It Gets Kinda Squishy
I had a very cranky bus driver Thursday morning. Now lately the busses along my route to work have been very full. The route goes from a SkyTrain station past BCIT and with classes started I’m often left standing at my bus stop with many other people watching full busses ride right by us. Sometimes four or five go by before a mostly empty one finally comes along and rescues us.
Thursday however, though he had an almost full bus, the driver decided to stop and let our group on. After telling people already on the bus to move to the back three times, about 10 of us managed to get on, with the rest standing in the doorway or waiting hopefully on the sidewalk. At this point he said that we’d all have to move behind the line so he could see his mirrors before we went anywhere.
Now up to this point, I really didn’t see anything particularly wrong with this behaviour. It was at this point, however, that he seemed to have become irritated. After a big sigh and with undisguised irritation in his voice he called once again for a migration to the back of the bus. Now I’m pretty tall and can see over the heads of most of the population in the GVA, and the people in that bus were doing a pretty dam good imitation of sardines. But we shuffled and squished more and another two people were able to get behind the line. This left the remainder of the group either in the doorway or still standing outside the bus.
The bus driver then yelled a one of the guys and threatened to throw him off the bus because he bumped him three times with his backpack. The guy looked somewhat startled at the rebuke and quickly removed his backpack from his shoulder. Finally, the driver looked at the people in the doorway and flatly stated again that he wouldn’t be going anywhere without being able to see the mirrors. The few people in the doorway looked pleadingly at the mass of bodies already in the bus and stepped dejectedly out onto the street to await their fate. The bus was finally moving.
Now, besides the obvious rudeness of the bus driver, my biggest problem with him was that he was willing to create the aforementioned situation and then complain about it rather than take an active approach to control it. I’ve had other drivers stop when they’ve had limited space and actually say that they can only take 3 or 4 people. I have no problem with that. It keeps the number of people on the bus at a comfortable level for the driver and allows those people who have been waiting the longest for a ride to get on with their day. I actually think it’s the best way to handle the capacity problem. I in no way agree with Mr. Cranky Bus Drivers methods. If he didn’t want to deal with an over crowded bus, he should have just kept going rather than spreading his misery to other people who just wanted a ride to wherever.
There, it’s all out of my system now. We now return you to your regularly scheduled life.
Thursday however, though he had an almost full bus, the driver decided to stop and let our group on. After telling people already on the bus to move to the back three times, about 10 of us managed to get on, with the rest standing in the doorway or waiting hopefully on the sidewalk. At this point he said that we’d all have to move behind the line so he could see his mirrors before we went anywhere.
Now up to this point, I really didn’t see anything particularly wrong with this behaviour. It was at this point, however, that he seemed to have become irritated. After a big sigh and with undisguised irritation in his voice he called once again for a migration to the back of the bus. Now I’m pretty tall and can see over the heads of most of the population in the GVA, and the people in that bus were doing a pretty dam good imitation of sardines. But we shuffled and squished more and another two people were able to get behind the line. This left the remainder of the group either in the doorway or still standing outside the bus.
The bus driver then yelled a one of the guys and threatened to throw him off the bus because he bumped him three times with his backpack. The guy looked somewhat startled at the rebuke and quickly removed his backpack from his shoulder. Finally, the driver looked at the people in the doorway and flatly stated again that he wouldn’t be going anywhere without being able to see the mirrors. The few people in the doorway looked pleadingly at the mass of bodies already in the bus and stepped dejectedly out onto the street to await their fate. The bus was finally moving.
Now, besides the obvious rudeness of the bus driver, my biggest problem with him was that he was willing to create the aforementioned situation and then complain about it rather than take an active approach to control it. I’ve had other drivers stop when they’ve had limited space and actually say that they can only take 3 or 4 people. I have no problem with that. It keeps the number of people on the bus at a comfortable level for the driver and allows those people who have been waiting the longest for a ride to get on with their day. I actually think it’s the best way to handle the capacity problem. I in no way agree with Mr. Cranky Bus Drivers methods. If he didn’t want to deal with an over crowded bus, he should have just kept going rather than spreading his misery to other people who just wanted a ride to wherever.
There, it’s all out of my system now. We now return you to your regularly scheduled life.
posted by Yendor at 11:01 p.m.
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