What’s up with transit drivers lately?
Once in a while you’ll hear a story about one of them being nice and courteous but for the most part they are tired grouchy assholes. I understand they have a demanding job (sitting on your ass cutting people off all day), but for fuck sake’s cheer up a bit.
It’s bad enough I have to get up early in the summer for school, dealing with these cranky pricks just makes it worse. —Disgruntled Commuter
This article appears in May 13-19, 2010.
I find that if you smile, and generally don’t have an attitude emanating from you, most of them are decent. Considering half the shit they have to deal with, I’d most likely be cranky, too.
It’s bad enough I have to get up early in the summer for school, dealing with these cranky pricks
Maybe the bus driver is thinking the exact same thing.
I have taken the bus a few times since I’ve moved to Halifax, and the bus drivers have all been kind to me, who needed help figuring out where to get off. If you want them to cheer up, say hello cheerfully when you get on, and say thanks cheerfully when you get off. Maybe that’ll help.
I have two lovely bus drivers every morning. The driver of the 14 is especially nice, but the driver of the 52 is also quite courteous and cheerful.
My friend had an empty McDonald’s drink cup, and the bus driver said “you can’t bring that on the bus”. So she went to put the empty cup in her bag to bring it home to throw out, because there wasn’t a garbage can nearby, and he says again (more annoyed) “You can’t bring that on the bus”.
Sometimes you’ll get assholes for bus drivers…
I used to wish that Hillbilly Hollow had a transit service but after reading about all these arsehole drivers, I’m kinda glad we don’t.
OP: Its bad enough i have to get up early and go to school
Boo fuckin hoo, poor you. I couldnt imagine something more painful then getting up early. At least you have that sandwich and love letter your mom packs for you everyday. Hang in there timmy. Soon you will be in grade 6 with the big kids
I’ve been on the buses for going on 30 years, and I have yet to meet a shitty driver.
Actually I’ve found the new bunch pretty agreeable.
Ive definitly had my share of asshole drivers but i’ve also had super nice ones too…
Aww, you have to get up early for school… they have to get up early for work too, and I’m sure they don’t want to deal with self-important dickheads like you. Get on the bus and don’t take it so personally next time.
You think you have to get up early, lol. If I didn’t live 5 minutes from the garage, I’d be getting up earlier than 5am like I did this morning. A smile and a hello will usually get you on a driver’s pleasant side. Sharing your taste in Ke$ha to the whole bus via your headphones, not so much. 😉
There is more to the job than sitting and cutting people off OP, just as I’m sure there is more to school than sitting and cutting off your teacher mid-sentence.
The newer buch tend to be a lot more pleasant. Not only personality wise, but in looks too! And, yes I mean you too, PDG 😉
I invite you to try and drive around the city for 8 hours just for one day. Follow the bus around from the relative comfort of your own car. Pick a route, any route and follow it all day. That’s eight hours. No breaks other than 2-5 minutes for necessary bodily functions. Imagine then that the vehicle you’re driving is ten times the weight, ten times the difficulty in driving, ten times less maneuverable, and ten times slower when having to brake for the mental pygmies who masquerade as licenced drivers in this city.
And throughout the day you have to wait for evolutionary rejects who either don’t have change, don’t know where they’re going, don’t know when the bus is supposed to be there, can’t make it to the bus-stop on time, and then complain that it’s all your fault that you didn’t cater to their self-important ass with a smile and a ‘cheerio’.
FUCK YOU!
I’m wondering if they still teach the seasons in school. Summer doesn’t actually begin until June 21 so that makes spring the current season. If the OP is planning to attend summer school this bitch is over a month premature.
Nicest bus driver I can remember is (and I wish I could remember his name…) guy who used to do the 16 about a year and a half back. My then two and a half year old daughter thought the world of him and asked if it was him for every bus that would go by. He kind of looked like Ving Rhames and had a smile that made up for every cranky bus driver out there. Think his name began with “H”?? Anyway, he just had a child and was looking forward to retiring. If every bus driver was like him, we’d have nobody driving their cars around, that’s for sure. I wish him well wherever he is.
