I caught the #41 bus in to downtown from Dartmouth this morning. I was heading to the Truth & Reconciliation meeting at the convention centre, but I wanted to grab a cup of coffee at Just Us so stayed on the bus when it stopped at the Scotia Square stop. Typically, the bus waits a couple of minutes at that stop, and the driver started reading an advertising circular while he waited. But, then, when he drove off, he continued reading the circular, with it propped up on the steering wheel. He carried on in this fashion through two blocks and two stoplights, on the busiest street downtown.
(If any Metro Transit managers care, this was bus #980, route 41, picture taken at 10:02am, on Barrington Street.)
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2011.
Is there something wrong with my news feed? This one, and the two Truth & Reconciliation articles don’t show up the coast.ca/news page. I’ve only seen this one because of the navigation buttons above the date. And I linked to the T&R article through twitter. You might want to make sure you’re publishing/linking the articles everywhere on the site…
Great. Now management will be forced to discipline the driver, making a union walkout a certainty.
It looks like it was really important reading. There’s a good deal on wood stoves at crappy tire this week, by the looks of it.
raimn– thanks for the alert… my mistake, I won’t bore you with details. Fixed. Sometimes we make bonehead errors and don’t even know; it’s good to tell us!
Must be casual day.
This is how people on bicycles get killed, BTW.
Say goodbye to your job, asswipe.
Thank god for the Transit Union. He will probably be sent to a remedial reading course as his punishment. No other action required.
Tim, I’m surprised someone like you would be critical of a union member and post something like this. If he somehow lost his job as a result, would you let him occupy your house?
Bo Gus – Tim is just doing his civic duty, he doesn’t pick and choose based on union affiliation.
Tim may let the driver plant a tent in front of his house; the busman looks somewhat more sartorial than the other tenters.
He’d have to fight for space. Ships Start Here/Irving/CAW Local 1 have already “occupied” Tim’s back 40. Peter McKay is flying in Monday in a Cormorant with a tray of locally sourced, free-range pumpkin muffins in a show of “solidarity”.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say the bus isn’t moving, so he’s probably waiting for the schedule to catch up, which would make that a break? I would say most people read this or other papers at work on downtime, I don’t see a problem…. just more coast bitching if you ask me.
If he’d been reading “Sustainable City” would the Coast have printed this?
I got on the #2 two bus about 2 months ago and the driver had a tupper ware container full of food on his lap that he was eating with a fork in one hand and the bus steering wheel in the other.
at least he had two eyes MOSTLY on the road.
I take my hat off to the driver that can multitask driving while he’s being secretly photo graph by a pervert trying to get his rocks off,Question did you even pay your full fare camera guy?
An HRM employee that can do more than one thing at a time and not hurt anyone …MAKE HIM MAYOR… dang glad he got caught in action….a driver on the Eastern Passage route stops off at Tims and gets a coffee and drives with one hand yet METRO TRANSIT prohibits passengers on with the same Tims cup of coffee. BUSTED and you’re in trouble…
Wasn’t close enough to take a pic, but driver of bus #1049, route 23 from Timberlea to Halifax, driver was reading the paper for a solid 15 mins while driving along St. Margaret’s Bay Rd. Watched her eyes in the mirror and she was reading (with her eyes off the road) while accelerating, not just during the extrememly brief stops of morning traffic, but while actually driving.
I’ve called twice to comment on some of these drivers less than favorable actions. The first incident was about 4 weeks ago. I was crossing the crosswalk at the corner of Spring Garden & South heading towards Eastlink with my Son in his very big and colorful chariot stroller and the bus driver proceeded to come through the crosswalk with us halfway through! He had to lay on his brakes pretty quick! I phoned in and complained, this happened around 5pm. It happened so fast and I was in a state of wanting to tell the driver a piece of my mind I didn’t have time to get the bus #. Metro Transit took my complaint and that was that. They gave me a reference # but I didn’t have a pen with me.
The second incident was last week when I was walking to work around 3pm. Again Spring Garden and South. Two men were walking across the crosswalk towards Eastlink and bus #17 St. Mary’s was putting the petal to the metal, when the two gentlemen I saw were again right in the middle of the crosswalk and the bus driver had to brake hard and pretty much on their asses! The two gentlemen heard all of this happening and simultaneously turned around and were shocked to a standstill of what was so loudly & abruptly stopped right behind them… I continued to walk but saw them trying to get the number of the bus by taking pics with their phone. I phoned in to make another complaint on their behalf and everybody else who has and will be in the line of their hazardous driving and rushing to get no where fast. It is crazy how confident they are when people are in plain sight crossing the sidewalk and it is their right of way. I have yet to hear any call backs, looks like Metro Transit has their hands full of people commenting and calling in on their own safety and others. Where do these bus drivers get off on trying to bully people walking when it is there right of way? Where do they get their license? Who teaches them and do they get a suspension if they are caught driving irresponsibly? Brutal!!!