Sunday, May 17, 2009
Attention
Given the following:View Larger Map
I arrive at the bus stop at SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway and 30th Ave. The shelter is on a blind corner, basically. I check the satellite-updated constantly-refreshed magic transit website on my iPhone and find that the bus is due in 15 minutes. I'm tired, so I sit in the shelter, knowing that if I'm still sitting down when the bus shows up, I might miss it if the driver isn't careful, or if the driver doesn't have to stop for the traffic light.
Several minutes early, the bus rolls by while I'm killing time by surfing on my iPhone. I hear it, I look up, and I see the bus driver make eye contact with me, signal to pull over, and slow to a stop.
I grab my bag and run for the bus. I hop on, grateful the driver saw me in time. I fish out my pass and thank the driver for stopping...
And the driver launches into a lecture. "You should be standing out and looking for the bus. I can't see you on that corner if you're standing the shelter."
I cut him off, suddenly irritated. "Uh-huh.. Thank you" I say, loudly, and take my seat.
I'd say the simple conclusion is:
- The driver was early, almost inattentive, but definitely pedantic.
- I was verbally grateful but also snarky.
- But TriMet was definitely wrong to place the shelter on a blind corner. What's the point of having shelters if bus drivers can't see riders when they're inside them?
Comments:
Post a Comment
Greetings, I was out last night until four in the morning so I’m a bit punchy right now. I will attempt to break down your question into it’s component parts because frankly my brain is more fuzzy then my moms twenty slippers.
First off Blind corners its sort of runs with the territory. Any right had corner is blind. I looked at the sat view from above and it looks like the bus is not turning there (I could be wrong) it looks like it’s a curve in the road. Again I could be wrong but a curve in the road is in many ways harder then a turn. A turn you have to slow down for in a bus a curve you don’t so you can go around a curve at higher speeds so the chance of issues is higher.
Now as far as where stops are located they are often at crossings because that’s where the people are and that’s where they want to go. Although it sounds simple and I can’t help but thing that my job would be made more easy by stops where no one wants off and that are not close to where people live or walk I think that defeats the idea of public transit. So many stops are not in handy places for the drivers at all.
Now keep in mind many stops are put in years ago and all sorts of things happen over time. Trees grow, brush grows, new phone poles all sorts of things. So what may have been a passable stop fifteen years ago can be a difficult thing to even see now days.
So before we get into your question the real question is do you want answers or are you just venting. Many people come to me with question like this but area really looking for understanding and not really an answer. I’m going to assume that since you made the post you are looking for answers.
Ok first before we look at your situation I want to say that most people relate to busses through car or bike eyes. They say and see things in their mind that is in no way aware of what a bus driver is up against when they are driving. Remember a job done well looks effortless. Like when Michael Jordan does that slam-dunk back in the 80’s it all looked so easy.
So here is what is going through the mind of driver when they are saying pulling up to a single stop. It’s more then just humor here. I want you think about this one step at a time. I want to see what is going through the mind of a driver. Not all of these apply but you will get the picture. Again some of these will not apply to your specific incident but I wanted you to maybe see through different eyes.
You must
1. Watch you speedometer to make sure you are not going over the speed limit this you must do even more because it is your commercial drivers license at risk and you need that to work.
2. Every 5 to 9 second you have to look out your side mirrors. Both sides. You have to look to check your clearances.
3. Don’t forget when you look out your side mirrors to only glance at them but use both eyes. One eye does not do it.
4. Oh yes and when you are glancing out your mirror every 5 to 9 seconds make sure that you not only check your clearances but you check behind you to make sure of the position of traffic following. If they are too close slow down.
5. Always look Left, Right, Left at intersections to make sure there is no cross traffic and this goes even when you have the right away.
6. When looking Left, Right, Left don’t forget to rock and roll because you have blind spots and only by moving forward and back do you see around those blind spots.
7. Check you dash boards every sixty seconds or so just a glance to make sure your air pressure is right and everything is fine. No warning lights.
