Bus Hell

This morning the bus driver had a temper tantrum. He yelled and screamed at the passengers. I don't need coffee in the morning just give me an irate bus driver to wake me right up! The M98 has been a source of annoyance the past couple weeks. It stopped showing up and forcing me to arrive at work at 10 am.
Back to this morning's exciting adventure. The bus driver stopped at a traffic light and when it turned green he didn't go. There were no cars in front of him and yet he just sat there. A man at the back of the bus asked "Why are you just sitting here?" The bus driver raised his voice and yelled "I cannot go near the bus stop if there is another bus there. I got a ticket once and now I won't do it again. We have to sit here until the other bus leaves!" And there we sat for 3 cycles of the traffic light at 125th Street. The bus driver then told us that he has to follow the rules and if we don't like it we can walk. He is only going to drive 25 MPH because that is the rule of buses. Huh? We take the highway. A bus going 25 miles an hour on the highway equals dangerous. So we finally pull up to the stop and the people waiting had some words for the bus driver. Most of them included "Why were you waiting there?" The bus driver started his rant again and then picked up his internal bus phone and called to complain to the MTA. It was hard to hear but he was giving them suggestions about announcements for all the buses that say it is the law to not have more than one bus at a bus stop at a time. Umm can we say crazy? He got on the highway and drove around 25mph as promised.

What I do love about these situations is that it is a chance to make what I shall call "bus buddies". These are people you start talking to because there is now a common bond of banding together against the crazy bus driver. The people that are on this bus are mostly the same each day so we all smile at each other and roll our eyes.

Just another joy of my commute!

P.S. I am in Newsday again today. Check out my review of a new club, Boucarou. newsday.typepad.com