In Front of the Yellow Line
 Bad Drivers                                  
 By Shawn Wells
                                                 


You know, sometimes I wish that I had the authority to revoke people's drivers licenses because there are some terrible drivers out there. Of course, I'm not talking about you, dear reader.... you're an excellent driver. I'm talking about everyone else. Perhaps I got into the wrong line of work by being a bus driver if taking away licenses is something I would like to be able to do. If you drive, or have ever ridden in a vehicle and paid attention to the other cars on the road, you've probably seen many things that make you shake your head. But on top of my own personal commutes, I am on the road 40 hours a week for work and believe me, I see some stupidity. For some reason though, as bad as the other drivers are around me when I'm in my own car, their poor driving habits seem to be amplified around a bus. I suppose this is much the same way that people are on their best behavior when driving next to a police car.

I'm not sure how internationally recognized the "distracted driving" laws are yet, but in my city it definitely exists. So, if you're unfamiliar with this concept, don't worry because it'll probably be coming soon to your hometown. Basically, this law is supposed to stop people from texting,  using handheld phones, doing their makeup, reading or anything similar while driving. Yes, I said reading... more on that in a minute. Not a single day goes by that I don't see several people texting while driving. From my vantage point in the driver's seat of my bus, I have a pretty clear view into just about any car I pull up next to. The amount of times I stop at a red light and look over to see someone frantically tapping away on their phone actually scares me a little. To be fair, not that it justifies it, the majority of them put the phone down once the light has turned green. WHEN they eventually see the light turn green, that is. And some of them I can see are just changing the song that's playing on their radio. But I do also drive past many people on the road that have their phone to their ear too. Personally, I don't have a Bluetooth system in my own car, so if I have to make a call I put my phone on "speaker" and rest it in my lap. I'm not one of these people (and trust me, I see plenty of these too) who puts their phone on speaker but then holds it in front of their face anyway. People... speakerphone does not equal hands free unless you put it down.

I didn't want to state facts about distracted drivers without having something to back it up. So, curious by how many people I actually see breaking this law I decided to take it upon myself to conduct a little impromptu survey. During the afternoon portion of my shift on October 30th, 2015 I brought along a clicker counter with me while I worked. In a 3 1/2 hour piece of work (2:15pm-5:44pm) I counted a staggering 41 people using a handheld device while driving. And those are only the people I saw! Keep in mind, I was working so I had to focus more on my job and safety than my little experiment. It gets worse. This particular day was also rainy, so visibility was already not so good. Several of the people I saw weren't alone in the car and some of those passengers were kids. 2 of the people I witnessed using their cell phones while driving through a school zone right at the end of the school day. And one of the people I saw was actually watching YouTube while driving. That's a lot of law breakers... an average of one every 5 minutes. If every bus driver on the road at that time had seen just as many people doing this, that would've been thousands of people who were texting while driving. Or, on the flipside, how would you feel about seeing that many bus drivers texting while driving? Or... And this is an extreme comparison,  but imagine if I had witnessed 41 people being murdered... it's a shocking thought. All I know is that if you feel the need to text during your commute, here's a wacky idea for you.... take a bus. Trust me, I've driven enough full, yet silent busses where I look in my mirror to see nearly everyone peering down at some electronic item. Whatever you're typing is not so important that you can't wait until you get home. If it was truly an emergency, you wouldn't be receiving the news via text... you'd be receiving a phone call. In my personal experience,  "I'm in labor" or "Grandpa is in the hospital" or "Your house is on fire" are the kinds of things I've never been told with a text.

Of course, cell phones aren't the only things I've seen people distracted with. Maps, Gps, other documents, women putting on makeup.... I once witnessed a guy enjoying having his girlfriend's head in his lap... I don't think I need to connect the dots any further for you. I've seen people (yes, plural) eating using cutlery and once saw a guy with Armourall and a cloth detailing the inside of his vehicle. As I mentioned earlier, the biggest one that stands out to me is the day I saw someone reading their ebook while driving. It was during the summer on a nice warm day. I was driving through a construction zone when I looked over and saw a woman with her Kobo on her steering wheel. Because of how nice the day was, she had all her windows open. So, I decided to announce very loudly to my passegers "And if everyone takes a look out the left side of the bus, you'll all see someone who thinks it's appropriate to read while driving." Nothing like a bus full of people simultaneously looking in your direction to shame you into putting your book down and pay attention to traffic.

