Yes, the definition I quoted is from the OED.
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Trivia: Common bus and coach related fallacies
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LSWR Cavalier
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Buses are easy to drive / buses are difficult to drive.
Which is correct?
Which is correct?
Busaholic
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I'd suggest both could be true, depending on the person. The answer I was given when I nervously posed much the same question to a senior instructor at London Transport's Chiswick Works where I'd gone as part of my managerial traineeship to view bus drivers on the famous skid patch was on the lines of ''well, the ones who think it's going to be a piece of cake are usually the ones who come unstuck and fail to pass out as fully fledged drivers.'' Got to say, I've never driven a bus and couldn't on this occasion because I hadn't then passed a car driving test.
It's as easy as other road users make it for you, kamikaze deliveroo riders being my main issue these days.
Geordie driver
Member
I passed my test in a 1965 Bristol Lodekka, 4 speed crash box, double declutch on every gear, no power steering. Hard work at first but eventually becomes second nature and no harder than driving a car, but, most importantly, no passengers to deal with.
Modern full autos are much easier, you soon get used to the size and traffic shouldn't bother you.
For the most part it's the passengers that are the difficult bit, not the driving.
And its pedestrian corollary: I shall step out in front of this bus, as buses are always really slow etc etc. Gives me the willies sometimes when I see peds launching themselves optimistically off the footway in to the path of an oncoming bus. Heaven knows how the drivers cope.
I have to do this in Scotland with my National Entitlement Card, unless it's a flat-fare like Lothian Buses. And a lot of the time I get given a ticket, though it's unclear to me what the criteria are for whether a ticket is issued or not (and I've never bothered to check what fare it shows if I do get one). I presume the information so gathered is useful to someone, somewhere, though I'm not sure who that might be.
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Stan Drews
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The reimbursement (paid to the operator by Transport Scotland) is based on the normal adult single fare, hence the need for the intended destination to be entered into the ticket machine. With a flat fare system, there is no need for a destination as the reimbursement will also be a flat rate.
5) Q: Does this bus stop at the river? A: I hope so. Otherwise there'll be an almighty splash.
philthetube
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6) how do buses run on Sundays? on wheels, the same as every other day.
I once heard a frustrated national express driver tell a passenger who would not board a Bristol service when travelling travelling to Oxford, that the coaches also say welcome aboard on the side and we don't mean that either.
I once heard a frustrated national express driver tell a passenger who would not board a Bristol service when travelling travelling to Oxford, that the coaches also say welcome aboard on the side and we don't mean that either.
Another fallacy - bus drivers deliberately pull away just as a passenger reaches the stop.
These passengers would do well to remember this ancient Chinese proverb:
"Bus run for man who waits, not wait for man who runs."
These passengers would do well to remember this ancient Chinese proverb:
"Bus run for man who waits, not wait for man who runs."
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Gloster
Established Member
If a road is closed near your stop and buses are diverted, the driver is being deliberately awkward if s/he refuses to drive right down to the closure so that you don’t have far to walk.
Geordie driver
Member
Here's one from either passengers or other road users: "this will cost you your job", usually accompanied by a wagging finger and a high pitched wail over some either minor or often imaginary discrepancy of the driver.
No mate, if I don't crash the bus, don't hit a passenger and don't get caught fiddling, my job is safe.
No mate, if I don't crash the bus, don't hit a passenger and don't get caught fiddling, my job is safe.
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Paul Jones 88
Member
How longs the next bus?
About 38 feet, love!
About 38 feet, love!
Contains Nuts
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I find a bus easier to drive than a car most of the time. From the cab of a bus the view of the road is much better than a car, and other cars usually get out of the way.
