Not that it’s a tough job. On the contrary, it’s the easiest paycheque I’ve ever earned in my life. If you can go with the flow, you’ll be just fine. When traffic gets thick or weather unbearable, the mantra a bus driver needs to repeat is “I get paid by the hour.” However, once you know a route like the back of your hand or you’re working a slow time of day it is very easy to get lost in that more vicious of problems. Boredom.

The first problem is having no one to talk to. The social aspect of my job is a strange one. I don’t actually know a lot of the other drivers by name because I seldom get a chance to chat with them. Unless I’m willing to come into work early or stay late, the only time I get is layovers at transit centers. In fact, often I will have a passenger refer to another employee by name, whether it’s because it’s an old friend or their favorite driver from another route. They will ask if I know them and almost always the answer is no. But you also have to consider, in my city, there are over 1200 drivers and 4 different garages. Plus, knowing someone that works for the transit system, doesn’t guarantee that they are a bus driver. We staff a full time maintenance department (again out of 4 different locations), management, office staff, training department, inspectors, motormen (that’s the train drivers), disabled transport. A couple thousand employees in total. And I’m on a first name basis with about two dozen of them.

But Shawn, you say. Why not chat with passengers? I do, sure. I just usually don’t initiate the conversations. Superficial discussions about the weather or local sports teams are fine at first, but then you end up saying the same thing dozens of times a shift. I tend to wait until someone starts up a talk with me. Unfortunately, the people that start up conversations with a bus driver are usually people that you wouldn’t want to talk to in any other context. I remember one passenger I had once, I had pretty much tuned her out, answering with the occasional “Wow” or “Really?” or “I see”. From her end, it was repetitive and uninteresting and non-stop for 20 minutes. “You know what else driver?”  After overhearing this conversation, when she had gotten off, I had another person come up to me and say “Boy are you patient.” Really, I had no choice because I was stuck in a situation I couldn’t just excuse myself from. So instead I made a game out of it. I started counting the number of times she said “You know what else driver?”

This is the solution to the monotony of my job. I shut my brain off and get lost in my own thoughts. Not to scare you, I am still watching the road. Sometimes, the smallest things bring me amusement. Like the fare box game. This is the game where I try to collect as big of a pile as possible of coins and tickets without dumping it down. Several factors contribute to the challenge of this game. Looseness of the plate the coins land on. The number of coins versus tickets. The bumpiness of the road. Sure, not the most exciting game in the world, but when you’re bored at work, you’re playing “Ker-plunk”. And if anyone asks, I leave that pile there for kids that want to dump my fare box. But in my heart, I die a little when a kid does dump my fare, especially if I have a good pile going.

When you’re bored driving a bus, you notice small things. Like when your turn signal syncs up with the car in front of you. Or spotting a certain type of car all day. I had one early summer Saturday where I realized I had seen 9 different Corvettes, all different models or years. I’ve been known to challenge people to a drag race when at a redlight just for fun. I had one guy, in a suped up something or another, right hand steering, who I pulled up to at a light one day. My window was open and he looked at me and asked “Whatcha running in that thing?” We reved our engines and chatted for the minute we were stuck at the light. (He won the race, by the way) Next night, same intersection, I pull up next to the same guy who is in the middle of telling his girlfriend in the car the story of what happened there last night. He looks over mid sentence to say “...Oh my god! And that’s him!!” and busts out laughing. I informed him I wanted a rematch. (He won again)

Sometimes as I’m driving along, I will try to predict the exact moment my regular passengers will ring the bell with a snap of my fingers. This is similar to trying to predict which door someone will use or which seat they will sit in. Or as I pull up to a crowded stop, I will tear off the amount of transfers I think I’m going to need. Will I be right? Who is paying and who has a pass? And on occasion, what is that person’s excuse going to be to try and get a free ride? (You can usually see them coming a mile away)

There are days that you are forced to play a little game called “What’s that smell?” Often it will be something obvious like alcohol, marijuana or armpit. But sometimes it will be a food smell you’re trying to pinpoint like KFC or pizza (which is even more mysterious when you look in your mirror and don’t see anyone carrying a KFC bag or pizza box) And every once in a while you get a smell that you can only describe a garbage. Just straight up garbage smell. These are the days that I’m glad I carry scented hand sanitizer. Dab a little under my nose and I don’t have to smell the bad smells.

