Insane bus driver

[blas]

Good to know people like this are toting your children around to and from school every day.

I was leaving my parents' house today, and was at a stop sign about to make a right turn. There was a short bus about 1/4 mile away, so I had plenty of time to turn. I turned and started accelerating up to the speed limit of 35.

All of a sudden, the bus roars right up my butt, the bus driver is this angry looking woman who looks like she's on a mission for blood and guts. For whatever reason, I play her game for a while, almost up to 50 mph (on a 35 mph road) while she remains right on my butt.

We stop at a red light, both of us are going to turn right onto the old highway (speed limit 50). I see there's enough time for me to turn, but not her. I take the opportunity and gun it just to get away from her. She has to wait for a car before her bus can go safely.

I was way ahead of her for a while....but she must have really been after me or something, because she came roaring up again. Except she stayed in the right lane, and I was in the left lane. I was speeding as is, as I tend to be a moron on that road and go almost 60 at times. She matched speeds with me and was tailgating a vehicle in front of her, I can only assume she was trying to pass me but couldn't.

The next light was about to turn red. The car in front of her gunned it so they wouldn't have to stop, but we didn't make it. I took the opportunity at the red light to get a good look at her. Just this angry looking woman like the bus driver on South Park. She might as well have been foaming at the mouth and hissing like a rabid cat. Then I figured out why she stayed in the right lane. She was going to gun it at the green light and get ahead of me.

Then stupidity took over logic and reason. I figured if this dumb bitch is stupid enough to try to race my little car with a bus, I might as well leave her in the dust.

The light turned green and I gave her balls (well, all the balls my poor little car has). As to be expected, she couldn't accelerate fast enough to keep up with me until a few moments later. And even then, she couldn't catch me. All the while, she still stayed in the right lane, just trying to catch me and whizz past me. It just wasn't going to happen.

Soon but not soon enough, I had to turn left to get onto the freeway. No sooner had I eased into the left turn lane did she nearly flip that bus over weaving viciously into the lane I'd just been in and then try to rocket the bus onward past everyone else. As you can imagine, a big black cloud emerged from the exhaust of the bus, and she wasn't able to pass or get around anyone....as they were either going too slow and she couldn't get around, or because they didn't feel like being bullied by a bus today. I was stuck at that red light in the left turn lane for like 3 minutes, and I watched her get stuck at the next red light.

Sure, I should have been more contientious of the children on that bus. I didn't read the bus to see if it was a real short bus, or like a Head Start or 4 year old kindergarten bus. Whatever it was....that driver was insane, I did see kids on it....and that woman should be fired.

I should also mention that I do not condone nor advocate nor endorse street racing. My car is by no means fast or powerful...just a baby Neon with a single overhead cam and a 2.0 engine. However.........there is no way a bus is going to win against me, even a small short bus. That woman was really, really delusional....and I'm sorry people like that get hired to be responsible for taking your kids to and from school, and I'm sorry that the inner idiot in me got out and I raced the short bus.

[Gerrinson]

The drivers of the school vans (big white vans with lights and a School sign on top) in my area are just about the same. A while back one of the buses passed me. I was doing 65 in a 55 and the van blew by me doing at least 80. And it was full of kids.

They're always speeding and they often ignore little things like stop signs. Maybe I should invest in a cell phone so I can report them.

[marasbaras]

Definitely needed reporting.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, Blas, I gotta say that when you get into a pissing contest with an idiot, it kind of becomes hard to tell which one the idiot is. Don't dirty yourself with people like this, you are above that.

I don't mean to be on your case...people like that really chap my ass, too. I understand. But maybe the better thing to do would have been to let her get by you so you could get the number off the bus and report it. I mean, I doubt seriously that this is her first time driving dangerously. She's in charge of people's kids, and she's clearly dangerously irresponsible. She needs to be reported.

[Sliceanddice]

when tailgated, you always go the speedlimit, you never speed up, thats a good way to wind up in a firey death and a cold grave.
you go the speed limit and if possible get off the road.

[Jack7957]

I've noticed these past several years alot of school buses now have a phone number on the back. I've used them before to report bad drivers.

[JustADude]

when tailgated, you always go the speedlimit, you never speed up, thats a good way to wind up in a firey death and a cold grave.
you go the speed limit and if possible get off the road.

