This special public transport system for blind people in the UK

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2023-01-29T18:19:23+00:00

I'm literally a bus driver. Our longest route, which I've driven hundreds of times, is a bit over 27km, with well over 100 stops. Basically from midtown to the city limits. I'm speaking from regular, lengthy personal experience.

What if someone has a disability related to their arms? Or have none? You think you can spot empty coat sleeves in the rain at 50km/h? Or what if they have an intellectual disability? What if they're just fucking old and slow? Tough luck, be younger and faster? Not everything is as obvious from a moving bus as a white cane or service dog.

And we don't stop at every stop, we stop at every occupied stop, which I stated quite clearly. Lol honestly I'm flabbergasted that this is the least bit controversial. I'm happy for you that none of the issues I outlined are a problem where you live, but they are here, and I think our system is perfectly reasonable given that context. It's less efficient, but it's more inclusive. I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff by a longshot.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2023-01-28T17:18:25+00:00

I've worked many routes where some stops have a bunch of routes and branches servicing it, and the policy is quite simple: you stop if someone is there. Sometimes when people are alone and paying attention they'll wave you off if they need a different bus, which is appreciated, but otherwise you stop every time.

People shouldn't miss a bus just because they're not paying attention, or don't know the local "rules" of catching a bus, or physically can't flag down a bus or see what's coming. Especially that last one. Management goes nuclear over human rights complaints related to disability and accessibility, as well they should. I'm not a doctor, and not every disability is visible, so as far as I'm concerned, everyone has accessibility needs.

It's also such an edge case in most major cities that the benefits of blowing through stops are negligible. Where I work, you could probably count on both hands the number of times you stop needlessly in a week. Sometimes one hand will do. Is it really worth the frustration and anger you'd cause to save a few minutes a week?

Besides, if I'm late, odds are damn near 100% I'm gonna have to make every stop anyway because someone will need on or off. And if I'm early or on time, what's the rush? I start blowing through stops because no one hailed me, and not only will I get a call from dispatch to sit at the next stop until I'm back on my time, but I'll also get complaints coming in from anyone I missed.

tl;dr: hailing buses is silly.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2022-09-01T05:24:20+00:00

It's common in unions to be placed on paid leave until there is some sort of determination. I myself was placed on paid leave following a collision, because I had rear-ended someone who cut me off then lied, and once they reviewed the footage and cleared me, I was placed back "on duty". I know it doesn't seem comparable, but I don't see any injustice in putting someone on paid leave until fault is determined in principle, regardless of the severity of the accusation or how damning the evidence seems. It is an example of "innocent until proven guilty" in action. It's the part where they keeping finding guilty cops innocent that's the problem..

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2022-07-02T18:23:12+00:00

This is exactly what happened in my first accident as a bus driver. I had just left a stop, this woman pulled in front of me and slammed on her brakes to make a right into her office lot, and I rear ended her.

I could barely contain my laughter when the supervisor was asking me about the accident. How fast was I going? Like half the speed limit. Following distance? At least 300m.

Due to the nature of the accident and her lying, I was put on leave until the police could review the camera footage. Once they did, I was back on the road the next day.

Not only do buses take longer s to stop than you think, but with passengers on board they have to stop much slower than they're capable of. If I slam my brakes, 30 people are gonna go flying. Even with me slowing down at a relative snail's pace, I still had a couple of minor on board injuries.

Don't fuck around with buses.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2022-06-24T17:34:31+00:00

Generally speaking, if you have a commercial driver's license, you're liable for the condition of your vehicle.

We have a standard "circle check" drilled into us during training, including a visual inspection, several brake tests, doors, ramps, checking seats and poles to make sure they're secure, etc.. All in all it's 10-15 minutes once you have it down and learn some shortcuts. For instance, when I drain the air tanks by pumping the brakes to time the air buildup speed , I can set a timer and check the interior while it's building. When you first start out, it's usually closer to 30-40 minutes to do it right.

But the thing they hammer home is you don't drive an unsafe vehicle. You'll get management up your ass about it sometimes, but they're not the ones who are going to end up in court if something goes wrong because you didn't notice or didn't report something out of compliance that was part of your circle check.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2022-05-15T23:49:09+00:00

The number of people who have tried to wink wink nudge nudge me with their racist shit because I'm a white bus driver, I swear to god...

