In Front Of The Yellow Line

The Regulars

By Shawn Wells

One day I saw a woman running down a side road to catch my bus. Thinking she had missed me, she was surprised when I pulled over and stopped for her even though I wasn’t at a designated stop.

Woman: Oh Thank You! You are now my new favorite person on the entire planet!

Me: What a coincidence! I love collecting memories of people who tell me I’m their favorite person.

Woman: Well, I guess it worked out for both of us.

Me: It Sure did, number 7.

I had never seen this woman before. But since then, I’ve seen her a few more times. Always at the same place, same time and always running for my bus. I found out that it’s her work schedule that causes her to be cutting it so close. Because of this, I’ve made sure to always check down that side street at that time, every time I work that route. She has officially become one of my regulars.

She isn’t the only regular I have. It does, however, depend on which particular route I’m driving. Some of the busses I drive travel the same path as a dozen other routes, therefore people will get onto these busses without discrimination. They all end up at the same place (usually downtown) so it doesn’t usually matter to these passengers whether they get on mine, or the one behind me. I see familiar faces, sure, but no one I would call a “Regular”.

Now, give me a quiet little community route and that all changes. The ones where I’m picking up people from their houses and taking them to work. I get to know some of these people so well by sight or by where their stops are, without actually knowing anything else about them. Not even their names the majority of the time. I can have transfers already waiting for the people that I know are going to be paying fare rather than using a bus pass. I know which seats they’re going to be sitting in. I know which customers are going to be ready and waiting and which ones are going to be cutting it close. I know who is going to smile at me, who isn’t. Who is going to say thank you, who is just going to give me a wave. I know which customers to get extra close to the curb with because they have trouble with the step if I don’t. But the funniest thing is, no matter how familiar I get with some of these people’s habits, when the weather changes and they start wearing different coats or hats it throws me off.

There are advantages for you as a passenger if you are one of my regulars. Keep in mind, this may not necessarily apply to all bus drivers out there, but for me at least there can be perks. See, on top of learning people’s boarding habits, I also become familiar with their exit habits as well. I get used to which busses they need to connect to, which directions they head when they get off. So because of this, I will start to make adjustments to my own driving habits specifically for these people. Some of them are probably so subtle that I’m the only one who actually realizes I’m doing them. Things like not pulling a little past a stop because I know it puts them 30 feet closer to their destination.

I remember one regular woman I had on one of my routes who was on my bus every night. She knew that with the stop she wanted, if we hit a red light at the intersection before her stop, there was a good chance she would miss her connecting bus. However, if I let her off at the corner before going through the intersection, it was never a concern. The first couple times she had to ask, but after that I would do it without her having to. I eventually I got to the point where it was just let her off at that corner whether it was a red light or not because I knew it was the more convenient place for her anyway. The day came when I stopped working that route and moved on to my next shift. The interesting part is, one night a week I ended up driving the bus that she needed to transfer to. One night a week, I was still watching for this woman.

One of my favorite days to work is Sunday. Sure, part of it is because it’s a quieter day traffic wise. But i also get a kick out of the Sunday schedules because there are so many fewer busses on the road. There was one shift I worked where I was driving one particular route for 8 hours straight. What was special about this particular route is that I was literally the only bus on the road working this route. It gives me a feeling of power. A feeling of  importance. Not to say that I don’t feel like I’m not important any other time. I know how many people count on me no matter what route I drive. But with this route, if I saw someone on the other side of the street waiting for my bus to go the other way, I could call them over to get on because I was going to be the next bus going that way. They’d have to sit on the bus for half an hour longer, but at least they weren’t waiting in the cold. This is one of those routes where I became familiar with my regulars more than just about any other bus I’ve ever driven. On a Sunday, I may not be taking many of them to work, but people are still creatures of habit. Going to church, weekly grocery trips, things like that. And because I was the only bus on the road, I would often see some of these people twice in my day. Taking them to church AND home from it. To the grocery store and home from. It was also a route where I became very conscious of looking for these regulars because I knew that If they missed my bus, they would have to wait an hour before I’d be back.

It isn’t just on my busses that I see regular passengers. There are definitely regular bus station people too. People that I seem to see a few times a week whether they’re on my bus of not. They stand out because of some distinguishing feature because frankly, they’re usually bizarre. There is the guy dressed like a 19th century trapper, full leather outfit with fringe, moccasins and a ‘coon skin cap. There is the grown man who wears a plush fox tail and ears. There is the woman who cleans the busses for us just because she feels like it. The guy that paces around the bus station while twirling his finger.

There are also the people I see that are just very regular transit users. It doesn’t even matter which bus I’m driving. I’ve thrown them off sometimes because I’ll make comments to them based on their quirks. Like one woman who is responsible for filling downtown restaurants with a local newspaper. She has a special cart that she has built to carry these papers around. I’ve had her on multiple routes I drive in the downtown area. But one time on the weekend, she got on my bus on the south side this time with a different cart that she was using for grocery shopping. I said to her “Ah… so is that your weekend cart?” And she was so taken aback by the fact that I recognized her. My response to that was that she had been on my bus numerous times and “frankly, I may not have recognized you if you hadn’t been pulling a cart.” It was the idea of changing to a new jacket all over again.

Regulars are great.

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