8. Watch far enough ahead to see everything that could possible effect your travel.
9. Make sure you are not following too close, count off distance and make sure you have three to five seconds of lead time between you and the vehicle in front of you.
10. Make sure when you stop at lights you leave at least eight feet but preferably one car length of space in front of you.
11. Before taking off make sure to check your side mirrors..
12. Watch traffic flow at intersections to get some idea of how long a light has been the color it is.
13. Before stopping make sure to check your side mirrors..
14. Make sure to watch for pedestrians who can enter a crosswalk even if the light is wrong for them.
15. While stopped make sure to use your side mirrors to check traffic flow around you.
16. Look at all crosswalks to see if you can determine if the light is about to change.
17. Use your mirrors at all times to make sure no car, bicyclist or anything else is in your blind spot.
18. Watch your early late clock because you cannot be too early when you drive a bus. Late is fine but don’t you dare be early.
19. Make sure to check you inside the bus mirror every fifteen to twenty seconds to make sure that you know who is where on your bus.
20. Make sure that when you stop you account for everyone who is on the bus and their condition. If they are able bodied and standing or sitting or shaky and bending over or suddenly standing up. Or say a neglectful parent who is not holding their child. You must glance at your mirror and determine all of that for everyone on your bus.
21. Make sure to keep looking at bus stops along the way for people not standing right at them.
22. Make sure you are looking at everyone along your rout that may be running and waving for you to stop even if they are not at your stop.
23. Make sure to watch out for anyone running and waiving because these people often believe that stepping out in front of the bus is a good way to get your attention.
24. Make sure to inspect any shelter you drive passed especially at night and in the shadows because you don’t want to leave anyone behind.
25. Make sure to keep an eye on the rake of the road. In Portland because the roads get so much rain they have a hump in the middle and angle downward to the gutters. This tilts the top of you bus outwards and you better be aware of that buster.
26. Make sure that you try to use your psychic powers to read the mind of those at a bus stop that serves multiple busses who are just standing like a statue. You may think they want another bus but unless they waive you off and your psychic powers are not working pull over and announce your stop. Don’t worry you are only wrong 60% of the time. Remember to always thank them for giving you no sign…wait no remember to never thank them for giving you no signal.
27. Make sure to keep 4’ to 6’ space between you and bicyclist when traveling at speed even when they are out of bike lane, riding in large clump outside of bike lanes or just doing something crazy like transitioning between sidewalk and street through a crosswalk…
28. When dropping off people make sure you check the landing area for the best footing. Only drop them off where they are safe.
29. Watch out for telephone poles sticking into the street. In Portland just drive up Division between 60th and 82nd and look at those poles lean. Also all of 82nd has leaning poles.
30. Don’t forget to watch every tree that is over hanging the road so as not to damage your bus.
31. At Stops watch out for phone poles, Bus poles Phone Pole support cables. Parking signs, all street signs, fire hydrants.
32. Make sure not to be too far from a curb that people have to jump. You should be under 6” or over 6’ either way jumping is not the solution.
33. watch out for stray children not being held at a stop as obvious as this safety tip is most people do not hold their little ones or really even care when the 20-ton bus pulls up.
34. Make sure you are not to close to a curb that you rub your tire along it. This sort of damage can add up and if you pop that tire you are accountable.
35. When pulling out in traffic do one last look on your right side. Because most accidents are on that side
36. When pulling out in traffic make sure you check over your left shoulder incase some one is pulling onto the road across from you.
37. Make sure not to stop too hard for anyone who is standing on your bus or could be standing on your bus.
38. Watch out for people standing too close to the road when you pull up at a stop. They really think they will live long enough to take Trimet to court when they are struck…poor fools.
39. Make sure you are announcing every major intersection or transit crossing with the street name and the busses that use or cross that stop.
40. If you are new to the rout (on any given day I can be on any route in the system since I’m an extra board driver. By this they mean fill in driver) Make sure to read your 100% map. On one side are direction but no distances. On the other side is a route map but no cross streets for reference. So you can know where you are or where you are going but not both at the same time.