Also, if you're riding my bus,  please don't make me a distracted driver. I've already got plenty on my mind.... knowing the route, keeping on schedule and all the other things that come with driving. Plus, I already have enough distractions on my bus with things like screaming children or people arguing, etc. Most of this I can tune out if I choose. But every once in awhile I get someone who practically forces me to acknowledge their existence. You'd be surprised at how much this happens. I'm specifically referring to the customers who get on my bus unprepared, so they don't have their pass ready. Instead of waiting for them to dig it out, I carry on driving. But then they find their pass and decide it's a good idea to stick it right in front of my face while I'm driving so I can see it. This is why I appreciate little old ladies. They seem to understand that impeding my view while driving is probably a bad idea. What they do instead (if they don't already have their pass hanging from their walker) is sit down, dig out their pass, wait until I'm stopped, say "Excuse me, sir!" and then hold the pass up so I can see it in the mirror. Not to say little old ladies are the ONLY ones who do this, they're just the most consistent. But believe it or not, passes aren't the only thing people like to stick in front of my eyes when I'm trying to see the road. I get plenty of people who wait until I'm driving to ask if I go near a certain address. Instead of telling me the address,  they hold up a piece of paper or a phone with a Google map or a text open on it and put that in front of my face. Of course, my first question is why these people would get on a bus without doing the research first and figuring out whether its the right bus. There have been times that these passengers have been riding for close to half an hour before they come ask me their questions. The second question is why these customers are incapable of TELLING me the address. Maybe people think I have x-ray vision but I'm here to set the record straight. I don't. If you need me to look at something with an address on it, at the very least wait until I'm stopped. Don't block my view.

I've put a lot of emphasis on distracted drivers so far, but those are definitely not the only terrible drivers on the road. In fact, the majority of the most outrageously bad motorists aren't distracted at all. Many of them I like to think of as "important" people. Those people who are in a bigger hurry than everyone else. (I think most of these people are named "Richard", if you catch my meaning.) We've all seen them. I'm sure most of us have even BEEN them on occasion. For some reason, around a bus their behavior seems that much worse. They have no problem playing chicken with a bus. Almost daily I get some motorist that decides they no longer want to be driving behind a bus and so they whip around me, just to cut me off. Happens all the time. The worst is when they do it because they want to turn at the next corner. With about 12 feet to spare, they cut in front of me just to put on the brakes and turn. Many people have almost ended up with a bus in their back seat. If you don't want to be behind a bus in traffic, don't drive in the right hand lane. I also get the people that like to turn in front of me as I'm coming through an intersection because they want to make sure they don't end up behind a bus. Apparently, they are incapable of changing lanes to get out from behind me. They would rather risk getting hit by a bus. These are the same "Richards" who take advantage of my good nature. I'll let someone into traffic in front of me and these guys are the ones who will force themselves in front while I've left a little gap. Or if I leave a space between me and the car in front of me while stopped because I don't want to follow to close, they take that as an open invitation to take that spot. Or during rush hour, I stop on the near side of an intersection when the light is green if traffic is lined up so as not to block the intersection. But as soon as traffic moves slightly and I have a chance to move, these guys slip into the empty spot which either forces me to stop and stay stranded on that side of the intersection or pull ahead block the intersection, which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place.

I've even had people honk at me because I have the audacity to stop at a bus stop. It's amazing that someone wouldn't expect this. I've seen busses for other cities that have those signs that say "Caution. Frequent stops." We don't have those on our busses. Maybe we need them. But as far as I'm concerned, that should be a given. Besides, the signs that actually ARE on the back of my bus seem to have little impact. "Please yield when signal flashes" only seems to mean something to every 10th person. This is especially true when I try to pull out from one of those stops that is cut out from the street.

I see people that don't know how properly to use 4 way stops, traffic circles or merging lanes. I see people run red lights or go the wrong way down a one way street. People changing lanes without signaling or people signaling the wrong way before turning. People going way too fast. People going excruciatingly slow. Basically, think of some of the stupidest things you've seen other drivers do while you're on the road and I've probably seen someone do every single one of those things. So many people that make you wonder how they're still on the road as licensed drivers. I can understand the people that don't quite understand that a bus works a little differently. I've mentioned in past blogs about certain rules and behaviors we follow compared to everyone else. For example, the fact that when I make a left turn, I'm not going to be turning into the nearest lane but rather the one closest to the curb. That's why I can forgive someone who cuts me off making a right turn at the same time because they don't expect this. But the amount of people who disobey "no left turn" signs or "do not block intersection" signs, frankly is mind boggling.

