Wednesday 7 June 2006

Blocking the Road


There are times when we have to block the road to load and unload. Usually because some car driver has parked on a bus stop. I am not happy to block the road as it upsets car drivers and reinforces the stereotype the car drivers have of bus drivers, i.e. we block the road at the drop of a hat and we block the road at all times. The reason I don't like blocking the road is that to some extent we rely on the good will of car drivers to let us out from bus stops Every car driver, like the blue car above, who spends time blocked in by the bus is one less car driver who will let us out.

In the photo above the bus blocking the road is going out of service and didn't want to get stuck on the bus stop. But there was no need to block the road. It is not a problem to have pulled forward and let the passengers off and then check it is safe and reverse 4 feet back and drive away. Then all the car drivers who were kept waiting would not have gone away thinking all bus drivers are road blocking bastards and that's the last time I let a bus out from a bus stop.

4 comments:

Dogbait said...

In built up areas of Victoria where I live, buses have right-of-way out of a bus stop.

David said...

Here the Highway Code says "Please let the bus out if safe to do so.Most car drivers decide that it is not safe and don't let us out. So we have to pull out slowly until car drivers realize that it is safer to let us out than hit the side of the bus. Then we go!

Sarah said...

I'm coming to the conclusion that here in Aberdeen it's safer to let the buses out. Especially the bendy ones.

Anonymous said...

In Sheffield, the car driver mentality is, "I must pass the bus even if i have to kill myself to do it!"