Occasionally, I will pass the time by figuring out what celebrities my passengers look like. It usually involves throwing an adjective in front like “Fat Bradley Cooper” or “White Will Smith”. Sometimes it’s a far stretch, sometimes it’s almost bang on. But it passes the time. Kind of like looking in my mirror and imagining people’s sex faces. This can sometimes send you down the rabbit hole and you regret playing this game.

But above all, being in a job where I spend my time solo simply gives me time to think. There are times that you really don’t want to know what is going on in there. Other times, I spend time thinking about a confrontation I had and what I should’ve said. We’ve all had this time to stew on something that upsets us, but with very little stimulus it seems worse to me. Most of my blogs have taken shape in my head for hours before I ever have a chance to write something down. In my spare time, I like to act in theatre so I will use this time to run lines in my head. Singing when my bus is empty. Speeches or emails have been written in my head. And as long as I don’t forget by the time I get to paper or computer, it works well.

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

In Front of the Yellow Line

My Many Hats

By Shawn Wells

Woman on my bus: “Do you get some really annoying people sometimes?”

Me: “You get used to it.”

Woman: “Tell me the worst one.”

Me: “Well… I once had someone ask me if I get some really annoying people sometimes.”

 I’ve worked many different jobs in my life. But through all of them they’ve all had at least one thing in common. The job description that I applied for, is the job that I worked. Until, that is, I became a bus driver. I expected to drive a bus and provide customer service. The end. I never expected all the other roles that I would have to take on.

The first is psychologist. You could also say bartender without the serving drinks part. I’ve been told by people that work in call centers that they deal with the same problem. I see some people at their absolute worst...It’s sad sometimes. But it seems that when people are at their lowest, that is when they want to open up the most. I had one woman one day, who I happened to remember from a couple of weeks earlier when she was on her way to a job interview. I asked her how the interview went. This turned into a long discussion about how her testing for the job hadn’t gone well because she wasn’t in the right frame of mind that day because of something that had happened to remind her of a traumatic experience from earlier in the year and did she ever tell me about what had happened to her because she had been kidnapped and taken to Mexico and, and, and….. Boy… that was a can of worms I opened that day.

Like a bartender will sit and listen to people’s problems, so do I. It’s amazing some of the personal things a person will share. I remember one guy who, on a cold winter day, said “Boy its a cold one!” I responded with “Could be worse… at least it stopped snowing.” Innocent weather talk, right? His answer was “Or your girlfriend could’ve sucked off a black guy!”  and then proceeded to tell me all about how he had caught his girlfriend cheating and so on. How does someone respond to this? Completely out of the blue! I wasn’t talking about infidelity or black guys. How does someone find the connection to segue from weather to that?!?

The other thing that makes me like a bartender is the amount of drunks I have to deal with sometimes. I mean, let me start off by saying good for them choosing public transportation instead of driving. But, out of all people in the world, I have the lowest tolerance for drunks. And at least a real bartender can walk away rather than being stuck in a confined space with them. From the girls pole dancing at the back door (and not usually the type of girls you’d WANT to see doing this) to the guy trying to carry on a slurred conversation right in your face so you can smell everything they drank that day… it does give me a new respect for people that work at bars. However, when they get kicked out of the bars, that’s when they end up being my problem. It is awkward moving the bus when there is someone that can barely stand trying to get to their seat. But the worst drunks, are the passed out drunks. I worked a stretch of night shifts for several months at one point, and usually had to have security remove at least 1 drunk a week from my bus.

Now just because we have transit security, that doesn’t stop me from being a cop occasionally myself. This is the second part of my job description I was never informed about. I actually had a really drunk guy call me “officer” once. For my own safety, there is not a lot I will police on my own bus. That is why we have the professionals. Sometimes it feels like I’m more of a professional tattletale. But I have been known to kick people off my bus myself.  Occasionally, we will get a call over our bus radio saying that police are requesting our assistance in finding a missing person or person of interest. I have had the person on my bus before too. Bus drivers see a lot of people and places during their shift. The system works. Honorary police. I’ve also had someone come to me saying that they witnessed someone vandalizing a building downtown and that they had just gotten on my bus. I had that person arrested off my bus. But more importantly, the kind of cop I am is traffic cop. There have been times when, while stopped for pedestrians at a crosswalk, I’ll see someone coming up fast beside me. I will stick my hand out the window to try and stop them. Or sometimes I will use my bus to physically block traffic to allow someone to make a turn along a busy road. Bus drivers will actually do this for each other quite often.