Because stopping times on a bus are so long we have to look much father down the road then some one on a bike or driving a car. What happens a block away can effect us greatly. The primary rule of bus safety is “Aim High in Steering” you have to look far ahead.
As you can see there is a lot of things going through the mind of the driver. Safety is the number one concern. Missing a person hidden in a shelter is not a matter of being carefully it’s a matter of priority. What has the priority going around a curve when our eyes have to be looking down the road for things much farther off is being safety.
The job of being seen has to be that of the person wanting the ride. When you are driving you cannot always take your eyes off the road to do a search of a shelter. This is something you your self recognize when you say “knowing that if I'm still sitting down when the bus shows up, I might miss it if the driver isn't careful, or if the driver doesn't have to stop for the traffic light.”
So let me tell you of my experience in these situation. I often drive what called extra service. This means that I get a radio and I get a bus and when something goes wrong I fill in. I’m often taking over a run for a broke down bus and I’m very very late. So late I’m often minutes ahead of another bus. I can never know because I’m often on runs I don’t know with very little warning.
So now add your scenario to mine. I don’t see some one and I pull over thinking I’m doing the best thing, right? I’m the good guy trying to be there to help the driver behind me from being buried and trying to catch up on a schedule so people can get where they are going. I miss someone because they are in their shelter, no problem, I pull over.
So I open the door and what do you think I get 80% of the time… I get snarky, mean people who as best as I can figure want me to feel bad for picking them up. Like pulling over to pick up someone late is the wrong thing to do. I have called names and even physically abused because everyone thinks they know my schedule, they know what I’m suppose to be doing and they come on board ready to be pissed.
So imagine if eve time you are typing on your Iphone and you make a mistake. A big red angered face comes on and a voice chastised you for screwing up. How long would you keep that product. That is what’s it like to be a bus driver. Times your encounter with the bus driver times every hour, times every day, times every week for a month, then a year and then a career. WOW that one snarky pissed off person who is trying to punish you for doing the right thing creates what I like to call Grumpy Driver Syndrome.
See as a driver I can’t do your job. I cant always assume I know how long you been there, your condition or what you have gone through. If I miss you my only option is to pull ahead and pick you up. The problem is comes when someone assumes they know the job of the driver. Sure our job is to pick people you may not know all the story of the bus driver like the bus driver did not know yours. The difference is the bus driver is going to pick up a dozen people just like you. Where you just have one snarky exchange with a bus driver.
As bus drivers we are always telling people things, some of them good and some of them bad. Some are safety, some are common sense some are just practical. It’s part of our job, we have to inform people.
“Don’t step out in front of my bus”
“Please stand behind the line until I stop”
“Ringing the bell tells me you want off the bus”
"You should be standing out and looking for the bus. I can't see you on that corner if you're standing the shelter."
“You can’t bring that can of gas on the bus”
“Please make room for a wheel chair”
We have to do this. It’s part of our job. Some are obvious but you would be surprised how much repetition there is, how you have to tell people who already know what to do, what they need to do!
Think of this. If that driver was as bad as you make them sound wouldn’t they have just passed you up? It sounds like you would have been just as mad. Now I’m not saying that as a threat. I’m telling you this because there are many drives who would do just that. I hear them every day talking about passing up “Idiots” as they say. People between stops, people hiding in shelters, people dressed in black behind phone poles that make no effort to be seen at night.
The young drivers listening all shake their heads and say things like that won’t be me. However given time and repetition. Every time you try to do the right thing you get shit on over and over and what do you think is the outcome of that? Skip forward a few years and you can imagine.
Remember this is only one encounter you are having with the driver, for that driver you are probably just one many that day, and again do the math for a day, a month a year.
When you say “And the driver launches into a lecture.” It sounds to me like you had a little weight to the situation before you even stepped on the bus.
Now I don’t know about you but if you heard a bus driver talking and they said.
