Buses, Bus-Drivers and Bus Stops!!

Buses!! Ahhh...
You turn up 15 minutes early at the faintly (understatement!!) smelling of Urine Bus stop, and the Bus turns up an hour late... Followed by another, both going to your destination.
The doors open and your greeted by 'GOD' who has the power to throw you off the Magical Mystery Bus because you dont have the 'right' change... And when you do, they make a palaver of how they have to sort out their change etc.

Other times, after walking to the 'urine' smelling bus stop in the pouring down rain, you get on the Bus, to find its empty... Buuttt, a mile down the road, some random gets on, and for NO absolute reason decides to sit next to you!! - Even if you dont know who they are..
Sometimes they sit there in silence occashionally scratching their scalp and 'flicking' dandruff over you, or they actually decide to chat/make small talk with you...

Usual subjects include:

~ Oh, your from the Village huh? Do you know so and so,(NO) there about your age...

~ I can speak Spanish, but im not fluent (contradictory).

~ I love buses, you meet and get to see intresting new people, and Im one of them!

~ Why are you on the Bus?

~ (In my local slang) Owes, mush.., youz got tha time? I gotta get my Giro so I can getz sum booze. I luvs it... (translation: excuse me, have you got the time? Im late for an appointment at my local Job Center, and if im late, I may not be able to go out later and I rather enjoy socializing.)

~ I Went to the local market and got 6 bannanas for 99p!!... Bargain! -Oh, and I just spent over four grand on an around the world trip!!

Etc...

Also, when your new friend sits next to you on the empty bus and makes some of the random small talk mentiond above, after a while they'll ask, "whats that smell?" and you then realise that urine smell from the Bus Stop has clung to your clothes, and will now hug you tightly, all day in work like some sort of saftey blanket... (which will also result in a few dodgey comments from workmates..)

Also, when your late for the Bus, it some how magically comes early.
But then theres the other points of "catching the bus" a lot of people are/may be familiar with here, such as:

~ Someone sitting behind you who wont stop fidgiting, and keeps banging/knocking your seat.

~ Someone behind you who has flu/a cold and dosnt cover their mouth when they sneeze.

~ Someone eating food behind you who is also talking with their mouth-full and spitting the food out over the back of your head.

~ And Lastly (I could Rant and Rant about this all day, but I wont) is when the Bus driver SLAMS on the brakes for no apparent reason, sending you flying forwards or giving you whiplash... And even in the event that you manage to stop yourself flying forwards, its almost guarented that the person behind you cant do this... And its also guarented that they happen to be holding an open drink when this happens...

Anyway, in general I suppose I hate public transport, and this is a rant about it. But I put up with the Bus, the Drivers, The smelly Bus stops because I need to get somewhere... But Ill tell you what, I cant wait to get a car again.

Also, then again, think what the world would be like without ANY public transport...
Alot of city folk are reziliant on it and it does take a strain off the roads, what with less cars and cut/lower carbon emmissions etc.

And if theres any bus drivers on here, then sorry, but its a Love/Hate thing... Lol.


If anyone has any similar bus related rants, add'em here!!

Cheers,
eee.


[edit on 27/7/10 by Esrom Escutcheon Esquire]

Bus drivers seem to have some sort of sadistic tendencies - it's everyday that a bus driver will for no reason whatsoever just drive past a bus stop where lots of people are waiting.

Here in London however, we don't have the problem of people talking to you though. Everyone is afraid to even look at eachother here!

reply to post by PeaceUk


Ha Ha, Crazy eyes huh? ..Well down my way theres plenty of people who give 'eye-balls' to others.

Another thing I hate is when I get of the bus and start walking down the road and the bus just slowly creeps down the road next to me when its stuck in traffic... Dont know why. But that makes me uncomfortable.

eee.

On some London bus routes (possibly all of them?) you have to buy your ticket from a machine at the bus stop.

There are at least three problems with this:

Often the machines are broken

You might buy a ticket but have to give up waiting for the bus because they take ages to arrive and you're in a hurry and have to take an alternative form of travel

You might miss the bus if you stop to fiddle about at the machine

If you get on the bus without a ticket the bus driver will outright lie and tell you that he cannot issue you with a ticket, even with his ticket machine sitting there staring you in the face.

The proof that he is lying will come a couple of stops later when he stops at a request stop where there is no ticket machine. What happens when the passengers from that stop get on the bus? They have to buy a ticket from the driver...

One day, heavily laden with shopping, I had to get on a bus without a ticket because of a faulty ticket machine. The driver could see how much I was struggling with the weight of my purchases. But it must have been a good day. He let me on the bus but made me get off at the next (crowded) stop to buy a ticket. And struggle back on the bus, having lost my seat.

Other passengers? No, they don't talk to you on London buses but they have other ways of making you feel uncomfortable.