The third unexpected job title I have is human G.P.S.. People will always ask me if I go past something or if I know where something is and how to get there. Usually it will be a question like “Do you go past a Safeway?” or “Where is the nearest TD Bank?” But sometimes the names they give me are so random that it would be a miracle if I did know. But people expect me to know where every union hall or warehouse is located. I find it interesting that I can drive the same route for 3 months. In that time, I can learn where every single stop is, which ones are most popular, which ones have potholes, where every bump is on the route, which corners are tight… etc. But then someone will ask me if I go past a liquor store and I’ll have no clue at all. I’m fascinated that I can be so blind to certain things. Sometimes it will even be a question of if I go to such and such street and I have no idea, but it turns out I do. I know all my turns, but because the street they are asking about isn’t a main road, I’ve never noticed the sign.

But this leads to the next job I have, tour guide. If you get me driving a route in my city where I actually know a lot about the history, I will happily answer questions for a tourist. Before I started this job I was never as informed on city events as I am now. Major sports events, concerts, festivals… some of these are things that I never really considered before but people will ask me about. Never would I have cared that there was a Ke$ha concert in town, but if it affects my route, I know about it. Parades, “Paloozas”, Raves, Rodeos, circuses. And

when I get to a section of my route where there is heavy traffic and I don’t know what’s going on, I will pull out my phone at my next layover and Google it.

Through all my different job titles, I get insight into people’s lives. Like the excuses for why someone doesn’t have fare. “Please can you hook me up with a ride? My direct deposit didn’t come through and now I have to get to work to pick up a cheque.”  It makes me appreciate my teachers growing up who had to listen to every excuse as to why my homework wasn’t done. I’m just waiting for the day that I hear that someone’s dog ate their bus pass.

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

   In front of the yellow line:

Bus Justice

By Shawn Wells

        

                           Often on my bus, I see something I like to call “Bus Justice.”

What is this you ask? Let’s take priority seating as an example. You should know what those are if you’ve ever ridden a bus. The front seats in the bus, the ones that flip up if they need to or have ample leg room. Easy to get to for anyone with limited mobility. Now, here’s the situation. Someone in a wheelchair gets on at the same time as someone with a stroller. Who gets which side of the bus? What happens now if someone on crutches also gets on? This is where ‘Bus Justice’ comes in. I never have to help passengers figure it out, they always govern themselves. And I love watching the process.

I remember one time, pulling up to a stop where a little old lady with a walker was waiting. When I opened the door she asked if I could put the ramp out for her. Now you have to understand that putting the ramp out is not a fast process. None of the switches are necessarily close to each other… it’s not simply a case of pushing a single button. First I have to kneel my bus, then set my emergency brake, put my my bus into ‘Neutral’ and then finally deploy my ramp. All in all, it’s about a 3 second process (sometimes longer if you can’t find on that particular bus where the rarely used ramp switch is) To people on the street, that 3 seconds is an eternity. So, back to the little old lady. While I’m busy preparing my bus for ramp deployment, another passenger tried to slip past the patiently waiting little old lady. At this point, she grabbed a cane from her walker (her back-up cane?) and started swatting this other passenger with it. “Do you think we’re just standing here for fun? Get to the back of the line! I’m waiting for the ramp!” It reminded me of old “Looney Tunes” cartoons with ‘Granny’ swatting at ‘Sylvester’ with an umbrella to get him away from ‘Tweety’.

Bus Justice.

This sort of thing happens more than you’d think. Maybe not the physical attack part, but the directing of traffic. Especially by patrons in wheelchairs and Moms with strollers. These two groups of people are not at all shy about telling people where to go. People in wheelchairs waiting to get off will often tell other passengers that they have to exit out the back door. “I have no choice, I have to get out at the front. You go out the back!” Moms with strollers will often come in and say “Move!” without even breaking stride.

Bus Justice.

I will say, these are extreme circumstances. For the most part, people are quite mindful of the people in need. Usually, when I pull up to a stop and there is a person with limited mobility waiting to get on, by the time they board the people on the bus already have lifted seats and moved to make space for them based on their needs. Sometimes the idea of bus justice does backfire though. I’ve seen people get into arguments about moving to make space. For me personally, it rarely escalates to a point where I have to say something.

