In Front of the Yellow Line
Seasons Greetings
By Shawn Wells

(A note before I get into this. There are a few situations where you'll come across specific information in this post that I've chosen to redact. You may have noticed, if you're a regular reader, that I've never named my city in my blog. Part of the reason is because I like to keep my posts as generic as possible. But the other reason is that this blog is not officially sanctioned by my city. Although I don't think I ever bad mouth my employer, these are my opinions alone and in no way reflect the opinions of my employer. The majority of the people who read this know where I live anyway and I know I've left enough clues in my posts that anyone could probably figure it out. For the purposes of this specific post, I feel it's important to list the full information, even if I'm redacting specific words.  Hopefully you can understand my reasoning. Basically: I'm covering my ass.)

Hey! Merry Chri... er... Holiday Greetings everyone! The fact is, I've never seen the problem with saying Merry Christmas. I understand the theory of trying not to offend, but frankly if someone were to say to me "Happy Hanukkah" I'm not going to turn around and say "Actually, I'm not Jewish." For me, it's the thought that counts. The fact that anyone wishes me well at all. I'm not religious either, but if someone says "God be with you" I'm not going to refuse their good intentions. And believe me, on my bus I've definitely had people say all sorts of things that don't follow the same belief system that I do.

But I digress. I don't want to start a debate about being politically correct or proper holiday etiquette. What I actually want to talk about is those signs you see on the front of a bus. Don't worry, it's related. You'll see. The signs I'm referring to are the "Public Relations" messages. You've probably seen them. Anything that a bus displays that isn't a route number or destination. This could be anything from "Express" to "Welcome Aboard" to "Go Sports Team Go".

I've been asked before "Do you get to program your own messages?" The answer is a simple no. I get to choose from a list of canned messages. Really, if we had free reign on what we get to display, that could easily turn bad. Especially when I consider some of the grumpy coworkers I've seen. On occasion, we will be instructed to put up specific messages. These would be things that the city (my employer) would require the public to know. One of these messages in my city, as an example,  would be "Parking Ban in Effect". We see this one in the winter when the streets are being plowed of snow, informing people to not park in the "Snow Route" areas. And sometimes we'll be strongly encouraged to put up other messages, if the peer pressure doesn't get to us first. One example I can think of is last summer, a police officer in our city was killed in the line of duty and they went to the trouble of programming the busses with a special hashtag message for the occasion. They didn't insist that we put this message up, but it was definitely encouraged. Of course, I can't imagine any of our drivers being disrespectful enough not to. Same with "Welcome Home Troops". No matter what your perspective or opinion is on war or the military, it's just in bad taste to not go with the majority with a message like that.

I'm not a big user of these messages. Some of the drivers program PR messages as part of their normal routine. The problem I find is that they easily confuse people. Some of the messages we have are so long that you hardly get enough time to read the actual important information like route number and destination. We have one that's so long, it cycles through 3 different screens before it gets back to the main destination screen. A veritable essay when you're trying to read something on a moving object. For people waiting at a stop, if the actual route is only displayed once every 10 seconds, this can be a challenge for catching the right bus. As I've mentioned in the past, some people have enough trouble getting on the correct bus already,  why complicate it even more?

Here's a perfect example. I remember once that I drove by one of those stops that services the same bus no matter which direction it's going. These are complicated enough for some people because they REALLY have to pay attention to what the destination says. I was headed to an easterly destination. But because it was around Remembrance day (the Canadian equivalent of Veteran's day, in case you don't know), I had the extra message "Lest We Forget" displayed which one woman read as "West [redacted] Mall" and she got on my bus. Boy was she upset when soon after I was headed in the opposite direction. But I can see the honest mistake. She had seen the number from a distance, and she had seen most of the correct letters on the sign. If she's not paying close enough attention, she's going to end up the victim of minor dyslexia. Ever since that day, I've been a little more conscious of these additional messages on the bus.

There are a few that I will use regularly, I admit. Our city has an NHL hockey team and a CFL football team. On game days, you bet I'll show support for the home team and put up a "Go [redacted] Go" message. I've also on occasion used the messages to crack a joke. My city is one where you can never be surprised by unseasonable weather at any time of year. I remember once when it snowed in June and I decided it was hilarious to put up "Welcome to [redacted]". Of course, it's only hilarious to people that read it sarcastically. But boy do I wish I could've had a "Merry Christmas" or " Winter Wonderland" sign to put up that day.

Now here's where it all ties together. One problem I have with these messages are the ones that are vague and non specific. We have a generic "Happy Holiday" message that we can use. But let's face it, not all holidays are created equal. I know I've had this conversation before: "Why is it a long weekend? What's the holiday? Victoria day? What the hell is Victoria day? Do I get paid overtime? Ok then... that's all that matters." Really, if you were watching Family Feud and Steve Harvey says "Name a holiday", "Labour Day" is not going to be the number one answer. Christmas and Easter... those are your flagship holidays. The problem is, for political correctness reasons, they're also the most controversial.  Our busses do have a few messages that single out specific holidays.... Thanksgiving,  Canada day and the aforementioned Remembrance day, but nothing specific to the others. So, on Christmas Day, I only have the option to put up the same message I would use for any other redheaded stepchild holiday.

