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.
Friday 24 February 2012
Thursday 9 February 2012
Land Rover Drivers
Most of them are cunts.
It's that simple. A good example played out before me today, though unusually I won.
There's a narrow bit of road one of my routes passes along, where to historic buildings were built a little too close to each other to make a two-way section of route possible. So, the white line in the centre of the road ends and unusually there are no priority signs showing. Usually, one direction has priority over the other, but not this narrow gap.
My rule is surely the fairest - the first one at the gap has the right of way. Some bus drivers take the view that they're the largest so they have priority despite the oncoming vehicle reaching the gap just before they do. The bus driver will get into the centre of the road before he needs to, thus forcing the oncoming (usually smaller) vehicle to stop back.
Today I got to the gap before the oncoming cunt, sorry, Land Rover driver. As I aligned myself for the centre of the road, I became concerned that I was going to have a head-on collision as the oncoming cunt showed no sign of slowing down. On the phone? Texting? Reading a book? Re-filling his pipe? Extinguishing his tweed jacket? Who knows.
He was actually speeding up to get to the centre ground first. It's not as if there wasn't much in it. I wasn't sure what to do so stopped dead, right in the middle of the narrow bit. Cunt decided to stop, so no collision, and then he stopped leaving a gap the width of a Mini for me to pass through. So I chose to stay stationary. So did he.
Then he used both arms to gesture I just move out of his way. Picture the scene. The first 20 feet of my bus is through the narrow gap and in front of me, almost head on, is a cunt in a Land Rover telling me to get out of his way.
I adopted one of my favourite poses. Folded arms. If that doesn't have an effect after 10 seconds, then get some reading material out and place it on your steering wheel.
There then followed a lot of 'horn abuse' from said cunt as he realised I'd won and he'd lost. Back he went. But not much. Not enough even. I moved forward part-filling the gap he'd left. He had to go back some more, accompanied by more horn-blowing. This time I had sufficient room to pass. As I did there were more horn blasts as he screeched away.
Common Sense Solution: Anyone driving my bus at that time in that location would have been greeted with the scenario I did. Probably folding my arms and reading the paper while the impotent driver slowly realised that unusually his larger vehicle was not going to win this argument. It's a good idea not to get into confrontation with these people. You never know what might happen - some cunts have knives. Stand your ground and if your bus has CCTV mention it back at the depot as it can be downloaded and often shows in great clarity what the cunt tried to do. Often these cunts phone up and claim you've done something to them on par with rape.
It's that simple. A good example played out before me today, though unusually I won.
There's a narrow bit of road one of my routes passes along, where to historic buildings were built a little too close to each other to make a two-way section of route possible. So, the white line in the centre of the road ends and unusually there are no priority signs showing. Usually, one direction has priority over the other, but not this narrow gap.
My rule is surely the fairest - the first one at the gap has the right of way. Some bus drivers take the view that they're the largest so they have priority despite the oncoming vehicle reaching the gap just before they do. The bus driver will get into the centre of the road before he needs to, thus forcing the oncoming (usually smaller) vehicle to stop back.
Today I got to the gap before the oncoming cunt, sorry, Land Rover driver. As I aligned myself for the centre of the road, I became concerned that I was going to have a head-on collision as the oncoming cunt showed no sign of slowing down. On the phone? Texting? Reading a book? Re-filling his pipe? Extinguishing his tweed jacket? Who knows.
He was actually speeding up to get to the centre ground first. It's not as if there wasn't much in it. I wasn't sure what to do so stopped dead, right in the middle of the narrow bit. Cunt decided to stop, so no collision, and then he stopped leaving a gap the width of a Mini for me to pass through. So I chose to stay stationary. So did he.
Then he used both arms to gesture I just move out of his way. Picture the scene. The first 20 feet of my bus is through the narrow gap and in front of me, almost head on, is a cunt in a Land Rover telling me to get out of his way.
I adopted one of my favourite poses. Folded arms. If that doesn't have an effect after 10 seconds, then get some reading material out and place it on your steering wheel.
There then followed a lot of 'horn abuse' from said cunt as he realised I'd won and he'd lost. Back he went. But not much. Not enough even. I moved forward part-filling the gap he'd left. He had to go back some more, accompanied by more horn-blowing. This time I had sufficient room to pass. As I did there were more horn blasts as he screeched away.
Common Sense Solution: Anyone driving my bus at that time in that location would have been greeted with the scenario I did. Probably folding my arms and reading the paper while the impotent driver slowly realised that unusually his larger vehicle was not going to win this argument. It's a good idea not to get into confrontation with these people. You never know what might happen - some cunts have knives. Stand your ground and if your bus has CCTV mention it back at the depot as it can be downloaded and often shows in great clarity what the cunt tried to do. Often these cunts phone up and claim you've done something to them on par with rape.
Monday 6 February 2012
Just Plain Thick
There are two bus stops located along a stretch of road I was driving along today. The first is at a memorial and the second is by a school. They're around 0.25 miles apart. A woman flagged me down right in the middle of the two stops today. I stopped and let her board and after she paid I asked her to wait at either the memorial or school bus next time. She said she'd phoned my company before venturing out (sensible!) and that they'd told her there was a bus stop located by the school (all correct). The punch line, if that's what you call it, was not what I was expecting:
"I wasn't sure how near the school they meant so I thought I'd just stand outside my front gate to make sure."
Bullshit. Complete and utter fucking arse. The lazy cow couldn't be bothered walking to the bus stop - clearly sited outside the frigging school - and so thought she'd flag me down outside her house. She also dropped into the conversation that she wasn't used to catching buses. It shows.