When tailgated I will drop to the speed-limit (I usually go about 5 over without meaning to because of how smooth my little Echo handles) and grin while I watch them foam in the mirror. If they're tailgating on a 4-lane road, or in a situation where they can otherwise pass me if they had any lick of sense, I'll double-tap my breaks just enough to flash the lights a few times to get them to go around.

Occasionally I'll get an idiot who is weaving and jockeying back and forth, trying to get through a pack of cars all moving over the speed limit to begin with. When those asshats show up, I must admit I do get a bit vindictive. I'll get just far enough ahead of the car next to me that they serve in behind me and ride my ass like I was a cheap whore, then I ease off the gas so I start falling back again. That ends with them serving into the other lane, which is my cue to bring my speed back up... wash, rinse, and repeat until they get the hint and back off or until they find a way past that doesn't involve trying to hump my car's trunk with theirs.

Immature? Maybe. There's less than 5mph between the 'bait' and 'switch' speeds, though, and I only pull that stunt on people who are being genuinely obnoxious, not ones just trying to get in the faster lane, so I really don't consider it anything but a bit of cheap amusement at the expense of an impatient idiot. Oh, and before anyone says "What if they have a good reason to be in a hurry?", anyone who really needs to be playing NASCAR on a city street should be laying on the horn and flashing their lights to make it clear they need through... assuming they haven't thought to get a police escort.

[One-Fang]

Anybody else having Duel flashbacks?

Glad it ended better than that, for the kiddies' sake.

[smileyeagle1021]

Occasionally I'll get an idiot who is weaving and jockeying back and forth, trying to get through a pack of cars all moving over the speed limit to begin with. When those asshats show up, I must admit I do get a bit vindictive. I'll get just far enough ahead of the car next to me that they serve in behind me and ride my ass like I was a cheap whore, then I ease off the gas so I start falling back again. That ends with them serving into the other lane, which is my cue to bring my speed back up... wash, rinse, and repeat until they get the hint and back off or until they find a way past that doesn't involve trying to hump my car's trunk with theirs.

Oh, and before anyone says "What if they have a good reason to be in a hurry?", anyone who really needs to be playing NASCAR on a city street should be laying on the horn and flashing their lights to make it clear they need through... assuming they haven't thought to get a police escort.

first paragraph made me laugh hard enough that my coworkers must think that I'm certifiably insane.

second paragraph I have an answer to the question "what if he truly does need to be somewhere fast"
my response is if it is truly an emergency they should have contacted emergency services for their area... i'm sorry, if you don't feel it's bad enough to call 911 (or it's equivalent) then it isn't truly an emergency and you can obey the traffic laws.

[rerant]

The whole time I was reading this I was under the assumption that there were no kids on the bus. With children riding along with the crazy lady you really shouldn't have played into her games.
That little bus could have flipped or crashed.

I think the best thing to do in that situation is just get the plates, call the police and tell them what you're seeing and where you are at the moment if you're still near the bus.
With any luck they'd send a cruiser out and pull her over. Though I don't know if they'd do that with children on board.

[ditchdj]

Reminds me of one time when I was leaving a middle school that I was subbing at I heard one of the parents in a line of cars yelling at a bus driver. He waved to the bus to open his door and I heard him yelling at the driver, "I was going 20 mph down the road. YOU passed ME when I was going ONLY 20!" Oh OK traffic cop. Even if he was trying to "Play traffic cop" he was obviously "out of his jurisdiction". This was in Indiana and he had Illinois plates.

[LewisLegion]

I remember the taxi that tailgated me once. I was in the third lane of a four lane freeway, early on a saturday morning (ie, the freeway was bloody EMPTY), and he comes roaring up on my bumper until he's inches away, then starts flashing his lights and gesturing at me to go faster. I was going the speed limit already, and as he did that I took my foot off the gas and started to slow down until I was a bit below. After nearly five minutes of this he finally whips around me into the next lane (which was empty this whole time), gives me the finger, and puts the pedal to the medal.

He must have been going at least thirty over the limit when he blasted by that traffic cop. Ah, it was a beautiful thing

[blas]

See, where I come from, we don't have tons of taxis (like the little yellow ones you see on TV in bigger cities). Our taxis are just a few vans, but man alive do they drive like a bunch of wild drunks.

[thehippie777]

This reminds me of a bus driver where I grew up. She had a tandancy to speed through red lights with a bus full of kids... Let's just say she was lucky her daddy was the sheriff cuz she was a bit too crazy to be allowed to drive a bus. After awhile she was petitioned to not drive the bus anymore... wow