Two unrelated pet peeves

[redbluegreenyellow101]

1. School buses. I don't mind stopping behind a bus to let kids out, but has anyone else noticed that the amount of bus stops are increasing? I was driving in a neighborhood and the bus stopped every other house (and these houses were close together). What, kids can't walk an 30 extra seconds now? Is it too far? Are the parents seriously that paranoid?

2. Going under the speed limit. My neighborhood is right off of this two lane (one in each direction) state road that has a speed limit of 55. It's a basically straight road, and the median speed that people go is around 40. I've even been stuck behind people going 25-35 more than several times. 5 under, sure, whatever. 10 under? Obnoxious and dangerous. but 15+ over? That's just asking for an accident. It's not like the speed limit isn't posted, people, there are at least 3 signs. About the only time I can go the speed limit - not even speeding - is late at night. (I've lived here for 15 years, 6 of it driving age, can you tell I'm just a tad annoyed? haha)

What made me laugh the other day is the fact that a cop was camped on that road trying to catch speeders. Good luck!

[protege]

Ugh. School buses suck, period. On my morning commute, I get caught by quite a few. They all seem to lack gas pedals, and their speed seems to be limited to about 15mph. Also noticeable, is the refusal to go through green lights and straddling both lanes on Second Avenue in Hazelwood. Let's not forget the last irritating fact about these things--they have to stop at railroad crossings. Annoys the hell out of me on Streets Run, which has *multiple* crossings, and, after nearly 34 years of traveling that road, I've only seen a train in the morning twice. Er, did I mention that you can see the next crossing from the previous one?

The best though, had to be sitting in a traffic jam caused by a bus. Seems that the previous night's storm had washed out part of the road, and shorted out the signals. Because they were going, the bus couldn't legally proceed over the crossing! We sat there a good 20 minutes while the driver kept looking, opening and closing the door, etc. But, the fool didn't move his empty bus out of the way! Even though you're not supposed to pass, most of us said "fuck it" and did it anyway. If we hadn't, we'd still be sitting behind it

[mattm04]

Arrrgh...school buses. The main road off my street is posted for 40-45 MPH the houses are maybe 300-500 apart in most cases.

I usually get stuck behind the combined middle and high school run (almost the entire senior class and 70-80% of the juniors drive so they combine the runs), despite the fact that these are 8th-12th grade students who in 4 houses in a row live next door the bus stops at each house despite the fact that NO parent/guardian needs to be present like the k-5 run. Most of the time the kids linger an meet in the middle house's lawn and talk as the bus creeps along. Then proceeds to creep along at maybe 25-30 MPH until a side street they turn on to.

This potentially lasts almost two miles. I have gotten stuck behind it for the whole length, took approx. 10 minutes. After the bus turned the line of cars then move along at about 55 MPH to try to make up for lost time. Way to keep people safe.

And they wonder after making 20 stops when maybe 10 are necessary why their fuel and maintenance costs get out of control.

[AriRashkae]

Ugh, I used to drive (van) for the school bus company. It's not (entirely) the drivers' fault. A large chunk goes to idiot bureaucrats. Case in point: Until a little before I started, buses had to stop at this one section of tracks, that only existed in the road; the rest of the tracks had long since been ripped up. But, until the city officially pronounced them "dead", buses had to stop, check, and then proceed. And of course, $DEITY forbid we have kids actually go to bus stops or cross the street. Teh horrorz! The only times we were allowed to let kids cross the street was when we were on One-way streets, and couldn't actually get them to the door.

So, yeah, there are a lot of rules for bus drivers to follow, some more stupid than others, but you have to follow them if you want to keep your job.

(Of course, that doesn't keep some of my mother's coworkers from using their cell phones, but that's a different rant. )

[Magpie]

Let's not forget the last irritating fact about these things--they have to stop at railroad crossings. Annoys the hell out of me on Streets Run, which has *multiple* crossings, and, after nearly 34 years of traveling that road, I've only seen a train in the morning twice. Er, did I mention that you can see the next crossing from the previous one?

Only school buses have to do that where you live? All buses are required to do so here. (Of course, some city bus drivers observe that by slowing down, forget opening the door or even stopping, but still.)

[Treasure]

does anybody know why buses have to stop @ RR crossings?

b/c of an accident that happened here in Austin back in the 60's? or 70's?- a school bus full of kids was driving along, and went over the RR tracks and stalled. The bus Driver was unable to get the bus to start, and while he was stuck, a train came.... no survivors

Its said that you can go out on just about any given night, to that crossing, and turn off the car with it in park, and it will get pushed across the tracks. (if you cover your car in baby powder or another substance that won't damage it but you can still see if its disturbed, you'll be able to see child sized hand-prints all over the car)

And that is why all buses are required to stop at all RR crossings

[blas]

Gahh, I thought I was the only one who suffered the woes of morning drives and school busses.