You see buses stop at these things called bus stops. This way, it ensures everyone is treated fairly and that the bus isn't unnecessarily delayed by stopping too often, for example, for the idle wankers who want a personal taxi service at a fraction of the cost.
She asked for the suburb I was heading for he city centre.
The city centre most of my services call at has two major bus stops. On the way in is a row of stops at the far end of the pedestrianised area and beyond that is the second and final stop in the bus station. As I approached the centre, most alighted at the first stop, outside, by the pedestrianised area. She and a couple remained on for the bus station.
Mid-way between the two points, the idle woman got up, strolled to the front and said: "Here please!" Ha! Yeah, right. Now it was pay back time. I tried the old faithful at first, ignoring her completely, in the hope she thought I simply hadn't heard her, but this woman was having none of it. "I said HERE please!"
"I'm sorry, the next stop is the bus station. We only call at the bus stops I'm afraid!"
"Well I want to be at that shop there!" she said, as we whizzed past it at a very satisfying 30mph.
I told her that as it was mid-way between the two stops (a bit like her house) she had to walk regardless of which stop she chose to leave.
Then she started moaning very loudly about how dire the service was and how glad she doesn't have to rely on buses and how rude and ignorant the drivers are. I then lost it. I slammed the brakes on and shouted. JUST SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP AS I COULD CRASH THE BLOODY BUS WITH YOU GOING OFF ON ONE!
All that investment in my Driver CPC and NVQ going right out the window. She sat down and shut up. Perhaps I should mention that at my next training course, that it could be an effective way in which to deal with dickhead passengers?
The sensible thing to do now is back-track, but in such a way that the passenger doesn't know you're doing it. She'd plonked her fat arse down directly behind my cab, so I said fairly loudly that there was CCTV fitted throughout the bus and that my boss takes a personal dislike to passengers distracting the driver and stopping between bus stops and it can compromise safety. I also added that I'd already broken the rules by picking her up in between stops earlier in the route.
The plan was to make her sufficiently aware of how her actions would not be condoned by the depot and so she wouldn't dare phone in to report the incident as her story would effectively drop herself in it.
Needless to say, I've now got a mental image of her and shall be driving past the next time if she flags me down in between stops.
Common Sense Solution: Exactly what I did. Initially point the error out to the passenger (as I did) and hope they learn from it. Many will and many won't, usually in equal measure. If you should find you have a thicko who doesn't quite understand anything you're telling them, you may need to re-emphasise the point in another way, if this presents itself - luckily for me it did when she wanted me to drop her off in between stops. Yes, you'll get hassle but at the same time you're investing in a trouble-free life for the journeys to come as she won't dare recreate the situation. Probably.
"I wasn't sure how near the school they meant so I thought I'd just stand outside my front gate to make sure."
Bullshit. Complete and utter fucking arse. The lazy cow couldn't be bothered walking to the bus stop - clearly sited outside the frigging school - and so thought she'd flag me down outside her house. She also dropped into the conversation that she wasn't used to catching buses. It shows.
You see buses stop at these things called bus stops. This way, it ensures everyone is treated fairly and that the bus isn't unnecessarily delayed by stopping too often, for example, for the idle wankers who want a personal taxi service at a fraction of the cost.
She asked for the suburb I was heading for he city centre.
The city centre most of my services call at has two major bus stops. On the way in is a row of stops at the far end of the pedestrianised area and beyond that is the second and final stop in the bus station. As I approached the centre, most alighted at the first stop, outside, by the pedestrianised area. She and a couple remained on for the bus station.
Mid-way between the two points, the idle woman got up, strolled to the front and said: "Here please!" Ha! Yeah, right. Now it was pay back time. I tried the old faithful at first, ignoring her completely, in the hope she thought I simply hadn't heard her, but this woman was having none of it. "I said HERE please!"
"I'm sorry, the next stop is the bus station. We only call at the bus stops I'm afraid!"
"Well I want to be at that shop there!" she said, as we whizzed past it at a very satisfying 30mph.
I told her that as it was mid-way between the two stops (a bit like her house) she had to walk regardless of which stop she chose to leave.
Then she started moaning very loudly about how dire the service was and how glad she doesn't have to rely on buses and how rude and ignorant the drivers are. I then lost it. I slammed the brakes on and shouted. JUST SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP AS I COULD CRASH THE BLOODY BUS WITH YOU GOING OFF ON ONE!
All that investment in my Driver CPC and NVQ going right out the window. She sat down and shut up. Perhaps I should mention that at my next training course, that it could be an effective way in which to deal with dickhead passengers?
The sensible thing to do now is back-track, but in such a way that the passenger doesn't know you're doing it. She'd plonked her fat arse down directly behind my cab, so I said fairly loudly that there was CCTV fitted throughout the bus and that my boss takes a personal dislike to passengers distracting the driver and stopping between bus stops and it can compromise safety. I also added that I'd already broken the rules by picking her up in between stops earlier in the route.
The plan was to make her sufficiently aware of how her actions would not be condoned by the depot and so she wouldn't dare phone in to report the incident as her story would effectively drop herself in it.
Needless to say, I've now got a mental image of her and shall be driving past the next time if she flags me down in between stops.
Common Sense Solution: Exactly what I did. Initially point the error out to the passenger (as I did) and hope they learn from it. Many will and many won't, usually in equal measure. If you should find you have a thicko who doesn't quite understand anything you're telling them, you may need to re-emphasise the point in another way, if this presents itself - luckily for me it did when she wanted me to drop her off in between stops. Yes, you'll get hassle but at the same time you're investing in a trouble-free life for the journeys to come as she won't dare recreate the situation. Probably.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)