More Bus Stories

After last night's epic bus ride home, I was looking forward to tonight's ride being much better. On the whole, it was. I didn't have to wait too long in the freezing cold, snow and wind (less than 10 minutes) and when my bus did arrive, I was able to get a seat. Yay!.

Two stops later, a man got on the bus. He had an expired transfer. And not a "just" expired one. This one was over 10-15 minutes expired. He had words with the bus driver and it ended with the man saying "I've already paid for a ride, I'm not paying again" and he went and sat down. We made it 2 more stops along the way before the bus stopped. And we waited. And waited. At first I thought it was a time point and he was waiting until the correct time to leave but after 5 minutes, I was guessing this wasn't a time check. That's when a transit security person got on the bus. The bus cop had a few words with the driver and then came and found expired transfer man and escorted him off the bus. They stood outside chatting. While we sat and waited some more. Finally the transit security dude waved us off and we left without expired transfer man.

The rest of the trip was uninteresting until we got to my stop. My stop is about 10 feet from where an off ramp exits onto the main road. Not only does the exit have a yield sign, but there's a city bylaw that says you have to yield to all transit vehicles. My bus put his signal on and started to move over into the exit lane to get to the stop when some jackass came barrelling up the ramp and without even looking, tried to fly into our lane. The bus driver laid on the horn and the jackass can to a very sudden stop. Which was rather impressive given how snow covered the roads are. Seriously. How do you not see an articulated (so extra long) red and white bus? And what makes you think you'd win if you attempted to cut it off? Some people are just plain stupid. Maybe we should make people pass IQ tests at the same time as they take their driver's tests.

I'd actually love it if the cops would sit in the parking lot and wait for all the idiots that don't yield to the bus and then ticket them all. It's not like they're going to get stuck behind the bus. Once the bus has pulled up to the stop the cars can go around it in the other lane (there are 4 lanes at this point in the road, 1 turning into the mall and 3 straight through). Some people I tell ya.

On an unrelated topic, my next French course starts tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it. A 4 hour class where I spend most of it lost and/or confused for 13 weeks. And my partner in crime is already slated to miss classes 2 and 3 so that blows. Sigh. Why can't it be a fun class that I actually want to take???. Wish me luck.

Good Night!

Sarah

If buses came with these, no one would dare cut them off.