In fact, I make it a point to either leave really early from my parents, or run errands before going home. I cannot be nearby my apartment at a certain time because that's when the busses are going by, stopping by EVERY group of apartments/duplexes/whatever and sitting there with the stop sign and lights flashing while not even all the kids are ready. And the bus moves about 50 feet, then picks up more, then 50 more feet, more kids..........

Back in my day, there were only so many stops and if you weren't there, you missed the fucking bus. Period.

[Andara Bledin]

But, the fool didn't move his empty bus out of the way!

I don't know if it's still the case, but when I was still in school, buses didn't have to stop at crossings unless they had kids on.

I know this because we had one driver that didn't like stopping at open crossings, so he'd have the kids duck down so he could just drive through.

^-.-^

[Brojekk]

Another thing that annoys me...when they stop..kids seem to take forever to get off the bus. Sometimes parents will be there and will talk to the bus drivers..taking an extra minute or two.

Treasure..that's a spooky story. I remember reading it somewhere on a paranormal site. There's a park a couple of towns away where a little girl was killed. If I remember that story correctly,details are kinda hazy,her ghost protects any kids that may be attacked in that park.

[Andara Bledin]

b/c of an accident that happened here in Austin back in the 60's? or 70's?- a school bus full of kids was driving along, and went over the RR tracks and stalled. The bus Driver was unable to get the bus to start, and while he was stuck, a train came.... no survivors

Pretty much no part of that story is true, except that a train did hit a bus.

However, it was in 1938 and happened in Salt Lake City and the bus not only wasn't stalled, but it had stopped prior to crossing the tracks, as was already law by that point. Snopes, of course, has much of the story.

Based on this article, all that changed was that they then also had to open their door and window to listen. Which must be really fun when you're dealing with blizzards, as was the case at that time. Of course, momentarily freezing is better than hit by a train any day.

I've always found the whole practice of stopping before the crossing a bit troublesome in that the problem was a stalled bus, and I can't imagine why a bus would stall while just traveling forward. On the other hand, I've seen many vehicles that have stalled within the first several seconds after starting moving from a full stop.

^-.-^

[mattm04]

P
I've always found the whole practice of stopping before the crossing a bit troublesome in that the problem was a stalled bus, and I can't imagine why a bus would stall while just traveling forward. On the other hand, I've seen many vehicles that have stalled within the first several seconds after starting moving from a full stop.

^-.-^

Good point. I was on a school bus when it stalled, it was at a intersection. The driver stopped, then when they hit the gas we moved about 4-6 ft forward and stopped moving. The engine was running and would rev but it would not go forward. The driver had to shut it off, restart it and we did move forward again but pulled over at a safe spot and waited about a hour for a replacement bus.

This simple process even brought out a cruiser, fire truck and ambulance for the transfer. The presence of the emergency vehicles created a even bigger deal whiht panicked parents calling the school once word got out than if they simply let us get off one bus and on a new one.

[protege]

I don't know if it's still the case, but when I was still in school, buses didn't have to stop at crossings unless they had kids on.

In PA though, they all have to stop, regardless. I don't know if city buses have to stop as well...since I usually don't find myself behind one in the morning But, it wouldn't surprise me if they had to as well. As for the guy who wouldn't move his bus and let traffic by, he was just an idiot. He could have easily pulled into the nearest parking lot, and waited until the railroad workers finished repairing the signals. He chose to be an ass and block the road.

[Chromatix]

A manual transmission can stall just after starting if the clutch is mishandled. Essentially, if the clutch is fully engaged, but the engine speed corresponding to road speed is much below idle, it might not have enough torque to keep moving - for all petrol engines, torque falls off rapidly at low speed.

I'm less clear what would cause a bus transmission to disengage like that. Bus transmissions are normally either automatic or semi-automatic, the latter type having the same mechanisms as an automatic but with the driver choosing the gear. Possibly an overstress or overheat sensor tripped and forced it into neutral, which would explain why stopping and restarting the engine reset it.

It has to be said that level crossings are pretty much the most dangerous features on a modern railway. This is entirely because they are the only direct interface they have with the modern road system, which is basically unregulated.

In Britain, the typical level crossing accident is caused by someone ignoring the lights at a half-barrier crossing and bypassing the barriers (which requires a chicane manoeuvre). Much less commonly, someone gets stuck between the gates of a full-barrier crossing. But in America, I understand most crossings have no barriers at all, even in urban and suburban areas - and that's just asking for trouble.

[Andara Bledin]

From what I had been reading, pretty much all passenger carrier and dangerous cargo vehicles are required to stop prior to a level crossing to listen for train activity.

In residential an business disctricts, the vast majority of level crossings will have half-barriers. Industrial areas, however, often only have the lights, and no barriers. I think I've only seen a ful barrier crossing when it was for rail transit, due to the high volume of pedestrian traffic around those.

^-.-^

[telecom_goddess]

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.