Get Past the Bus or Die.

As you approach the roundabout at the end of the Ring Road coming down from Newton the road changes from a single lane 40 mph road to two lanes. As the arrows suggest the left lane is for going straight on, (there is no left turn) and the right hand lane is for turning right.

Yesterday I was coming up to this roundabout. The road was clear and I had been traveling at 40 mph, ignoring well meaning but illegal advice from the depot's RMT Union rep about traveling well below the speed limit. More about that in next post. Anyway a white van moved into the right hand lane and entered the roundabout a second or so after me. I kept well over to the left to allow him to turn right on the roundabout. However as I left the roundabout I have to move into the right lane at once in order to be in the correct position to turn right 150 metres ahead. So a signaled and moved over. Unfortunately the white van did not turn right as he should have done but was trying to overtake me on the roundabout. Not a very safe thing to do at the best of times but very unsafe when he should have turned right. He suddenly found me moving across in front of him and he had to brake very hard indeed or run into the back of me. Not a good idea when you have your wife and young child in the van with you. How do I know he had his wife and child in the van with him? He chased me up the road and when I stopped at the next stop to pick some one up he pulled across the road in front of me and blocked me in. He got out of his van while his wife looked daggers at me from the front seat. A few seconds later the young child was placed on the front seat so he could look at the monster who had nearly killed them all. Driver came round to the side window demanding to know what did I think I was playing at?


Now I have learn lots of things in my life and one of them is that having slanging matches at the side of the road with upset drivers is a complete waste of time and energy. I once, many years ago came into contact with an other car and we managed to swop details without exchanging a single word, a very civilized method of dealing with an unfortunate incident. So I didn't say anything to this driver, just took a few pictures. In the end he drove off.

Twenty mins later I was paying in at the end of my shift and who walked in. He wanted to know who to complain to and I indicated the controller who was on duty but added that he should explain first why he had gone straight on even though the road markings suggested that he turn right. At first he said he didn't see any markings. I told him I had driven round that roundabout lots and lots of times and they were there. After a little time spent in quiet contemplation he apologised and left.

The deep question that I wanted to ask but didn't, was why in God's name did he try and overtake me on the roundabout in the first place. I didn't really need to ask, some poeple must get in front of the bus no matter what. In the course of a days driving there are usually 3 or 4 incidents where car drivers risk life and limb just to get past the bus. Now forty years ago I may just have understood this, buses were slow and poured out thick black smoke in their wake. But this has changed. Buses don't usually smoke these days and our buses may not be quiet as fast as a car pulling away but they do have a good turn of speed. Also I had approached at 40 mph so I wasn't holding him up in any way. After the roundabout there is a long two lane duel carrigeway, plenty of time to overtake safely. Or was the urge to get past the bus at all cost so strong in him that he was willing to risk the safety of son and wife just to do it as soon as possible, even if that sooner was by only one second.

Police on Foot Patrol

Now it is nice to see the police walking round our fair town.

But in Black Shirts?

Has no one at the top management of the Devon and Cornwall police read any history?

Actually the answer to that question is almost certainly no. It would appear from comments in the local paper recently that top management have lost the plot.

This is just a small part of the article and was written by a senior office in his "I quit" letter.

"Far from the culture of consultation, openness, honesty, transparency and care that you espoused in July 2002, I leave an organisation where I witness managers being openly hostile of each other and where mistrust abounds; an organisation where I feel lip-service is paid to consultation and staff morale; an organisation where I feel senior people who do not conform to the 'non-challenging norm' are vilified, isolated and professionally damaged - an organisation where I feel many people seem to hold little respect for some members of your command team, and where staff morale is at the lowest ebb that I, and others, can ever remember."

An other comment from a former member of the police authority was,"I rang 999 only last year to report what he suspected was an active burglary at the home of local magistrate, only to be told that the Force did not have the manpower to respond to the incident - but they might pop around in "two or three days" to take details."

What is going on?

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.

A footnote on yesterday's post.