I would like it if I could get a "Seasons Greetings" message to display in December. At least that's a vanilla, non-offensive option. But unfortunately I don't get that as a choice. Just plain old blunt "Happy Holiday". Not even holidays with an "s" on the end. Sadly, I've also never thought of a non-denominational way to say "Happy Easter" either. So it also gets the generic "Happy Holiday" sign. The way I see it is that people take themselves too seriously, especially when it comes to something that has a basis in religion. At Easter, whether you celebrate the resurrection of Christ or a bunny that hides eggs or both or neither, the fact remains that if you live in my country, you get to benefit from the perks that come with the holiday. You don't have to celebrate the holiday itself, but why not celebrate the fact that you get a day off or overtime pay. Enjoy it! You don't celebrate Easter, that's fine. But at least respect the fact that the majority of the people around here do and that's the reason you're getting a 4 day weekend right now. Don't get your panties in a twist just  because people want to wish you a Happy Easter. People's personal beliefs don't really affect me that strongly. I've been to baptisms even though I'm not Christian. I once attended a Hindu wedding and followed their customs out of respect,  despite the fact I'm not Hindu. Want me to come to your Bar Mitzvah wearing a yarmulke?  Sure. Doesn't mean I'm converting, but I'm also not going to try and impose my own cultural beliefs on you either. I'll come and celebrate the occasion and enjoy the party.

Personally, I would be perfectly happy to observe something like "Kardashian Day" if it meant I get more money on my paycheque. Sure, I probably wouldn't CELEBRATE the holiday... I'm not going to go and prepare the traditional "Kardashian Day feast" of rump roast (am I right? Hahaha... high five me on that one!) because I'm afraid that meal would just be tasteless and full of regret. (Ha! I'm on a roll here! C'mon! Don't leave me hangin' on that high five!) But if someone wished me a "Happy Kardashian Day" I'll say thank you, rather than launch into some debate about how I don't share the same spiritual beliefs. I may even be willing to put up a "Happy Holiday" greeting in its honor. "Happy Kardashian Day? You betcha! I'm getting paid triple today!" People... Don't get offended so easily.

Maybe you live in a city where they have a little more fun and don't worry as much about offending people. A city where the busses actually do say "Merry Christmas" or at the very least "Season's Greetings". Not here though. I'd even like to see some of the non holiday holidays get recognition. Days like Halloween or St. Patrick's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day or Valentines Day. Or even something progressive like Pride Day. I don't even get a Happy New Year sign to display. Is it possible that it's because other countries like the Ukraine or China don't celebrate the New Year on December 31st? Perhaps. But I'm not working in those countries. I've made suggestions about adding more Public Relations messages into our suggestion box at work and gotten nothing. Also suggestions for other possible signs like "Go Canada Go" which could be displayed during the Olympics for example. Or the fact that there are 3 different sports teams in our city that we're allowed to wear jerseys to support,  but only 2 of those teams get a "Go Sports Team Go" sign dedicated to them. Maybe they actually should give me the power to program my own signs. Nah... that's still a bad idea any way you look at it.

Oh well... I guess I'll have to settle for wearing a Santa hat at this time of year. I will say, I've been wearing it all month and not a single person has complained that they're offended by it. In fact, I get more smiles and compliments from passengers in the month of December than any other time of year. Merry Christmas, everyone! There. I said it. And look at that, the political correctness police didn't come and arrest me.

However, just in case... Happy Hanukkah,  Joyous Kwanzaa,  Festivus for the rest of us! Whatever your beliefs at this time of year, I hope it's a good one! And a very Kardashian New Year to you too!

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

In Front of the Yellow Line
Listening to the Radio

By Shawn Wells

Recently, I was working when a message came over my work radio. "Attention all route 6 busses in service. Due to railroad crossing arms being stuck, route 6's will detour as follows..." We get calls like this all the time. Unforseen circumstances that require our busses to go off course and avoid certain traffic issues like collisions. This particular case was special to me because in about 5 minutes, I was going to become a route 6, so I paid extra close attention to this call. By the time I got to my location to change the number on my bus however, the problem had been solved. Thankfully, no awkward detour for me. But it didn't stop people from approaching me and asking me why other busses were delayed.