“So I’m driving along trying to catch up with my schedule and I come around a curve and instead of waiting where they can be seen this idiot is hiding back in a shelter. In a place where the speed limit is 35 MPH this fool is playing hid and seek. So I pull over to pick up this fool”
Now stop
Do you think that driver has any way of having a positive encounter with you. Not know what else is said do you think there is grounds here for a positive exchange? That is a big nope.
The same way a driver would look at phrases like
“Launched into a lecture”
“Uh-huh.. THANK YOU" I say, loudly, and take my seat.
Or being snarky, or say taking out your belief about stop placement on a driver.
Also tells me that the grounds were not set for a positive encounter.
Now I don’t know your situation or the driver’s situation but I do know this when you come to an exchange with that much poison things are never going to go well.
Now if this driver is as bad as you think what will happen the next time? What if next week when it’s hot and nasty and you are waiting and that driver goes past? Knowing what I know of human nature I can say that it may be an even worse encounter.
Look I don’t know. I would bet that driver picks you up despite what ever encounter you had with them before.
Again you are just one encounter for you, to the driver you are one of many. People who want to punish the driver for all sorts of things.
In the end Grumpy Driver Syndrome.
Means drivers say nothing, do nothing, pass people, up, they don’t smile, they don’t care, they play everything by the book and people on the bus are just cattle to them. These are normal people trained over the years to be what they are.
It’s not them it’s time and encounters like you had. Right or wrong that type of toxic encounter will turn anyone into a Grumpy Driver.
You do have valid point. But the type of encounter you had set up there was as predictable as a play. I get it ten times a day. No matter how good I’m being I get the same thing it doesn’t matter. I fight off the grumpy every day but it does not always work. It’s a constant fight.
The specifics of any given situation that does not involve safety is not as important as how you deal with it. The best encounters I have ever had have all went against the grain of the ordinary.
When I was driving back to the garage during the snow I was beat. I had driven from 4 in the morning after having slept on the floor of the garage. It was near 8 pm and the driving was terrible all day in the snow like being on a rollercoaster filled with chainsaws. A fresh curtain of snow was making the drive home hell.
I pulled up to a red light and looked over at a frozen shelter. A mother was standing there with a ten year old. I opened my door to a avalanche of profanity. I offered the woman a ride because I was going the same direction. She came on with her kid and was seven kinds of nasty. A few block latter some one else was waiting. Now by rights I could have cruised home but I figured in for a penny in for a pound and I didn’t when the last bus had been through or when the next one would be.
The next stop I made I opened the door and got ready for another slew of crap. A man walked on and stood there. “I just want you to know that I so appreciate you picking me up.” I looked up he was smiling. “I know you were deadheading back to the garage and it means the world to me that you cared enough to stop” He patted me on the arm then went back as sat down.
One encounter like that makes up for a mountain of Ragers, 1%s pissed off people and those who seek to punish me when I do something right. The woman in the back of the bus scoffed and when she got off my bus at 82nd she flipped me off.
To be honest I don’t even think about her but I see that guy walking up Powell and when I do I always stop to offer him a ride where ever he is. Isn’t that the kind of driver you want to help you? Isn’t that the kind of driver you want working at trimet?
Now as a driver I don’t need anyone bowing down to me. We don’t walk on water, we are not angels but neither are we demons. Driving is my job but its so much more then just punching a break or the gas. As hard as it is to drive a bus, it’s harder by far to deal with the people who get onboard over time. That is what makes a great driver and a grumpy driver.
Snarky may work great among friends or in the Colbert report but as a way of communication it is a poison that never leads to understanding
I have to run now.
First off Blind corners its sort of runs with the territory. Any right had corner is blind. I looked at the sat view from above and it looks like the bus is not turning there (I could be wrong) it looks like it’s a curve in the road. Again I could be wrong but a curve in the road is in many ways harder then a turn. A turn you have to slow down for in a bus a curve you don’t so you can go around a curve at higher speeds so the chance of issues is higher.