What the fuck! Z says to lock the trend down and Mod 4.0 does. So a poster gets to decide who get the last word, fucking lame Mod 4.0!
Oceanlady— The OP could be talking about university, Spring semesters started at the beginning of last week.
hey now… I alerted her to a potentially bad thread and they acted as a moderator should…
I didn’t tell Mod to do anything…
when i took the 1 downtown i brought my driver candy canes around christmas, but then he was always nice
all i can say o.p., is to try their job for a week. and bet you fucking dollars to donuts, you would be just as bitchy too. these guys are out everyday, risking their lives to get your sorry fucking ass to school or work, or where ever it has to go. unless you have tried driving one of these fucking things in traffic, and i mean real traffic, not just a few cars. then you would have a better understanding. til that time asshole, shut the fuck up.
Oh my…
No blaming zZz, I had been watching that thread and it had been getting pretty hot in there, and waayyy too personal. I was going to shut it down as it was, a decision that was cemented when LLWWB regulars (who aren’t generally bothered by such) chimed in that maybe, just maybe, it should have been culled long ago. If you want to be mad at someone be mad at me.
mod 4.0, whoever you are dear lady, we are all adults here, or supposed to be. a little name caklling does a body good sometimes. but if it goes beyond asshole or something simular, then there has to deffinately be a line drawn. we pretty well police ourselves and as such, know the limits we can use on each other. i have no problem being called oput by cranky or b.n. in n.s.,as would anyone else. if a person cannot take some critisism, then i’m afraid this page will be lost. and all us bitchers and bitchees, will have no place to go, except maybe scotia square, and that in itself, would be a terrible loss to the coast. so mod 4.0, just let us have at each other, and let the bodies fall where they must. don’t be like the herald and force people away. i see a lot of new handles on here everyday, and that is because the coast is the BEST.
“LLWWB regulars” Name more then ONE.
I do let you folks have at it, and i intend to continue to do so. That said it is my job to lock or pull things when they cross the line, and I intend to continue that too… the thread in question this time was getting rather personal so I shut it down. It won’t be a habit, unless my hand is forced, so here’s hoping we can all just ‘get along’. 🙂
I received 3 emails about that thread, and no I’m not naming names.
I’d kill for a rude metro transit bus experience right now…because that would mean I was back in haliwood!
And, anyone who thinks MT drivers are assholes should ride the other larger transit systems sometime. 4 months of that shit and I could get assraped by a random MT driver and apologize for not bending over far enough ffs.
where the hell are ya at pk? toronto, cowtown, st. louis de haha
LOL, no PG, I’m in QC at the moment and my transit experiences here have been ok thus far (the drivers are too stoic to be cranky, I’ve concluded), but my experiences in other cities *coughcoughinontario* have been less than desirable.
well, i hope you’re having a good time…i have terrific tales from travels on the ttc
Never had a problem with a bus driver in HRM and like LS said – it’s a tough job.
One of my BF’s just moved back to NS from South Korea. He can’t believe how friendly the bus drivers are here compared to there. I guess sometimes you just need perspective rather than looking at things through one’s ignorant eyes.
ETS drivers are mainly cranky assholes, way worse than MT drivers, though you still do get a few cool ones. One driver the other day was making a pretty good effort to say hello and thank you to everyone, 95% of whom completely ignored him.
“Oh my God, he’s, like, a bus driver, and, like, doesn’t make nearly as much as my boyfriend who, like, I’m currently cheating on working the rigs up in, like, Fort McMoney. Like, why is he, like, talking to me?”
I’m sick of the random inconsistancies depending on the driver. For instance, the guy who was driving the number 1 on Spring Garden who saw me running toward the bus.. You saw me, and yet you started to pull away. So when I run up to the door, you shake your head and won’t let me on. Don’t pretend it’s because you aren’t allowed to open the doors because I’ve seen other drivers let people on.. you weren’t in the traffic, you have just pulled away from the curb.
Good driver/ bad driver. Good cop/ bad cop. Good server/ bad server. Life is like a box of chocolates, you just don’t know what ur gonna get…(where have I heard that before?)
…shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich
Dammit, I threw up again.