To the bus driver of the number 58 Woodlawn departing from Alderney at 3:30pm on Tuesday, May 10: I would have thought being a woman and all you may have some mercy for a mom running to catch the bus with her two children. Instead you chose to close the door and pull away from the curb despite the fact that you were looking right at me and despite the light you were sitting at being red. We were less than ten feet from the bus. Would it have killed you to wait 30 extra seconds?? Thanks for that! And thanks for subjecting my children to a longer commute than necessary. —Commuter
This article appears in May 12-18, 2011.
bob newhart would be so proud
It’s hard to say without knowing all the details, but I believe if they’ve pulled away from the stop, they technically aren’t allowed to let you on.
The ROUTE number would be 58 and the bus number is something entirely different. Anyway, you were late for the bus so he left. Doesn’t matter that you are a woman and were toting two kids……..who cares? Be on time or take the next bus!
Cut Survivor some slack guyz; she was probably on her way to pay…BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA…
Sorry *wipes tears* couldn’t keep a straight face while typing that.
IVAN!!! You beat me to it!
sonuvabitch!!!
By name ,and by nature, my muscular chum >; )
“And thanks for subjecting my children to a longer commute than necessary.”
Awww boooo hoooo your precious kids had to spend more time during their commute! wah wah
And people wonder why the new generation of kids are a bunch of self centered pansies. Pfft, it’s because of parents like YOU, OP. Suck it up — you were late and the bus took off. Likely the bus was already behind if it’s during rush hour. I fucking hate it when people use their kids as an excuse for getting special treatment or for excusing their behaviour. So you had a kid — so fucking what. The world isn’t going to stop because you decided to bring a child into the world. And in fact, the driver taught your kids something very valuable (which you probably discredited by bitching about it to them no doubt): if you’re not ontime, shit can happen, such as missing your bus.
The bus runs on a schedule and last time I checked, it wasn’t YOUR personal schedule either. Don’t like it? Well, as Sebastard says: get a car.
And stop giving all the good parents out there (some of whom post up in here) a bad name.
Also: shame on you for using your kids to excuse your inability to organize and manage your time.
Man, you guys are making my role here obsolete, lol.
OP, most buses coming from Halifax during the PM rush are late, so when they get to the Bridge Terminal, or Alderney, or even Penhorn, it’s likely an in and out situation. If the driver had of waited for you and your kids, it would likely start an endless cycle of people running to catch the bus. It has to end somewhere. And unless you live in the Woodlawn neighborhood (unlikely as they are very used to the 58 schedule), there were 3 other routes that go where you were headed and your lengthened commute was maybe 5-10 tops.
Bottom line, running for the bus is a crapshoot. Don’t whine when it comes up snake eyes or boxcars.
I’m 50 50 on this one. It’s so stupid when they pull away from the stop just to sit at a red light. The whole using her kids thing kind of comes off as entitled but I don’t know.. at least I know it’s not my age if that happens to me again. Fuck I hate the bus
If the bus driver waits for everybody running for it or looks to see if anyone is running for it at every stop, the bus will be late at every stop creating another bitch for the Coast.
The OP, as in so many of these complaints (dim sum comes to mind) just has to be on time. Tough with kids I understand but it is a life lesson for the kids. Punctuality usually results in satisfaction as opposed to grief.
Way to have kids without having a car first.
NOOOO! NOT THE CHILDREN!!
Secretagent!!! You just killed me ;D hahaaa
Perhaps the driver was in a rush to finish the route to have an illegal smoke on an empty bus?
THe children had to wait ! ! ! ! ! ! !
The horror !
The bus was at a red light? Sounds like the bus had already left the bus stop and had entered traffic. So next time, get there on time. Funny how I never have to run to catch my car. It’s always where I park it 🙂
“Funny how I never have to run to catch my car. It’s always where I park it :)”
^^ ok I actually LOL’d at that. Fuck you, sebastard. Fuck you a lot.
You know what route I HATE? My thursday 14 from work. The driver on that bus is a real dick! heehee.
<3
ah, another transit bitch, i miss having them every second day. so much has changed since the last one. about 2 days, is all. what do you expect o.p., that the bus will wait for you? you should have been around when they used the old trolley coaches. there was a fucking nightmare commute to where ever they went. and trust me, it wasn’t very far. none to sackville, or sprytown, or even over to the darkside.
and every so often, the rails, that were on top, to supply power, came off the tracks, and you had to wait, til driver put them back on. what a glorious time that was.the older f
I havent been on a bus since the 90s, Im loving it.
Unless the bus dates back to ancient times (pre-1992 to be exact), they can’t move with the front door open. Buses pull up to red lights to save time once they have the on-time passengers.
I will miss the old “unsafe” buses when they get retired. Sure they lack tilt steering, but the doors don’t care whether they’re open or closed and it makes pulling out of stops 100% easier.
