I have been riding my bike to work a few days a week lately, and I often get rides home from friends and students, but I still ride the bus quite a bit. As a former bus driver and driving-starved young man, I notice two things while I'm riding the bus--the way the driver does his job and all the cars that whiz around the plodding bus.
I drove buses for Ohio State University's Campus Area Bus Service for a year and a half, and of course first I had to get a class-B commercial driver's license. That involved taking a written test at the BMV to get a temporary CDL permit that allowed me to drive a bus with a trainer, 50 hours of in-bus training, and a road test that included a detailed pre-trip inspection ("the front windshield is clean, clear, not cracked or damaged, and the windshield gasket is secure and not damaged"), a maneuverability test (straight-line backing, offset backing, parallel parking, and alley docking), and an hour-long road test that included highway driving, crossing railroad tracks, emergency stopping, hill climbing (they found the one decently steep hill in Columbus, Ohio), and general city driving. I really enjoyed my time as a bus driver, and I was a little sad when I dropped off my last passenger and pointed my bus back toward the garage.
Now I compensate by critiquing other bus drivers. I have to say that most Russian bus drivers would get fired very quickly by an American transit agency. They are actually very capable drivers, but they don't have much respect for the law. I felt like the king of the road behind the wheel of a bus; these guys are the tsars of the road. Buses constantly cut off other cars, drive in two lanes at once, and sometimes don't come to a full stop when picking up or dropping off passengers. The drivers talk on the phone while driving (that would get you fired at CABS), smoke (no one even tried that while driving), and let people on and off away from designated stops (also not allowed by CDL regulations). They don't use four-way flashers, don't signal turns, and pull out and turn directly in front of oncoming traffic. Sometimes it can be a little harrowing if you let yourself think about it. I've seen more than a few accidents involving buses here in Vladimir--mostly fender benders and side-swipes. Also, buses don't have CB radios, so there is no way for buses to communicate problems to the dispatcher talk or to each other and space themselves out when traffic gets bad (maybe that's what the cell phones are for). Talking on the CB radio and listening to all the other drivers was one of my favorite things about bus driving. Finally, drivers don't have uniforms, so they wear whatever they want, which, now that it is hot, usually means a wife beater and athletic shorts. Professional.
Anyway, this is all to say that I would love to climb behind the wheel of a bus when the driver is out for a smoke break and see how it would feel to pilot a 40-footer again. Something tells me the police and the bus company wouldn't find that very funny though.
I drove buses for Ohio State University's Campus Area Bus Service for a year and a half, and of course first I had to get a class-B commercial driver's license. That involved taking a written test at the BMV to get a temporary CDL permit that allowed me to drive a bus with a trainer, 50 hours of in-bus training, and a road test that included a detailed pre-trip inspection ("the front windshield is clean, clear, not cracked or damaged, and the windshield gasket is secure and not damaged"), a maneuverability test (straight-line backing, offset backing, parallel parking, and alley docking), and an hour-long road test that included highway driving, crossing railroad tracks, emergency stopping, hill climbing (they found the one decently steep hill in Columbus, Ohio), and general city driving. I really enjoyed my time as a bus driver, and I was a little sad when I dropped off my last passenger and pointed my bus back toward the garage.
Now I compensate by critiquing other bus drivers. I have to say that most Russian bus drivers would get fired very quickly by an American transit agency. They are actually very capable drivers, but they don't have much respect for the law. I felt like the king of the road behind the wheel of a bus; these guys are the tsars of the road. Buses constantly cut off other cars, drive in two lanes at once, and sometimes don't come to a full stop when picking up or dropping off passengers. The drivers talk on the phone while driving (that would get you fired at CABS), smoke (no one even tried that while driving), and let people on and off away from designated stops (also not allowed by CDL regulations). They don't use four-way flashers, don't signal turns, and pull out and turn directly in front of oncoming traffic. Sometimes it can be a little harrowing if you let yourself think about it. I've seen more than a few accidents involving buses here in Vladimir--mostly fender benders and side-swipes. Also, buses don't have CB radios, so there is no way for buses to communicate problems to the dispatcher talk or to each other and space themselves out when traffic gets bad (maybe that's what the cell phones are for). Talking on the CB radio and listening to all the other drivers was one of my favorite things about bus driving. Finally, drivers don't have uniforms, so they wear whatever they want, which, now that it is hot, usually means a wife beater and athletic shorts. Professional.
Anyway, this is all to say that I would love to climb behind the wheel of a bus when the driver is out for a smoke break and see how it would feel to pilot a 40-footer again. Something tells me the police and the bus company wouldn't find that very funny though.
A Vladimir bus
One of Ohio State's two hybrid buses--I drove this one quite a few times
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