As I've mentioned in past posts, a lot of the time a bus driver will not work the same route number all day. Their bus will service a few different routes. I've also mentioned in the past that some regular transit riders are very knowledgeable about this fact. These customers that approached me knew that the bus they were waiting for was going to be a route 6 before changing to the one they wanted. Some of them had already been waiting long enough that 3 of their busses should have already been and gone. I explained the situation that the busses were dealing with, to which I received the response "Well, if you know the reason, why wasn't 311 (our phone number for transit related inquiries) know?" My answer was "Often, 311 only knows there is a problem but don't receive the intel as to why." Although this answer sort of appeased them, it didn't stop them from continuing on discussing amongst themselves the flaws in our transit system.

The real reason is probably far more complicated. Now, this is just an educated guess, but here's my theory. The first bus to come on the scene probably thought nothing of it. Pulled up and stopped at the railroad tracks and started waiting. Most of us have probably had to wait at frustrating train crossings every now and then where you watch a train back up, stop, move forward,  stop, back up again.... Well, for a bus driver who spends 40 hours a week driving, we've definitely seen our share of stupid railroad situations. So my guess is that any bus that was waiting there took a while to realize there was no train and the problem was with the arms themselves. Let's say 10 minutes.

At this point they would call "Control" (the people on the other end of the radio). Control are the problem solvers, a very handy resource for us bus drivers. If I had an emergency on my bus, they would call the appropriate emergency response on my behalf and walk me through the next steps I need to take. They deal with any problems from the small (like a broken bus shelter) to the emergencies (like someone having a heart attack). If I have any issues however, getting a hold of them can be a much more involved process than you think. First of all, I have to push a button on my radio. There are 2 different buttons depending on the urgency of your problem. If I was reporting a broken bus shelter, for example, that isn't as important as someone who had their bus die. If I were to just pick up my radio and start talking,  it would interrupt any conversation happening between control and any other drivers. The only time I do this is in an emergency,  like a collision or a violence threat. Now, as the driver who is stuck at this railroad crossing I've determined that the level of urgency is the lowest. After pushing the button, I now have to wait for control to call ME. The thing is, control is only staffed by 2-4 people at any given time. If they are dealing with any other problems,  you have to wait your turn. There have been days that I've waited half an hour for them to call back. So, for argument's sake let's say they were moderately busy and took 15 minutes to call back. Now we're up to 25 minutes on this one incident.

So, control would've called this driver back and the driver would've explained the situation. At this point, control would've had to start doing research on they're side. Phoning the railroad company to find out whats going on and also figuring out a detour for busses to start taking. Once they have it determined on their end that there is in fact a problem, they would make an announcement to all the busses informing them that they need to detour.  It is then that they would contact 311 to let them know that there is a delay. Let's say this adds another 10 minutes to the overall picture. Now we have 35 minutes that this train has delayed our bus before anything gets done about it. And meanwhile that first bus is probably still stuck because they are trapped somewhere they can't turn around.

From that particular location, the busses that ARE able to get on the detour have to go 5 minutes out of their way to get around the blockage and then another 10 to where all these people waiting and asking where their bus is. So, I can easily believe that some of these passengers have been waiting nearly an hour for their bus to come. But from my point of view, Control had told me to go on a detour and then taken it back within 5 minutes whereas this situation had probably already been a problem for half an hour. You can see how it's just easier to tell people that "the arms on the railroad are stuck" because there is so much more behind it.

As for why 311 wasn't able to tell them what was going on, this is probably because Control tends not to be very forthcoming with explanations. This is a situation where I actually received more information than usual. These people were lucky that day. Normally I'm kind of in the dark about whats going on. Much like everyone else, if something happens on any of our busses I find out about it on the news or on social media. If someone has an emergency, I hear that driver call over the radio with their "Pan-Pan-Pan"* and that is normally the only part of the conversation I hear. The rest is done in private. I'm left to speculate on what kind of emergency they are having based on the tone of panic in their voice. Was it a collision? Did they have someone fall on their bus? Fire? Assault? I never tend to hear anything later on about any of these problems. It isn't made public knowledge. I sometimes hear rumors, but never anything from an official source. Often passengers will come up to me and say "Did you hear about that one driver..." or "do you know what's going on with..." but honestly,  most of the time I haven't or I don't. If it hasn't been all over Facebook that day, it's probably news to me. You just may be the unofficial source that I heard the rumor from. The "official" people tend to not tell me anything. However,  I can speculate with the best of them.

So now you know that the radio on the bus isn't as simple using a phone. When you ask a driver for a "simple" request like calling ahead to have a bus wait for you, there is quite a process. We are happy to do something like that for you, but you have to give us some warning. Plan ahead.

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

(*A note on "Pan-Pan-Pan" for any people that may be unfamiliar with that term. This a newer universally recognized distress signal. The idea is that it's is a sound that is used in most languages around the world and easier to say for some people than "Mayday". I have only ever seen one movie where they use "Pan-Pan-Pan", which is "World War Z" with Brad Pitt saying it when his plane is going down.)