Now as far as where stops are located they are often at crossings because that’s where the people are and that’s where they want to go. Although it sounds simple and I can’t help but thing that my job would be made more easy by stops where no one wants off and that are not close to where people live or walk I think that defeats the idea of public transit. So many stops are not in handy places for the drivers at all.
Now keep in mind many stops are put in years ago and all sorts of things happen over time. Trees grow, brush grows, new phone poles all sorts of things. So what may have been a passable stop fifteen years ago can be a difficult thing to even see now days.
So before we get into your question the real question is do you want answers or are you just venting. Many people come to me with question like this but area really looking for understanding and not really an answer. I’m going to assume that since you made the post you are looking for answers.
Ok first before we look at your situation I want to say that most people relate to busses through car or bike eyes. They say and see things in their mind that is in no way aware of what a bus driver is up against when they are driving. Remember a job done well looks effortless. Like when Michael Jordan does that slam-dunk back in the 80’s it all looked so easy.
So here is what is going through the mind of driver when they are saying pulling up to a single stop. It’s more then just humor here. I want you think about this one step at a time. I want to see what is going through the mind of a driver. Not all of these apply but you will get the picture. Again some of these will not apply to your specific incident but I wanted you to maybe see through different eyes.
You must
1. Watch you speedometer to make sure you are not going over the speed limit this you must do even more because it is your commercial drivers license at risk and you need that to work.
2. Every 5 to 9 second you have to look out your side mirrors. Both sides. You have to look to check your clearances.
3. Don’t forget when you look out your side mirrors to only glance at them but use both eyes. One eye does not do it.
4. Oh yes and when you are glancing out your mirror every 5 to 9 seconds make sure that you not only check your clearances but you check behind you to make sure of the position of traffic following. If they are too close slow down.
5. Always look Left, Right, Left at intersections to make sure there is no cross traffic and this goes even when you have the right away.
6. When looking Left, Right, Left don’t forget to rock and roll because you have blind spots and only by moving forward and back do you see around those blind spots.
7. Check you dash boards every sixty seconds or so just a glance to make sure your air pressure is right and everything is fine. No warning lights.
8. Watch far enough ahead to see everything that could possible effect your travel.
9. Make sure you are not following too close, count off distance and make sure you have three to five seconds of lead time between you and the vehicle in front of you.
10. Make sure when you stop at lights you leave at least eight feet but preferably one car length of space in front of you.
11. Before taking off make sure to check your side mirrors..
12. Watch traffic flow at intersections to get some idea of how long a light has been the color it is.
13. Before stopping make sure to check your side mirrors..
14. Make sure to watch for pedestrians who can enter a crosswalk even if the light is wrong for them.
15. While stopped make sure to use your side mirrors to check traffic flow around you.
16. Look at all crosswalks to see if you can determine if the light is about to change.
17. Use your mirrors at all times to make sure no car, bicyclist or anything else is in your blind spot.
18. Watch your early late clock because you cannot be too early when you drive a bus. Late is fine but don’t you dare be early.
19. Make sure to check you inside the bus mirror every fifteen to twenty seconds to make sure that you know who is where on your bus.
20. Make sure that when you stop you account for everyone who is on the bus and their condition. If they are able bodied and standing or sitting or shaky and bending over or suddenly standing up. Or say a neglectful parent who is not holding their child. You must glance at your mirror and determine all of that for everyone on your bus.
21. Make sure to keep looking at bus stops along the way for people not standing right at them.
22. Make sure you are looking at everyone along your rout that may be running and waving for you to stop even if they are not at your stop.
23. Make sure to watch out for anyone running and waiving because these people often believe that stepping out in front of the bus is a good way to get your attention.
24. Make sure to inspect any shelter you drive passed especially at night and in the shadows because you don’t want to leave anyone behind.
25. Make sure to keep an eye on the rake of the road. In Portland because the roads get so much rain they have a hump in the middle and angle downward to the gutters. This tilts the top of you bus outwards and you better be aware of that buster.