I have been known in the past to be driving my car then accidentally stick my fingers in the heaters when I’ve gone to change the fare stage on my non-existent ticket machine. That and following bus routes in the car when I’m not concentrating as well as I should.
jp4712
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I own a bus with a semi-auto gearbox that's 33 ft long, and a pre-selector gearbox decker that's 27 ft long. I also drive a very wide variety of other buses via my involvement at the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester. I get asked this question a lot and my answer is "in general, neither - the word I'd use is 'different'". You get used to the size and driving technical needs (double declutching, pre-selector gear changes) very quickly. A few weeks ago I was at a MoTGM event and went straight from a Daimler Fleetline to a Guy Arab, each with a load of passengers. The main difference isn't the difficulty, it's how tired they make you. I can drive my Bristol RE all day and get out of the cab fresh as a daisy - the engine is 30 feet away, my left foot never even gets used, light steering. But a PD3 with synchromesh on third and fourth only, a heavy clutch pedal, 9.8 litres of loud next to your left knee, draughty opening windscreen, a cab climb that Sherpa Tensing might baulk at... eight hours of that leaves you like a wrung-out rag.
Anyway, back on topic, my myth: it's perfectly okay to race into the traffic gap just in front of that bus as 'he's only slow'.
Just a brief reminder to stay on-topic - there's getting be too much truth here 
One that has happened to me a couple of times over the last few weeks:
When the driver allows me to walk to a seat at my own pace without lurching away from the bus stop, it's perfectly OK for me to arrange my bag/shopping trolley, move my phone from an inconvenient pocket, put my bus pass away in my wallet/purse, take my coat off and have a chat with another passenger who I happen to know (or their wife, husband, children, neighbour from three doors down) before I actually take the seat I've chosen, and isn't s/he a good driver for waiting for me whilst I do so.
When the driver allows me to walk to a seat at my own pace without lurching away from the bus stop, it's perfectly OK for me to arrange my bag/shopping trolley, move my phone from an inconvenient pocket, put my bus pass away in my wallet/purse, take my coat off and have a chat with another passenger who I happen to know (or their wife, husband, children, neighbour from three doors down) before I actually take the seat I've chosen, and isn't s/he a good driver for waiting for me whilst I do so.
Busaholic
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I take your general point, of course. I would just like to add that the driver does have a general duty of care to his/her passengers, so if ir were possible to allow time for passengers to sit, so much the better. There was an Appeal Court judgment some time back, which the bus company won, but the judges added that if the badly injured passenger had been obviously fragile or disabled when they'd boarded the bus the case would have gone the other way, as the driver WOULD have had a duty to them to be seated before moving off.
P.S. A personal interest of mine as my late father-in-law had a life-changing injury on a bus.
Gloster
Established Member
I use a stick nowadays and most of the time the drivers wait until I am, at least partially, sat down; I can actually move quite briskly on the flat as it is just steps and the like that cause me occasional problems. However, a few have a habit of waiting until I am just starting to adjust my stance so as to get into a seat as quickly as possible (I prefer the seats over the rear wheels as it is a lot easier to get down from them than up from the others) and then starting off suddenly. I am in the habit of always keeping a hand out to grab something.
That can lead to other problems...
Gloster
Established Member
If you mean a slap and, “Keep your dirty hands to yourself, you old so-and-so”, I keep my hand up high. I am more likely to wallop someone in the face, although as so many passengers here are little old ladies, the hand would probably pass over their head.
Eyersey468
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I agree I'd be interested to see this 33 foot long gearboxA 33ft long gearbox? That is some piece of machinery
Kremlin Stooge
Member
A bus is just as good as a furniture removal van.
(I actually declined travel to 2 people trying to board my step-entrance Dart who were attempting to transport a double bed base and mattress;
“Sorry mate, you can’t bring those on here”
“How am I gonna get them home?”
“You need a van, mate, not a bus”
“Where am I gonna get a van from?”
“Dunno, I drive buses, not vans”)
(I actually declined travel to 2 people trying to board my step-entrance Dart who were attempting to transport a double bed base and mattress;
“Sorry mate, you can’t bring those on here”
“How am I gonna get them home?”
“You need a van, mate, not a bus”
“Where am I gonna get a van from?”
“Dunno, I drive buses, not vans”)
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