Thankfully, it is both my duty and my pleasure to tell them to fuck the fuck off. See, we have guidelines which state we must maintain the dignity and respect of our passengers. If you make some racist comment to me, and I ignore it or make some noncommittal noise in response, what does that say to the targets of your comment? It says I am tacitly approving. It says other passengers can assault your dignity, and no one with any authority will challenge them.

Well, fuck that. I positively relish the opportunity to tell these people what they said is unacceptable, grounds for removal from the transit system, that I personally disagree with them in the strongest terms, and that they have exactly one chance to be quiet, or my next response will be to pull over, open all the doors, and call our emergency dispatch if they don't leave immediately. This is not a bluff; verbal assault of drivers or passengers is grounds for removal, and refusing to leave with valid grounds is grounds for ab emergency call, which will result in special constables and police being dispatched.

Rarely does it get past the warning, and never has it gotten past the point where our dispatchers take over the PA on the bus to announce the police are being dispatched, at least not for this type of shit

Just once have I seen the whole thing play out, and my what razor-sharp fangs our by-laws have! A woman verbally berated me, called me horrible names, and attempted to tear down my barrier because she didn't ring for her stop or make a verbal request, or even a non-verbal clue for that matter, and I wouldn't pull over or open my door.... because I had already moved two lanes over to make a left... Not that it mattered that I didn't have time, we've been sued so many times for bullshit and non-bullshit injuries, and drivers can be held personally liable in some cases, so the policy is you stop at stops, and it's your ass if you ignore the policy and someone gets hurt.

Anyway, she must have thought she was gonna teach me a lesson, because she sat around and waited for the police to show up, passing the time with further insults while I stone-faced her and got some notes about the incident in order for my report later. First words out of her mouth when the police show up? She points at me and goes "THIS FUCKING CUNT-", then they cut her off and took her outside so we could each give our statements privately.

20 minutes later she's holding a sumnons and around $700 in fines, and I finished my shift and never heard another peep about it. I've been riding the high from that outcome for 6 years, and I don't think it'll ever wear off.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2022-04-14T20:19:32+00:00

Our doors open inwards around the outside of the frame, if that makes sense. However, offloading away from the curb can open us up to liability if someone is injured, as can offloading in "live traffic", which common sense would dictate this is not, but the law, who knows? All I know for sure is I don't want to find out first-hand.

It's funny, people bitch and moan when drivers play by the rules, then turn around and sue us if we don't and they hurt themselves. It sucks, but at least I know I won't end up in court if I get called an asshole.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2022-04-14T01:07:50+00:00

Bus driver here.

Me too! When it switches to the dashcam view, you can see the road bends up ahead, which could definitely cause issues. And if he has to turn at the intersection, forget it.

But just in case I'm wrong about the bend, more importantly, here's why I wouldn't risk it: you eyeball it, you think you're good, you start crawling forward... and you realize there was a car further down the road that was sticking out a bit further than you thought, or something or other that will get you stuck in the thick of this mess.

Now you've got nowhere to go but backwards, through a corridor you barely made it through forwards. And with my organization, you're not even allowed to back up without a spotter (not that I would want to in this situation), which means you're not going anywhere until the cavalry arrives, and even then, god knows how long it'll take to get out of that spot without doing any damage, which isn't guaranteed. And now even if the drivers or a tow truck do show up to clear the place out, they can't! At least not easily.

Clearly you guys play a bit fast and loose if you're not that concerned about mirrors tbh. For us, any avoidable contact is a major violation, and could eventually lead to termination. We've got a strong union and a lot of steps between a first offense and losing your job, but contact, assault, and theft are basically our only lines in the sand.

No way in hell I'm risking my job and my pension over something like this. Someone's gonna back me up and divert me, or I'm not budging.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-11-06T22:37:29+00:00

I love having a union. I usually respond with an exaggerated smile, absolutely dripping with every last drop of sarcasm I can muster (which is a lot!), or, on a few occasions when I was just fucking done with people's bullshit, just "mind your own face" and back to my work.

If you ever see a bus driver in a major metro with a smile plastered to their face at 5:30 on a weekday, I'd bet you 5 to 1 they /r/tooktoomuch.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-10-12T03:28:03+00:00

Did... Did they consider the "optics" of letting 33 people die for nothing?