26. Make sure that you try to use your psychic powers to read the mind of those at a bus stop that serves multiple busses who are just standing like a statue. You may think they want another bus but unless they waive you off and your psychic powers are not working pull over and announce your stop. Don’t worry you are only wrong 60% of the time. Remember to always thank them for giving you no sign…wait no remember to never thank them for giving you no signal.
27. Make sure to keep 4’ to 6’ space between you and bicyclist when traveling at speed even when they are out of bike lane, riding in large clump outside of bike lanes or just doing something crazy like transitioning between sidewalk and street through a crosswalk…
28. When dropping off people make sure you check the landing area for the best footing. Only drop them off where they are safe.
29. Watch out for telephone poles sticking into the street. In Portland just drive up Division between 60th and 82nd and look at those poles lean. Also all of 82nd has leaning poles.
30. Don’t forget to watch every tree that is over hanging the road so as not to damage your bus.
31. At Stops watch out for phone poles, Bus poles Phone Pole support cables. Parking signs, all street signs, fire hydrants.
32. Make sure not to be too far from a curb that people have to jump. You should be under 6” or over 6’ either way jumping is not the solution.
33. watch out for stray children not being held at a stop as obvious as this safety tip is most people do not hold their little ones or really even care when the 20-ton bus pulls up.
34. Make sure you are not to close to a curb that you rub your tire along it. This sort of damage can add up and if you pop that tire you are accountable.
35. When pulling out in traffic do one last look on your right side. Because most accidents are on that side
36. When pulling out in traffic make sure you check over your left shoulder incase some one is pulling onto the road across from you.
37. Make sure not to stop too hard for anyone who is standing on your bus or could be standing on your bus.
38. Watch out for people standing too close to the road when you pull up at a stop. They really think they will live long enough to take Trimet to court when they are struck…poor fools.
39. Make sure you are announcing every major intersection or transit crossing with the street name and the busses that use or cross that stop.
40. If you are new to the rout (on any given day I can be on any route in the system since I’m an extra board driver. By this they mean fill in driver) Make sure to read your 100% map. On one side are direction but no distances. On the other side is a route map but no cross streets for reference. So you can know where you are or where you are going but not both at the same time.
Because stopping times on a bus are so long we have to look much father down the road then some one on a bike or driving a car. What happens a block away can effect us greatly. The primary rule of bus safety is “Aim High in Steering” you have to look far ahead.
As you can see there is a lot of things going through the mind of the driver. Safety is the number one concern. Missing a person hidden in a shelter is not a matter of being carefully it’s a matter of priority. What has the priority going around a curve when our eyes have to be looking down the road for things much farther off is being safety.
The job of being seen has to be that of the person wanting the ride. When you are driving you cannot always take your eyes off the road to do a search of a shelter. This is something you your self recognize when you say “knowing that if I'm still sitting down when the bus shows up, I might miss it if the driver isn't careful, or if the driver doesn't have to stop for the traffic light.”
So let me tell you of my experience in these situation. I often drive what called extra service. This means that I get a radio and I get a bus and when something goes wrong I fill in. I’m often taking over a run for a broke down bus and I’m very very late. So late I’m often minutes ahead of another bus. I can never know because I’m often on runs I don’t know with very little warning.
So now add your scenario to mine. I don’t see some one and I pull over thinking I’m doing the best thing, right? I’m the good guy trying to be there to help the driver behind me from being buried and trying to catch up on a schedule so people can get where they are going. I miss someone because they are in their shelter, no problem, I pull over.
So I open the door and what do you think I get 80% of the time… I get snarky, mean people who as best as I can figure want me to feel bad for picking them up. Like pulling over to pick up someone late is the wrong thing to do. I have called names and even physically abused because everyone thinks they know my schedule, they know what I’m suppose to be doing and they come on board ready to be pissed.
So imagine if eve time you are typing on your Iphone and you make a mistake. A big red angered face comes on and a voice chastised you for screwing up. How long would you keep that product. That is what’s it like to be a bus driver. Times your encounter with the bus driver times every hour, times every day, times every week for a month, then a year and then a career. WOW that one snarky pissed off person who is trying to punish you for doing the right thing creates what I like to call Grumpy Driver Syndrome.
