Zig-Zag

A new supermarket has opened in an area of town where there had been a section of hail and ride. Steps down from the main road to the new superstore have been built and so too has a pelican crossing. Annoyingly, this has all happened precisely where we used to stop for passengers. There has never been a bus stop sign or markings of any description here before, now there are just zig-zags denoting the pelican crossing.

It is an offence to stop of zig-zag lines, mainly because you obscure the view of the crossing from other road users - especially when you're driving a double-decker bus. So, we do not stop here for passengers now on safety and legal grounds. But now the old stopping place is in THE most convenient place for people, as lots want to use the superstore.

Today, a lad flagged me down literally feet away from the pelican traffic light. I slowed, indicated, and gestured to him that I was going to stop beyond the zig-zags. He spotted what was happening and jogged up to where I stopped. All was well, I thought.

"Very fucking funny, mate!" he said as he got on. I thought he was messing, but no.

I told him I can't stop there as I'm blocking the entire crossing and I'm also on zig-zag lines. He shook his head as if I just tried to question his unshakable belief in his football team.

"You're not right in the head, that's all I can say!" was his response.

Common Sense Solution: You're always going to get responses from people like this. You tell them the law - the ultimate 'how it is' - and they somehow think it is sad or that you're some sort of lemming, blindly following the rules to the nth degree (when often it is they who are doing lemming impressions by paying £30+ per week to see 11 of their idols kick something that was historically a sheep's bladder around a football pitch for 90 minutes). Some don't like the fact that you've made them run and people on the bus can see you've forced them to do something they don't want to do. It's as if you're challenging their self-styled alpha male credentials. 


The way forwards is to make sure you do this every time you are flagged down by someone in this location and to get your company to site a proper bus stop in a safe location in the vicinity. It is far simpler to point to the new stop and say "that's where we stop now". Once again, hail-and-ride is just awful - the root cause of all manner of arguments and cross words just for operators and local councils to save money on bus stop infrastructure.