Pet Peeve of the Day

I ride the bus a lot. I rode it in elementary school, and rode it nearly every day during university. I have huge respect for bus drivers (not to mention my father used to drive school busses too).

It’s not easy having to start a shift at 4-5am and to chauffeur argumentative people around…

“I don’t have enough for a ticket, can I just ride along?”

“Can I bring my dog on board? He’s very well trained…”

“My child is 7, I know your policy is kids ride free so can we bend the rules just this once?”

It just drives me crazy when people don’t recognize the service bus drivers are providing for the city. They’re the ones who have to pick up your newspapers that you threw on the ground. They have to peel off the bus tickets you’ve taped to the windows. They get insults hurled at them, firecrackers exploding in their faces, and even attacked.

They’re totally undervalued and I wish people driving cars would take more time to let busses go in front of them (they’ll only be driving another block before they have to stop again anyway).

Busses are a bad enough experience as it is. It’s always stuffy, it has a strange smell, there’s always a weirdo or two, but it’s a quick and efficient way to travel around. So let’s all just get along and get through this without getting angry or overreacting.

And why do people complain about the transit system to the driver, as if he has any control or say about it?

Today on the bus a man apparently missed his stop and started screaming at the driver from the back of the bus. What I think happened, is this:

There was construction along the side of the road, so the driver deemed it unsafe for the bus to stop at the regular stop. So he drove along and called out to ask whether anyone needed that stop, and if so, they should get off then and there.

This irate rider didn’t hear the driver it seems, for two stops later he starts berating the driver.

Couldn’t have said something earlier, sir? Maybe, perhaps, when you actually missed your stop and not three blocks down? Of course your situation seems more dire the further you are from your destination, but you could have walked up to the driver and said something discreetly instead of disturbing the whole bus and using profanity around the several children in the bus.

How inconsiderate.