In yesterday's post I made reference to bus drivers' belief that passengers don't read destination blinds or timetables. Not just the drivers, there are controllers and managers that I know who also have this belief. Well to today there was a little incident which suggest that drivers also don't read things that they should.

I was working a rest day, which I do from time to time to help out when we are busy and I signed on at 8:40. The bus I caught to work arrived at 8:37 and it is a 3 minute walk up the hill to the depot, you can run it in 2 minutes I'm told but I'm not going to try that. Any way I arrived at 8:40 signed on and checked which bus and running board I would be using. Bus was there but not the running board. The running board or duty card as they are some times called tells you such things as where to go and at what time to have your break and most importantly what time to go home. So I told the controller that the running board wasn't in the box where it should be. He told me to look in all the other boxes but it wasn't in any of them. "What's the duty number?" he asked. "3581." Said I.
"I've got that." said an other driver. "It's my duty." He led me over to the main notice board where all the duties are posted and said , "Look, that's me." I had a look and sure enough there was his name with the correct line number next to it but what he hadn't noticed was the "A/L" after his name.

A/L means annual leave. He was on holiday and hadn't noticed. Now this isn't the only way drivers can find out when their holidays are. There is a folder in the Pay In room with 2006/2007 Holidays printed on it in thick felt tip pen. It usually appears in December (our holiday year runs April to March) and when it does I check it instantaniously and write the dates down in my diary so I wont forget. As if.

Puzzled Passenger and Lost Property

Sorry I’ve been a bit slack recently but some thing has got in my computer and has been causing problems.

Anyway yesterday I went down to Brixham as a 12A. When I got there the 12 in front of me was still there and being a sociable chap I went to have a brief chat to the driver. While we were chatting one or two passengers got on his bus, paid their fare and sat down. Then a lady approached the bus and looked at the side destination board and went and sat on the low wall next to the bus stop. I thought that she wanted my bus which wasn’t due out for a few mins.

Then an couple boarded the bus and also paid their fare and sat down. With this the lady sitting on the wall got up and slowly can up to the bus and asked in a slightly puzzled voice, “Is this bus for Explorers only or can anyone use it?” Now we do have some buses that are painted in the logo of South Devon College and I have been asked if it was just for college students only. This query was a first though.

I then had a look at the side destination board. It is of the type that displays the number and destination of the bus and then scrolls along and displays some additional information. This board displayed details of day tickets that can be bought from the driver. Now when the driver had reached Brixham he had switched the engine off. This stopped the words from scrolling through. Had it been scrolling through it would have read “Adult Explorers Only £5.00”. Now the £5.00 bit was missing and it read “Adult Explorers Only”.

This shows that some passengers , dispite what bus drivers believe, do actually read destination blinds, even if what is some time on them is slightly unusual. It also shows that (hint, hint, some bus drivers do wish to save the planet and switch their engines off at termini)

An other thing that happened yesterday was the voice on the radio which made a plea for all 12/12A drivers to check their bus for lost property, namely a wallet. Now I have no problem attempting to restore lost property with its loser but there are a couple of problems with this sort of vagueness. One, The wallet may not be on the bus, the loser may have left it at home or lost it somewhere else and is just hoping that it is on a bus and he may get it back pronto. The other reason it may not be on the bus is that sadly some on who gets on the bus and notices the wallet may be tempted and may subscribe to the Oscar Wilde method of dealing with temptation.

Two, at present there are 28 buses running on the 12/12A routes at the moment. I know you may find that hard to believe if you have been waiting a while for your bus but it’s true. Does the voice on the radio expect us all to pull over and check what maybe a late running or full double decker bus for lost property in a less than a 28 to 1 chance of finding said wallet.
So if you do lose some thing on a bus and you approach a controller or bus driver and ask them to use the radio to see if any one has your wallet etc please have the following information ready. The service number of the bus, where did you get off the bus, how long ago, which direction it was travelling in, where were you sitting and best of all, if you bought a ticket on the bus have that to hand as well as that will contain information regarding the drivers number. Even without the ticket the rest of the information will reduce the number of buses that pull over and look for your wallet down to two or three.

Best of all, try not to lose anything on the bus.