Friday 6 October 2006

Not so much a pet hate, more a source of puzzlement.

One of the comments made on the previous post is about pulling up at bus stops. Over the years I must have pulled up about 20 000 times at various bus stops. I'm not actually counting you understand. Just a carefully calculated, well worked out blind guess. Anyway I am not talking about pulling up at bus stops; just the actions of a good few of the people who have been waiting at the bus stops. It has puzzled me all the long years I have been pulling up at bus stops and I would like to thank the anon bus driver for coming out in the comments section and revealing that this action is one of his pet hates.

For all those years I thought I was alone. This can only be happening to me. At last I find I am not alone. The relief. The sense of belonging. Now I can bring the subject out into the open without being torn apart by the mob. Errr... hang on these people may be members of some religion, very obscure but still a religion. Oh, what the hell, I don't have to get re elected every 5 years.

It is the people who are standing at the bus stop. The have put their hand out and are right by the bus stop. I indicate to pull in and as I slow down they start walking towards the bus, some times briskly enough to take them several yards away from the bus stop. I drive past them and stop at the stop, exactly where they were standing and presumably had been standing for several minutes as they waited hopefully for the bus to arrive. (I love putting a bit of hope in people's lives, it brings a warm feeling deep inside). Then I have to wait while they return to the place they have waited at for so long to get on the bus but deserted at the last moment. One woman had walked so far back that I felt like charging her from the previous fare stage.

Is there anyone out there who knows why these poor souls feel so compelled to bring so much puzzlement into my life? It can't be they just feel like a bit of exercise before they get on the bus. Can it?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another one that has always baffled me. I ride buses as well as driving them, and I've never felt the urge to run toward some imaginary midpoint, but people do it all the time. A while ago, I had a woman become quite upset when I didn't stop at the imaginary point that she had run toward. She was in a crowded stop and I pulled up to the stop sign. After scolding me at length and telling me that I didn't know how to drive a bus, she told me that she had never actually ridden a bus before, and would I please explain the whole thing to her?

Anonymous said...

You would think that, the door being at the front of the bus, the bus being the right size to fit in a set back bus stand or a clearly marked yellow box on the road that they would work out where the bloody thing would stop. no one likes to have the back end hanging out in the road even when soneone parks a car right up to the start of the box but not over it.
Mind you, I have noticed the same happens when a train ups in, perhaps it's the desire to be first on and get the best seat. people in a herd act strangly.

Anonymous said...

I've never thought about it before. Personally, I'm too lazy to do anything but wait by the sign. Obviously, that's just me.

Spinsterella said...

These people clearly spend too much time getting taxis and not enought time catching the bus.

Don't worry about it.