I was sitting on one of those funny little side seats when a man quite deliberately stood in front of me with his crotch about an inch away from my face (I'm not exaggerating) and with his hand holding onto two rails either side of me so that I was 'hemmed in'.

I was with a friend and my elderly dog, so I didn't want to make too big a scene. I stood up abruptly and asked him if he wanted the seat. He said he didn't. So I said that I didn't either, and moved a few feet away to where my friend and dog were standing. And spent the rest of the journey loudly complaining about the guy's lack of manners, well within his earshot, hoping to shame him.

Soooo glad I'm out of all that now.

That was frikken hilarious!
I couldn't stop giggling into my coffee, now my boss keeps eyeballing me over the desk partition... ooOOOoodear

I used to love ridding the bus when i was a kid it was in california so it was really raunchy. I would always sit next the crazy people and try to have rational conversations with them. I loved it because with some of them it did not matter waht i said just how i said it and i fuggured out how to set some of them off and make these epic scenes. We used to call it the mexican limousine or the mobile mental hospital. There was this one bus driver that was really cool we were 14 and he was 35 and would drink with us and he was dating one of my friends from school for a while. I have no idea what happened to him but i will go ahead and make a wild guess that he has a Mandatory Myspace Account. I remember we used to play all kinds of games on the bus, we would get 99 cent shakes and throw them at cars from the bus, or sometimes we would just get an ice chest and fill it up with water baloons to throw at people/cars from the moving bus.



[edit on 29-7-2010 by zaiger]

I've been through pretty much everything the British bus and it's driver can throw at me. I've been sworn at by drivers, called names by drivers, had semi empty busses drive straight past me etc. And that's just the drivers, sometimes my fellow passenges have pushed my limites of endurance too. Now I'm a pretty tough skinned person, not a lot phases me, I can do blood, urine, poo, all that, but one thing gets me going, and that's vomit. I have a huge phobia of vomiting, and once I was on a bus while a drunk/drug addled woman proceded to vomit all over the floor beneath her seat. Every time the bus moved, the vomit began to move, spreading across the bus. I moved to the higher ground of the back seats, but hell, my anxiety levels didn't go much under 10 during this trip.

The best part of it was, the driver didn't care! There was someone vomiting all over his bus, and he didn't give a damn. She could have been carrying a dangerous virus or anything, he had a duty of care to the rest of the people on that bus, and did nothing about it.

In a private hire taxi she'd have been charged a £50+ surcharge to clean it up, but it's just a bus, it doesn't matter, the fee paying customers will pay for her dirty problem through hiked ticket prices to pay for the cost of cleaning busses.

I've been challeneged to fights on busses too, I've usualy diverted it by pointing to the person responsable and saying THERE'S THE CCTV CAMERA, SMILE!

reply to post by The Chez


AAAAHHH... Thats another one im familiar with... Drunks picking fights. Its twice as bad when your on the last bus home from town, as a lot of the people who've had a few drinky winkys cant drive, so they get on the bus and before you know it they go mad!
I remmember one bloke trying to get at the driver once, but because the drivers in that cockpit that saved him.

And ive had plenty of experience of 'half empty Buses' driving past.
The driver looks at you grinning as your standing in the rain, waving your arms like a mad man to get the drivers attention, but they just keep on driving.
Also when its Christmas time.. Thats when its at its worst. Everyones Christmas shopping and the bus is rammned. I recal waiting at another pee-smelling bus stop once and watching 3 Buses drive past. There was one every half hour and each one was full. Then after two hours waiting, when bus number 4 turned up I had to squeeze on because there where about a million Mums with Prams on the bus!!
Ugh... Que babys crying non-stop on the hour bus ride home......

Originally posted by PeaceUk
Bus drivers seem to have some sort of sadistic tendencies - it's everyday that a bus driver will for no reason whatsoever just drive past a bus stop where lots of people are waiting.

Yeah, I have seen that here in Dallas. I was on a bus and we were passing a bus stop and a guy was standing there and I heard the bus driver say "Not close enough" and he kept going, I watched as the waiting man tried hopelessly to wave down the bus... I could not help but wonder what he had just been made late for...

Too far from the bus stop? This gentlemen was no further than 10 feet away.

Here in Dallas when you want to get off at a certain stop you press one of the many buttons through out the bus. It lets out a loud tone to gain the attention of the bus driver.

So many times, I have pressed the button and yet he just keeps on driving, so I hop up go to the front and tell the bus driver that he was supposed to stop at the last stop... He always says " Oh, wasn't paying attention"

Wow, really? You would think you would need to pay attention to something like that, considering everyone is depending on you, to get where they need to be, on time.

