Two unrelated pet peeves

[RetailWorkhorse]

They all seem to lack gas pedals, and their speed seems to be limited to about 15mph.

The school buses have this wonderful little device called a governor that actually slows down the bus. It keeps the motor from racing so much that it blows, keeping the RPMs down. So when you step on the gas instead of racing out of control and, ya know, moving with any kind of speed at all, it goes slow. It restricts your top speed and speed of take-off (so no 0-60 in 4 seconds).

They CAN be adjusted so you can get more RPMs out of it but you don't wanna adjust it to the point that it doesn't kick in, because your bus WILL blow up. It's set up so the driver can't fling the kids in the bus around.

It sounds like the governor in that there school bus is too tight, which will also screw up the bus and if there's ANY kind of incline at all (grade 1 anyone?) it will slow w a y d o w n.

That's currently the problem with our Skoolie. Since the Bluebird is a diesel, it's not happy with the governor wound so tight. It likes to run hard and heavy.

[Kogarashi]

years ago, when I was about 18 or 19, I was on a public transit bus that got stuck on some railroad tracks behind a car that would NOT move. The arm was down and a train was coming. The driver got us all off the bus in time...and I turned around to see it get hit.

That's my closest brush with death and I never want to experience that again.

On the one hand, the bus shouldn't have started across the tracks until it had enough room to clear them completely without waiting for another vehicle.

On the other hand, that's kind of sucky for the car not to get out of the way when the gates came down. I wouldn't have blamed the bus driver if he decided to use the bus to shove the car out of the way.

[wolfie]

On the one hand, the bus shouldn't have started across the tracks until it had enough room to clear them completely without waiting for another vehicle.

On the other hand, that's kind of sucky for the car not to get out of the way when the gates came down. I wouldn't have blamed the bus driver if he decided to use the bus to shove the car out of the way.

I've lost count of the number of times I'd wait for a large enough space to clear before entering an intersection, then after I'd committed to entering, a bunch of 4 wheelers would pass me and cut in front, so my tail was hanging out into the intersection. That may be what happened here. Of course, if I were in a situation like that (blocked by one car, train coming), I'd do what I could to minimize the total damage. That car would move - his choice of gas or diesel providing the energy.

[Kogarashi]

I've lost count of the number of times I'd wait for a large enough space to clear before entering an intersection, then after I'd committed to entering, a bunch of 4 wheelers would pass me and cut in front, so my tail was hanging out into the intersection. That may be what happened here. Of course, if I were in a situation like that (blocked by one car, train coming), I'd do what I could to minimize the total damage. That car would move - his choice of gas or diesel providing the energy.

Exactly, and fair enough to the bus driver if he was cut off after leaving clearance.

And good grief, so many people here don't seem to understand the whole preventing gridlock thing. The intersection right outside Walmart (on a major thoroughfare) is always gridlocked at 5pm on weekdays because too many cars commit themselves to crossing the intersection before making sure there's room on the other side. It doesn't hep that the two traffic lights that cause this aren't exactly synced with each other, though I think the traffic volume would defeat that anyway. And then when I stop because there's no room on the far side of the intersection, I get honked at by people behind me. Go figure.