However, I do definitely have a subtle evil streak in me too.  I can just as easily be a jerk right back. When you drive as much as I do, there's only so much you can take of inconsiderate people. Normally I'm a pretty easy going guy and am courteous as a driver. But during a rush hour, when I'm trying to reasonably keep my schedule and I've already been cut off dozens of times by people taking advantage of me, the easy going attitude can dissappear. Suddenly, I become "that guy" who pulls ahead into a spot not quite big enough thereby making me block part of an intersection. I nose my way into the flow of traffic a little more aggressively than usual. It's very easy to get caught up in the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality. But I especially like when bus drivers team up with each other. We often will block traffic long enough for another bus to make a turn. We have a couple transit centers in our city that don't have traffic lights to help us get out and across busy roads. So during high volume times,  often you'll see one bus pull out of the station and block one of the directions of traffic so that another 3 or 4 busses can go. Cooperation like this is one of the things I enjoy most about my coworkers. We all understand the lack of respect we get sometimes and look out for each other.

One day not to long ago, I was driving during rush hour towards a construction zone. It was one of these ones where I knew the left lane ended in several blocks. So I was stuck in the slow moving right lane because further up the road, all the traffic was trying to merge. I was starting to get fed up by people moving out of the slow lane behind me to travel in the left lane just to get to the front of the line. That's when another bus (an express) started coming up the left lane as well. I flagged him down and had him open his door. I said to him "I'll let you in up at the blockage, but for now drive next to me so we can get this traffic moving." So we ganged up on rush hour and did just that. Allowed all the "important" people who had already driven by to merge so that traffic would start moving at a reasonable pace again while blocking the chance for anyone else to slow things down again. Teamwork.

I think our society has become so technologically advanced that people grow impatient very easily. We've become so  accustomed to almost instantly having anything we want. Waiting behind a bus while it loads passengers becomes an unbearable amount of time for people to wait that they instead dangerously pass the bus. I've seen cars nearly wind up in accidents doing this. Definitely numerous people getting honked at. However, I don't want to take anything away from the people who are courteous out there on the road. Many people are kind enough to let me into traffic and so on. But even with the good people out there, some days the stupidity reigns  supreme.

One of the skills I've learned at this job that I'll be able to put on any future resumes is the ability anticipate stupidity. This is something all bus drivers need to be able to do. Whether its a pedestrian,  another motorist or even an animal, we always need to be prepared for the worst case scenario.  Recently, I discovered what happens when you don't. A little while ago I had to face the safety review committee at my work because of an incident that happened in the spring. What happened is as I was coming up on an intersection,  I was yielding because opposite traffic had an advance arrow signal. The arrow stopped flashing, the intersection cleared and I started accelerating again (along with everyone else who had been waiting at the light). That's when someone decided to run the red light and turn in front of me. Slamming on my brakes, I narrowly avoided hitting them, but in the process threw someone on my bus out of their seat and they hit their head. And unfortunately, because I wasn't careful enough to anticipate the stupidity of this other driver,  I am considered at fault for this injury. It's not like I'm being sued or anything, but it goes on my record as something that was deemed "preventable". Now I have this situation that I already feel horrible about and meanwhile I can't pass the blame onto the person that ran the red light. That's what sets me apart as a professional driver... the need to take defensive driving to the extreme.

Maybe I have this perspective or get so frustrated by this because as a bus driver for my city, I'm held to a higher standard than John Q. Motorist. I don't need one of those "how's my driving?" stickers on the back of my vehicle because I'm basically driving around town in a giant billboard. A perfect example is one day when I forgot my watch and I had to use my phone for its clock. Well, this particular day prompted a phone call from a concerned bystander who had seen me looking at my phone and resulted in a talk with my supervisor. The only thing that saved me was the fact that I had warned my bosses that I would be using my phone as a watch that day. But it would be great if everyone had some way to be accountable for their actions the same way I am. Maybe everyone should have "How's my driving?" stickers on the back of their car. The problem is, I'd never get any work done with all the phone calls I would need to make. That is, if I'm not too busy texting while driving.

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