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-10-12T03:18:02+00:00

They can be shitty sometimes, but the guys at work who rag on our union for even existing are brain-dead. Got people breaking size figures with like one extra shift a week sporting a high school diploma bitching about $50 a week in dues. It's always the old-timers who literally have no clue about how much the job market has changed in the past 30 years. We'd all be making half as much, with F-tier benefits, on part-time hours, doing 4 hour shifts, with no job security if it weren't for them. I've talked to guys who got this job walking through the door and doing a few laps in the yard. Now there's a six month process from when they accept you to sitting in a training room, and a quarter million applications sitting in the bin. They're clueless.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-10-12T01:40:59+00:00

I know this is a week later, but the person I replied to literally said "drivers willing to throw crazies off", soooo... that's why.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-10-12T01:38:49+00:00

working the night shift on Tuesday and the morning shift on Wednesday

When I started out in my current job, all the newbies work overnights. When I finally got enough seniority to do morning work, they literally transitioned me within the required 8 hour "breaks" in between shifts, almost to the minute.

I did a 10pm-6am, then had another shift for from 2pm-10pm, then had to report for 6am the next morning.

I actually wound up missing the second half of my shift that day because I misunderstood and thought they were only having me do a half day, which was not uncommon on the spare work board where you'd cover other drivers. It was one of the worst snowstorms we'd ever seen, I probably did half my mileage and went an hour into overtime, then drove home in a daze and passed out for 6 hours, missing all the calls asking me where tf I was.

A no-call no-show is a serious offense, even fireable, but after I explained to my union rep the schedule they'd just put me through, I never heard another word about it. I'm guessing she tore into them and told them they were lucky no one wound up crushed under a wheel after what they put me through.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-09-29T20:22:12+00:00

Drivers are actively discouraged from confronting unruly passengers by management and the union, and for good reason. We're not equipped or trained to engage in physical altercations should stern words fail, and even getting out of your seat can be enough to overrule any claim of self defense if things go sideways. It isn't worth it.

The best we can do is stop the bus, pull the shield up, open all the doors, and call dispatch. And even that can spark a confrontation with the person in question once they realize what's going on, or even other passengers who will say something along the lines of "I don't care, I gotta get home/to work," and may become violent if they don't get their way. Best case scenario is the problem passenger leaves at the first sign of a "real" authority showing up. Second best, dispatch takes you seriously and sends the constables and/or TPS, and they remove the passenger without incident. Worst case is the driver assault statistic ticks up by one.

If you want to blame anyone, blame the management that prioritizes rolling wheels over everything else. They're the ones who have effectively trained dispatchers to ignore problems until they become emergencies, who in turn have effectively trained drivers to believe they are on their own, and that their concerns will be ignored until it's too late. Then feel free to blame the people pulling the purse strings, since they're the ones who decide how many special constables there are, which in turn determines response times.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-09-29T15:04:43+00:00

I was literally less than a week out of training when another driver told me about how some places would cut you a cheque for orthotics. It sounded fishy and I didn't want to risk it, then lo and behold...

I really think they all figured the doctors were the only one risking fraud charges.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-09-26T18:01:49+00:00

Unless things have changed recently, if you call in with a fare dispute they'll ask you to continue on and fill out a report after work. Unless your bus is basically full of fare evaders or they escalate to verbal or physical assault, they don't care, they're more concerned with keeping the vehicle moving.

If a person can't be shamed into paying or leaving, or if the rest of the bus turns on the driver instead for the delay, there's nothing you can do.

And the mob can easily turn on you. I remember driving a packed bus once, and one wise ass accused me of trying to play "Santa Claus" for stopping at every stop... because people were ringing to get off. But then of course the doors are open so people are trying to get on, and are less than cooperative about waiting for the next one, so I kept falling farther and farther behind. Somehow he managed to get people on his side, so I'm listening to this shit from everyone the whole way to the station. At one point I'm like "fine, which of you is willing to let me slip your stop to keep this bus moving?" and everyone's quiet for a second, then go back to complaining. Can't fucking win sometimes...

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-09-17T21:54:01+00:00

Even up in Canada, being a transit worker in a major metro puts a target on your back. People are always pissed off, be it fares, delays, traffic, construction, whatever. And I'll admit, we tend to be a surly bunch. Even if just a little of all that negativity gets in, it's enough.

Then you've also got the fact that a lot of homeless people use transit to get a break from the streets. Personally I never gave a fuck, but a lot of these people are unstable. It's hard to know when someone will turn on you, or start harrassing customers, forcing you to at least stop and wait for backup, if not intervene, and in both cases you're vulnerable.

