Right and Left

[Sonoma]

Oh I hate those people we get that a lot in Salt Lake too.

Please, please, whatever you do, DO NOT SEND THESE PEOPLE TO PORTLAND! We (for the most part) trust that the bus driver will stop the bus at the transit center that serves as the end of that route. And then, we thank the bus dirver.

[Jester]

And now we know where Gravekeeper grew up!

As has been pointed out, we already knew that.

And trust me, that woman didn't need to be on any meds to be that out of it. I got told I looked like I was tripping in one of my classes. I hadn't even taken ibuprofen.

I have gotten told innumerable times in my life that I looked stoned. I almost never smoke the stuff. Hell, I was getting told that when I was a young kid, before I even knew what it meant!

Yes, I know that some people have balance problems, or injuries that don't let them stand on a moving bus. Most of said people know better than to sit at the back.)

In most buses I have been on, the cord is low enough where you can reach it from a sitting position in your seat, or standing up only slightly. And I'm short. And, if you're not in a window seat within easy reach of said cord, the vast majority of humanity will pull the cord for you if you ask.

Also, sometimes people don't have a choice of where they sit, especially if the bus is full.

Actually the bus I was on on Monday almost didn't stop at the terminal...

This is something I wanted to point out....while it seems obvious that the driver will stop at the end of the route, "obvious" and "reality" often don't coincide. After all, bus routes are not really straight lines, but loops, and if a driver is behind, he may well roll past a stop. I have seen it more times than I can count, in multiple cities and multiple states. In my experience, the only bus stop that is absolutely guaranteed to be observed is the New York Port Authority.

I admit, however, that the Canadian mass transit system may well be superior to the crap I have ridden on in Arizona, California, New York, New Jersey, D.C., and Florida.

[Magpie]

In most buses I have been on, the cord is low enough where you can reach it from a sitting position in your seat, or standing up only slightly. And I'm short. And, if you're not in a window seat within easy reach of said cord, the vast majority of humanity will pull the cord for you if you ask.

What I was talking about with having to stand up while the bus was moving wasn't for people who didn't pull the cord in advance, it was people who got up after the bus stopped (some times not immediately when it did) and didn't make it to the doors until the bus driver left. This takes a fair bit of skill, because most of the doors in our transit system are slow to open, so the people ahead of you take a while to get the door open, to leave the bus, and then the doors take a while to close.

Also, sometimes people don't have a choice of where they sit, especially if the bus is full.

I know you disagree with people telling others to obey transit etiquette, but it is the responsibility of the person riding to make sure that they can get off the bus at their stop. If they need to be in the priority handicapped seating, they need to tell other people to move out of it. That seating makes everyone's life easier, not just that of the people sitting in it.

[ThanosIsKing]

Special

There is a special, rather specific category of transit rider on the bus whose frequency of appearance is becoming alarming. Before, I thought of them only as rare curiosity. Spotted only once in a blue moon amongst the denizens of the night. An oddity amongst the transit wild life. The rare white elk if you will. If that elk had been born face down in a runoff ditch outside of a brewery.

I speak of course of the people who, for some bizarre reason, feel compelled to pull the stop cord or hit one of the stop buttons right before the last stop the bus makes. As if the driver of the bus named after the last stop is unaware that he has to stop the bus at that stop unless you yank the cord as he’s turning into the station. Like he was just about to do a couple laps around the bus loop then head right on back out with everyone still on board.

The poor guy’s entire job consists of driving from point A to point B over and over again for 8+ hours a day with you iPod equipped farm animals hanging out in the back the entire time. I think he knows where he’s going. I also think he’s vividly aware of every single point along the trip where there’s some small chance he can get rid of you. I also think he’s vividly aware that if he makes it to the last stop he gets a 15-30 minute break of merciful silence.

So rest assured my apparently damaged fellow riders, he does know where to go and when to stop.

We get a lot of those types here in Denver also. Pretty much every day I went off to class, I'd get some nitwit who needed to pull that damned cord immediately after the driver announced that he was pulling into the light rail station. It never failed.

"Next stop: Southmoor Sta-"
*ding*

I wanted so badly to strangle them. I might forgive this at, say, midnight or something, but this was occuring at 10AM!

[Kristev]

We have a driver who will deliberately refuse to pick up people, treat them badly, and refuse to stop.

In fact, we have a couple of them like that. But it's Idaho. People here are sweet at first and quickly show their true fowl colors later.

[smileyeagle1021]

We have a driver who will deliberately refuse to pick up people, treat them badly, and refuse to stop.

In fact, we have a couple of them like that. But it's Idaho. People here are sweet at first and quickly show their true fowl colors later.

Just like Utah... when I was in Logan there was a driver who refused to stop to pick up black people (I had heard about him but didn't believe it until I saw it first hand). This was the same driver who had a habit of intentionally closing the doors on blacks people when they were trying to exit. The truly terrifying part was that I saw said black people complaining about him at customer service and they got blown off, I went up customer service and pretended the driver had done the same thing to me and they started acting as if it was a very serious matter (which it was) and promised to look into it blah blah blah.
Yeah, Utah is nowhere near as bad as its reputation, it is so much worse

[Kristev]

I'm trapped in Idaho. All they talk about here is going on vacation to Utah. They think it's a beautiful place, except that they don't like the total lack of liquor. So I completely believe you.

[BusBus]

I was on a (nearly empty) bus where, just after leaving a stop, a guy started to pull on the cord, indicating that he wanted the bus driver to stop at the next stop. He didn't pull it just once. He kept pulling it over and over and over until we got to the next stop (so one minute of *dingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingd ingdingdingdingdingding*). The bus pulls into the stop, and the guy does not get off, telling the driver that this was the wrong stop. The driver made him get off the bus

[Comechatcha]

I was on a (nearly empty) bus where, just after leaving a stop, a guy started to pull on the cord, indicating that he wanted the bus driver to stop at the next stop. He didn't pull it just once. He kept pulling it over and over and over until we got to the next stop (so one minute of *dingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingd ingdingdingdingdingding*). The bus pulls into the stop, and the guy does not get off, telling the driver that this was the wrong stop. The driver made him get off the bus

I like our bus cords. Once it rings, it can't ring again until the bus driver has either reset it, or the bus has stopped and idled. Meaning? No long dingdingdingdingding etc.

Though those Idaho comments are scaring me a bit. I'm heading there for a convention... tomorrow.

[Jester]

All this negative talk about Idaho concerns me. I have only been there once, but I had nothing but fun and positive experiences. Everyone was nice, everyone was friendly, everyone was awesome. I was only there for 48 hours, but had a blast.

Of course, a large portion of that positive experience was named Terri. We actually managed to break a shower.

But still.....

[smileyeagle1021]

I like our bus cords. Once it rings, it can't ring again until the bus driver has either reset it, or the bus has stopped and idled. Meaning? No long dingdingdingdingding etc.

.

As long as it isn't like the stop requests on the older TRAX trains (seriously, why do they even have stop requests on a system where the train stops at every station anyway...) where it only dings once until it resets, but once it resets it dings for each time that someone has pushed the button. So you pull into the station and you can tell exactly how many idiots didn't realize what the train does indeed stop at all stations