You should totally report that dick PK, and tell him how much better looking that guy on the morning 10 was. It’ll totally mess with his mind.
Having just spent a year riding the bus in the States, I have to say they’re mostly more common sense down there. Where I was living OP, most of them would have let you on. Canada is much less litigious than the States so why are we more uptight about following bus rules? Maybe it’s our nanny state/bureaucratic culture that overrides compassion/logic.
Metro transit equals WORST transit system in the coutry. We’d be better off eliminating public transit in Halifax and buying people their own cars. It would be cheaper than subsidizing uneducated, unprofessional, a-holes who hate their job and people. COMPLETE WASTE.
You’ve obviously never tried King’s Transit.
Or even St John’s transit ffs, yyy.
King’s Transit is fucking terrible. Although it’s kind of unfair to compare it to Metro Transit (or any other city transit, for that matter).
Yeah, but yyy said MT was the worst in the COUNTRY. hahaha.
We only got bus service at my house in the valley about a year AFTER I moved. No, they couldn’t do it oh say, during the 15 years I lived there they had to wait until AFTER I moved.
Fuckers.
Seriously though, I’ve heard St john’s transit is crap… though they’re weird up there — the city doesn’t plough the sidewalks at all and everyone has to walk on the roads in the winter.
better than this current mode of transportation… or lack of.
http://gizmodo.com/5801357/its-too-late-to…
http://graphic-engine.swarthmore.edu/wp-co…
Hoo Boy, are they in for a big surprise….
I really don’t understand why people have so many issues with metro transit. I haven’t had any issues in pretty much forever, and in fact, most of my experiences over the past 6 months or so have been wholly positive. Maybe I’m just lucky and take decent routes and have great drivers (I do tend to have the ‘regulars’). You just have to make sure you give yourself enough time, look for patterns (usually my routes in the morning will run late, so I don’t even bother paying attention to the schedule and I’ve adapted because they’re consistently late), have your pass/ticket/money ready, sit the fuck down (or find a place to stand) as quick as you can and make sure you have an ipod to drown out the assholes on there.
That’s really all there is to it, but again, I don’t tend to take the ghetto routes all that often and I primarily stick to the express routes (with a 10 or 14 to/from SS) and I never have to go to dartmouth, so that might be why I have decent experiences. *shrug*
PK – “I really don’t understand why people have so many issues with metro transit.” – because they don’t have anything to compare it to, plus they’re self-entited whinerz.
Try using this bus-system
http://scottybecca.files.wordpress.com/201…
BTW – Happy Friday the 13th, all 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mv8KLJxnv4
Ozzie the Osprey flew in front of my bus as we rolled merrily toward the Gulag this morning. I don’t know if that’s a good omen or a bad one on a Friday the 13th. It was good for Ozzie, he flew rings around the loser cruiser.
rawk http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_86YzBmWr_Hs/TIMy…
@Pretty Kitty, I have such a variety of different experiences with Metro Transit so I’m gobsmacked that the quality of service is so inconsistent from driver to driver. The guy who drives the 60 Heritage Hills at 8:25 from the bridge terminal is lovely, but if I try to catch the 60 at other times, some drivers treat the bridge terminal like a rolling stop (I’m almost always 5-10 minutes early for my bus- I’m not late).
I’d be pretty pissy too if I had to drive the 60. The happy driver’s probably on medication.
I think it really is just a case of what routes you take, the times you take them and who’s driving it. I’m primarily with the working schleps taking the bus during rush hour and I stick to the express routes so it’s usually people from my hood who have 9-5ers. So i tend not to have to ride with the riff raff.
I don’t tend to take the 21 home anymore, though, because THAT bus is getting way to frigging ghetto. If I can avoid busses that go through Fairview, I usually will.
The 60 is actually one of my favourite routes to drive. Yes, there are the window lickers and the endless gaggles of NSCC students, but that’s only a small percentage of the route, and neither group gives you trouble. The rest of it is straight driving, the timepoints actually make sense, and the ocean scenery at the end is worth it (assuming it’s the Passage run and not the HH run). I’ve never been in a traffic snarl doing the 60, even when the entrance to Shearwater was completely dug up.
Momma here. The only thing I can really offer about travelling the bus with kids is to plan to get there at least one bus ahead of the one that’ll get you there just in time, if you can. For years I’d planned my own commutes to get to work nearly forty minutes early ’cause I couldn’t trust the next bus to get me there with ten minutes to spare. A missed connection and I was a half hour late; I wasn’t going to have it to say that Metro Transit cost me my job.
Thank you HalKell! I can’t stand when people always show up late for things because when they planned their bus route, they figured they would have gotten to their destination with a supposed ten minutes to spare, which on the public transit system means you will always be late. Plan to get someone 30 mins+ early and you won’t ever be late.