The biggest thing anybody needs to know is that those seats in the front are there for a reason. If you see someone that requires the special seating more than you, move. It’s that simple. Let’s all cooperate and try to get along, so you don’t have to be a victim of “bus Justice.”

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

In Front of the Yellow Line

You’re Late

By Shawn Wells

Old Man Getting on my Bus: “You’re 12 Seconds late!”

Me: “Sorry, Sir. I got held up at my last stop where I had to knock out some guy who accused me of being 7 seconds late.”

Old Man: “Maybe my watch is fast…”

Late. Early. On time. It doesn’t matter. It seems impossible to please people when it comes to the bus schedule. As a bus driver, the one thing I am supposed to avoid at all costs regarding the schedule is being early. That is the ultimate no no. We refer to it as “running hot” or  “running sharp” My bosses would prefer that I was running a minute or 2 behind schedule.

But wait… being early isn’t a good thing? Not in my world it isn’t. Here’s the thing. Look at a bus schedule. You see that I’m supposed to depart point ‘A’ at one time and arrive at point ‘B’ at a different time. But you’ll also notice that along the way I also have listed points ‘1, 2 and 3’ which I’m also supposed to arrive at. These are my timing points. They are there to keep me from arriving too far ahead of schedule at point ‘B’. Basically, if you are expecting a bus at a certain time you’d probably be more upset to discover that you missed it by 5 minutes than you would be if you had to wait an extra 5 minutes. Because in that first scenario you’re waiting for the next one (which in some cases could be an hour)

The problem is that there are so many variables affecting my ability to  keep my bus on time. Recently, my city has started converting busses into something they like to call “Smart Bus”. These busses, have computer terminals and GPS locators on them. A very cool step for the future of public transportation, people can now track the actual real-time location of their bus rather than just guessing. From a driver’s perspective, the other thing it does is helps to accentuate these variables for me. My computer screen tells me exactly how early or late I am during my drive.

Ever had one of those days where you seem to hit every red light during your commute? Ever had one of those days while riding a bus?  I have. But more than just the expected red lights, poor weather or heavy traffic affect my schedule. Sometimes I have one of those trips where I have to stop at every bus stop along the way to either pick up or drop off a passenger.  This happens most for me on routes that drive to downtown. Sometimes I have one of those trips where everyone I pick up seems to be taking their time getting on the bus. Whether its because they have a walker or stroller or because they just have no sense of urgency. In fact, it seems to happen most when I’m already behind schedule.

When I’m running late seems to be when I get the most people who want to ask questions, thereby holding me up, and then choosing to not get on my bus. An example of the kind of question I get would be “Do you know what time the number 1 comes?” or “ Do you go near such and such place?” (which of course, if I don’t go near such and such, is always followed up by “Oh… which bus does?”) Do your research before leaving the house people! Or also when I’m already behind, I tend to get the people who want to count out there change before fully stepping on the bus. They’ll stand halfway in the door, blocking me from being able to close the door, looking for their pass or ticket. Back when I used to ride the bus as a regular patron, I used to have my change ready to go before the bus even pulled up. Had a special place I’d keep it so it wouldn’t get mixed up with my other change. Why do so many people come unprepared for their bus ride?  

I remember one time that I had to deploy my ramp 6 separate times on 1 single trip. Not one shift… one trip. Normally, on average, I deploy my ramp once a week. (I guess technically twice, once for getting on and once for getting off) But 6 times in the span of an hour? Almost unprecedented. I’ve mentioned in a previous post what an involved procedure deploying the ramp is. Needless to say, that trip I ended up behind schedule almost 15 minutes.

Along some routes, while watching the “Smart bus” clock, I’ve come to a red light and my screen reads 1.5 minutes early. However, by the time the traffic cycle completes its course and I get a green, I suddenly find myself 1.5 minutes late. I’ve even watched this clock while boarding passengers and seen myself lose over half a minute just because there is a large crowd boarding but they are delayed getting on because of someone not respecting the flow of traffic on the bus and exiting out the front.

But through it all, construction, traffic, weather, lights, pedestrians, passengers and so on, there is one variable that you may never, ever think of until you actually drive a bus. Sometimes, its the bus. Not all busses are created equal. Some have amazing acceleration and some are incredibly sluggish. This is the most frustrating thing of all to deal with regarding schedule. Because no matter what you do, no ,matter how good you are, no matter how well you know you route, the bus just physically won’t cooperate.

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