See as a driver I can’t do your job. I cant always assume I know how long you been there, your condition or what you have gone through. If I miss you my only option is to pull ahead and pick you up. The problem is comes when someone assumes they know the job of the driver. Sure our job is to pick people you may not know all the story of the bus driver like the bus driver did not know yours. The difference is the bus driver is going to pick up a dozen people just like you. Where you just have one snarky exchange with a bus driver.
As bus drivers we are always telling people things, some of them good and some of them bad. Some are safety, some are common sense some are just practical. It’s part of our job, we have to inform people.
“Don’t step out in front of my bus”
“Please stand behind the line until I stop”
“Ringing the bell tells me you want off the bus”
"You should be standing out and looking for the bus. I can't see you on that corner if you're standing the shelter."
“You can’t bring that can of gas on the bus”
“Please make room for a wheel chair”
We have to do this. It’s part of our job. Some are obvious but you would be surprised how much repetition there is, how you have to tell people who already know what to do, what they need to do!
Think of this. If that driver was as bad as you make them sound wouldn’t they have just passed you up? It sounds like you would have been just as mad. Now I’m not saying that as a threat. I’m telling you this because there are many drives who would do just that. I hear them every day talking about passing up “Idiots” as they say. People between stops, people hiding in shelters, people dressed in black behind phone poles that make no effort to be seen at night.
The young drivers listening all shake their heads and say things like that won’t be me. However given time and repetition. Every time you try to do the right thing you get shit on over and over and what do you think is the outcome of that? Skip forward a few years and you can imagine.
Remember this is only one encounter you are having with the driver, for that driver you are probably just one many that day, and again do the math for a day, a month a year.
When you say “And the driver launches into a lecture.” It sounds to me like you had a little weight to the situation before you even stepped on the bus.
Now I don’t know about you but if you heard a bus driver talking and they said.
“So I’m driving along trying to catch up with my schedule and I come around a curve and instead of waiting where they can be seen this idiot is hiding back in a shelter. In a place where the speed limit is 35 MPH this fool is playing hid and seek. So I pull over to pick up this fool”
Now stop
Do you think that driver has any way of having a positive encounter with you. Not know what else is said do you think there is grounds here for a positive exchange? That is a big nope.
The same way a driver would look at phrases like
“Launched into a lecture”
“Uh-huh.. THANK YOU" I say, loudly, and take my seat.
Or being snarky, or say taking out your belief about stop placement on a driver.
Also tells me that the grounds were not set for a positive encounter.
Now I don’t know your situation or the driver’s situation but I do know this when you come to an exchange with that much poison things are never going to go well.
Now if this driver is as bad as you think what will happen the next time? What if next week when it’s hot and nasty and you are waiting and that driver goes past? Knowing what I know of human nature I can say that it may be an even worse encounter.
Look I don’t know. I would bet that driver picks you up despite what ever encounter you had with them before.
Again you are just one encounter for you, to the driver you are one of many. People who want to punish the driver for all sorts of things.
In the end Grumpy Driver Syndrome.
Means drivers say nothing, do nothing, pass people, up, they don’t smile, they don’t care, they play everything by the book and people on the bus are just cattle to them. These are normal people trained over the years to be what they are.
It’s not them it’s time and encounters like you had. Right or wrong that type of toxic encounter will turn anyone into a Grumpy Driver.
You do have valid point. But the type of encounter you had set up there was as predictable as a play. I get it ten times a day. No matter how good I’m being I get the same thing it doesn’t matter. I fight off the grumpy every day but it does not always work. It’s a constant fight.
The specifics of any given situation that does not involve safety is not as important as how you deal with it. The best encounters I have ever had have all went against the grain of the ordinary.
When I was driving back to the garage during the snow I was beat. I had driven from 4 in the morning after having slept on the floor of the garage. It was near 8 pm and the driving was terrible all day in the snow like being on a rollercoaster filled with chainsaws. A fresh curtain of snow was making the drive home hell.
