It’s called a shoulder check. Drivers are meant to do it BEFORE pulling into traffic. It’s the most basic of driving skills, yet, our bus drivers, professional drivers, don’t seem to have this concept down. Hell they have great big buses other vehicles cannot compete with so why should they bother, huh?
This bitch is for the pompous, prick driving a Metro bus from Halifax to Dartmouth via Macdonald bridge on Friday at 3:30pm. He’s not even established in a through lane but barrels out without looking (or did you?) cutting off all who were established and MOVING in that lane. You didn’t even signal! You STOPPED all of the traffic that had the right-of-way only because I refused to let you smash in the front end of my sexy car.
You would have been at fault! All your riders would have been pissed having to wait for the cops and your supervisor to document your supreme stupidity and arrogance. Get a different job because next time I’ll not only run you down but I’ll report your incompetence to Metro.
This article appears in Jun 5-11, 2008.
He’s got union protection so he doesn’t care. About the only way he could get into trouble is if he brought a Uzi onto the bus and started spraying the passengers with bullets. Such is the fate of any attempt to improve Transit in these parts… doomed to fail because they simply don’t care.
I know exactlly where this is, and it happens all the time. I dont really care about sticking up for the drivers at this point. If you’ve been riding your whole life, you know there’s more of this guy, than better drivers. The guy at the Bridge terminal has a lot of balls telling me about rider etiquette. At least im not the idiot rolling his own smokes at the back of the bus, but I guess thats cool, because hes not eating anything.
Though this bitch lacks specifics, I think I know where this might have occured. As you head for the toll plaza from Halifax, the road hangs right where the dividing gate is. In the morning, when there is one lane, there is no issue for cars or buses, just go to the right of the gate. In the afternoon though, having two lanes is a problem where buses are concerned. The turn is wide enough to accomodate two cars side by side, though it’s a bit tight. Buses are not only wider than cars, they’re quite a bit longer too. At turtle-like speeds, it is possible to get a car and a bus in together thhough the right side of the bus might have some scraping damage when it’s done.Bus drivers will combat this by slowly drifting into the left lane as ideally, they’d be alone in that turn. They don’t have to go far into the lane, but if a motorist was looking up at that moment, they’d think the driver was trying to crush them. If they didn’t do that, the turn would be slow and wide, but possible. Ideally, a driver would check his/her left side mirror before doing this so that they don’t surprise other cars. Either way, if you see a bus approaching that spot in the afternoon, it’s not a bad idea to give them a little room just for that turn. You can resume blowing by it at the toll gates.