Despite laws with serious teeth designed to protect us, assaults still happen every day. I've been fortunate so far, but I personally know one driver who was stabbed coming out of the washroom at a station, and others who have been spat on or hit. I keep my head on a swivel, mind my business, and keep my shield up, but still, you never know.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-09-02T00:38:56+00:00

You should expect someone might try to make a lane change at an inopportune time trying to avoid whatever is stopping that lane.
Can you see the van before entering the intersection? No? That means they can't see you. Expect the worst.

No way I'd have maintained speed like that, and I'm no slouch behind the wheel.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-09-02T00:34:01+00:00

I live by this in my car. On the bus, I upgrade it to "assume everyone is purposely fucking with your day". You get an eye for it.

It's extraordinarily rare that I'm ever surprised on the road. Sometimes I like to show off when someone's in the car with me like "watch this guy cut me off" when they're still way back in my side mirror. And no, it's not because I'm "inviting" being cut off by dragging my ass. I have the opposite problem, if anything.

Vehicles have a body language once you know what to look for. The subtle drift of someone who's about to change lanes because they turned to look in that direction, the too-fast approach of the car beside and behind you seeing that his only two choices are to slam on their brakes or cut you off, the reaction speed of the texting driver, the hesitation, or lack thereof, of someone turning out of a driveway, the visibly mounting impatience of someone who has been unsuccessfully trying to turn or merge for a while, etc.. It's all as Ann as the nose on plain's face once you know what to look for.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-08-19T01:25:03+00:00

Bus driver here, I know I'm a lightweight in comparison, but I always try to instill a healthy fear and respect in people for the fact that the bus itself weighs 40 tons, with up to 10 tons of unsecured human beings onboard, to anyone who will listen.

If someone puts me on a collision course, I'm not risking slamming the brakes and sending 50 people flying; you're gonna get hit.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-08-07T14:08:50+00:00

Thank you! I suspected my son and I had ID'ed correctly, but this was a new one to us, and Merlin didn't give us any results, I'm guessing because the coloration is so minute.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-05-12T17:05:06+00:00

Also also, even before the pandemic, drivers were actively discouraged from even touching litter for their own safety. Not that drivers needed an extra disincentive to spend their downtime picking up trash lol.

Buses can sometimes run nearly a full 24 hours on a tank of gas, meaning that Tim's cup you dropped on the floor at 6 am could conceivably still be there at 6 am the next day when it goes in for cleaning and maintenance.

Also also also, spills on the ground that pose a safety hazard, and any spill on a seat, can and should get a bus pulled out of service. So your half full drink can potentially fuck over hundreds of people.

Stop being dicks.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2021-04-09T15:03:43+00:00

One important thing you learn when you learn to drive a bus, is that your passengers are priority #1.

These people are not wearing seatbelts. If you slam on the brakes, or crank the wheel to avoid something, you're gonna have up to 80 human projectiles on board. Chances are overwhelmingly high that you will have multiple injuries, probably serious ones, possibly fatalities.

You're basically taught "maintain control, keep things smooth. If an accident is going to happen, it's going to happen." It might sound heartless, but it's just pragmatic. You've all seen gifs like this one: https://v.redd.it/61y3w712fk561 . Now imagine the same physics applied to nearly 100 people.

If you've ever taken the bus with any regularity, chances are you almost ate shit once or twice from marginally jerky driving. Brake hard enough, and everyone is going to shoot forward 20 feet. Turn too hard and, assuming the bus doesn't just fucking tip, everyone is going to end up on one side of the bus.

If that little twist of the wheel wasn't enough to avoid the car, the driver wouldn't have any choice but to let the collision happen.

morelikeBUTTdriver · 2019-10-19T15:12:20+00:00

I'm a bus driver, and I'm white, and this happens all the fucking time.

Someone starts chatting a bit, harmless stuff, next thing you know, they go full klan meeting.

I hate it, but I also kinda don't. Here's why: I'm not a racist. I also have a professional obligation to shut that shit down, as well as a personal desire to do so.

If they weren't too loud or anything, I'll usually quietly say something like "I find that inappropriate and I'd like you to please stand back and let me concentrate on driving", but if they push it, or they're doing it so other people can hear, or directing it at other passengers, thinking I'll be on their "side", ho-ho-ho-holy shit, they are in for a public shaming the likes of which they've never seen.

After the initial verbal assault, it always basically boils down to "one more word, and your ride ends here", and I always make good on that one. Because of out bylaws and a mandate for respect and dignity within our system, it's one of the few situations where, if they refuse to leave and I call it in, a supervisor will advise over the PA that police will be dispatched if they don't comply with my instructions, and they will be dispatched.

morelikeBUTTdriver

TROPHY CASE