Now, you would think that after bringing it to the drivers attention he would be kind enough to stop immediately and let you off. Not here. He insists on continuing on to the next bus stop before stopping.... Forcing me to walk a mile back, which makes me even later than his initial mistake has already made me....

Gah...

reply to post by gimme_some_truth


Ha ha, yeah... Talking about bell ringing, that reminds me of another thing that drives me mad!

When theres some kids on the bus and they just keep pressing the button... Bing... Bing... Bing... Bing... Bing... Bing...etc.... Everyone on the bus stares at them, wanting to throw them out the nearest door/window/exit but, they just sit there grinning and continue pressing the button... Bing... Bing... Bing... Bing... Bing... Bing...

Its enougth to drive you around the bend.

Next stop please drive!!

eee.

I thought id add this too, since its kind-of topic related and to show that all buses arnt to bad.

Anyway, I had a day off work the other week and since im currently 'car-less' I had to catch the bus to town to have a nose around the shops.
As I left my village, it was sunny! But soon, on the hour long ride into town, the clouds grew thicker and darker and before long it was tipping down.
And theres me, in my T-shirt about to get off and brave this weather just for the sakes of looking around the shops.

So I got soaked walking around the empty streets of Swansea.
I bought what I wanted (FIFA 11, good game! Lol. ) I decided to make my way back to the bus-stop (which is tempoary at the moment as a new bus stations being built, and also seems to be taking for ever to compleate despite being all steel-work)

So there I am. On the bus. Soaked right through. So wet that one of the 10 pound notes in my pocket seemed to dis-intergrate to pices.
So an hour ride back to my village, I get off the bus and sprint (walk fast more like..) back to my home and get some dry clothes on etc.
At this time I notice my Mobile phone has gone! Gone! No where to be found!!

So I reside myself to the knowledge that my phone has gone AWOL and dissapeard into the Abyss..

I guessed id lost it on the bus.. And since there arnt many honest people around these days, I knew somebody wasnt going to hand it in to the driver.

But heres the positive part.

An hour later I had a call of somebody who'd found it.

Shocking!!

I arranged to meet the woman who got in-touch to get it back.

And low and behold, a woman in her 80's had it! Lol.
So i said my thanks and left with a renewed out look on somethings.

Theres still some honest people around.

eee.

Thought id add to this old thread.

Bit off topic but still transport related.

After years of skrimping and saving I've finally managed to get a car! And not just any old banger but something relatively new which should be technically reliable due to the age and condition of the motor.

No more bus trips! I can now go in my own direction as apossed to the pre-determined route of the fridge on wheels (The heating on a bus never seems to work when the weather is cold and is quite the opposite in the summer time) and then walking the final half a mile to desired location in the rain.

I'm the master of my destiny! Its my way on this highway!

~I can jump behind the wheel and now drive to the local which is 500 yards away!
~ I can decide to drive around the block a few hundred times just because I can, whilst playing loud music!
~ I can now go to the drive thru because I've got a car!!!!
~ I can now honk my horn!
~ I can now overtake the bus! - Which isn't that hard because due to the various time spent on the bus I have seen many snails on crutches wriggle their way past the flat-out warp speed, red-lining it turbo bus!
~ I can drive to town and load the boot of my car up with the unnecessary junk sold in your everyday high street shop, which usually tends to be pointless items!..
All of which kinda brings me on to the bad points/aspects of being a car owner....

~ I can now moan about the extortionate price of petrol and how it constantly changes (at the time of writing its £1.47 a litre in my Local garage)
~ I now have to pay road tax. (£70 a year)
~ I can moan about pot-holes in the road.
~ I can now moan about cyclists!
~ I now owe friends and family lifts due to free loading and using them as a taxi service for the past few years.
~ I can now get speeding tickets/penalty points!!!!!
~ I have since realised that I now need glasses to drive.
~ Defrosting the car windscreen.
~ I can moan about the amount of traffic lights and how they are always RED!!!!! Especially when your in a hurry!!
~ Keeping the car clean.
~ I now have to pay a huge amount of cash for car insurance every year (currently paying monthly £121.49 after my deposit when starting my policy at fully comp! Plus my previous no claims don't mean anything anymore because I have not had a car for such a long time!!)
~ I now have to pay for annual MOTs. (£45 in my local garage)
~ I now have to service the vehicle to keep it running. (Tyres.. some prices for certain profiles make you think your getting a tyre for a 4x4 vehicle)
~ I now have to deal with garages who are sometimes not 100% honest when diagnosing a possible maintenance issue.
~ Road rage.

and you can crash your car... or putting it properly, someone can crash into you.

And then you have to deal with the insurance firm who read their "here to help you" script then say your to blame for said accident without looking at the bigger picture... tedious fun.


Maybe, as I said in an earlier post, maybe buses arnt that bad after all...

Simply Karma / Ying and Yang my friends.

eee.