I pulled up to a red light and looked over at a frozen shelter. A mother was standing there with a ten year old. I opened my door to a avalanche of profanity. I offered the woman a ride because I was going the same direction. She came on with her kid and was seven kinds of nasty. A few block latter some one else was waiting. Now by rights I could have cruised home but I figured in for a penny in for a pound and I didn’t when the last bus had been through or when the next one would be.
The next stop I made I opened the door and got ready for another slew of crap. A man walked on and stood there. “I just want you to know that I so appreciate you picking me up.” I looked up he was smiling. “I know you were deadheading back to the garage and it means the world to me that you cared enough to stop” He patted me on the arm then went back as sat down.
One encounter like that makes up for a mountain of Ragers, 1%s pissed off people and those who seek to punish me when I do something right. The woman in the back of the bus scoffed and when she got off my bus at 82nd she flipped me off.
To be honest I don’t even think about her but I see that guy walking up Powell and when I do I always stop to offer him a ride where ever he is. Isn’t that the kind of driver you want to help you? Isn’t that the kind of driver you want working at trimet?
Now as a driver I don’t need anyone bowing down to me. We don’t walk on water, we are not angels but neither are we demons. Driving is my job but its so much more then just punching a break or the gas. As hard as it is to drive a bus, it’s harder by far to deal with the people who get onboard over time. That is what makes a great driver and a grumpy driver.
Snarky may work great among friends or in the Colbert report but as a way of communication it is a poison that never leads to understanding
I have to run now.
Dan, I love your blog and I appreciate the human face you put on bus drivers in my beloved hometown. I'm glad I invited you to comment!
You have officially spent far more time on your response than I did on my original post... which may be bad or it may be good. I don't know and I can't say. Either way, it's a lot of details and you certainly cover every possible perspective. Very fair-minded of you.
That being said, I think anyone could come up with a list like yours of all the things that they have to consider in doing their job. As you noted, I was fully aware that if I sat down, I might not be seen. I was aware that the driver had a lot to deal with, both generally in driving a bus and specifically on that corner.
And yeah, I was snarky with the driver. But I wasn't snarky until after he'd decided to tell me stuff I already knew. My first response was gratitude. I was glad he stopped. I wasn't glad he wanted to keep talking about it.
When I stepped on his bus, he didn't know anything about me, and I didn't know anything about him, except that he'd stopped, and I got on. But, really? Was telling me anything at that point constructive? Right or wrong, that was what soured my mood. My loud, abrupt "Thank you!" was all I said to him.
I've read your blog. I know that that's on the milder end of what you, other bus drivers, and anyone who deals with the public every day, have to deal with.
I don't expect you to give anything but your own opinion and the facts as you see them. But thank you for reading my venting and taking the time to respond.
You have officially spent far more time on your response than I did on my original post... which may be bad or it may be good. I don't know and I can't say. Either way, it's a lot of details and you certainly cover every possible perspective. Very fair-minded of you.
That being said, I think anyone could come up with a list like yours of all the things that they have to consider in doing their job. As you noted, I was fully aware that if I sat down, I might not be seen. I was aware that the driver had a lot to deal with, both generally in driving a bus and specifically on that corner.
And yeah, I was snarky with the driver. But I wasn't snarky until after he'd decided to tell me stuff I already knew. My first response was gratitude. I was glad he stopped. I wasn't glad he wanted to keep talking about it.
When I stepped on his bus, he didn't know anything about me, and I didn't know anything about him, except that he'd stopped, and I got on. But, really? Was telling me anything at that point constructive? Right or wrong, that was what soured my mood. My loud, abrupt "Thank you!" was all I said to him.
I've read your blog. I know that that's on the milder end of what you, other bus drivers, and anyone who deals with the public every day, have to deal with.
I don't expect you to give anything but your own opinion and the facts as you see them. But thank you for reading my venting and taking the time to respond.
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