TIL my bus stop strategy was backwards for 8 years

I always stood right at the front of the bus shelter on 5th Avenue, thinking I'd be first on. Yesterday, a driver told me he actually stops where the back door lines up with the shelter's end, so people in the middle board fastest. I'd been making my wait longer and my boarding slower this whole time. Has anyone else had a bus driver point out a simple habit that was actually wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_paul22d ago

My entire life I was the guy who leaned way out into the road to flag down the bus, like I was hailing a cab in a movie. Turns out the driver just stops at the marked pole and I looked like an overeager fool for a decade. I probably added five years of stress trying to make eye contact with every single driver.

the_nathan22d ago

Okay but the "driver just stops at the marked pole" thing is only true if no one is getting off, lol. If you're the only one there and you don't make some kind of signal, they will absolutely blow right past you. Your leaning was probably overkill, but you weren't totally wrong. I've seen it happen to people who just stand there looking at their phone.

richard_anderson18d ago

But honestly, how many drivers actually just blow past a person clearly waiting at a stop? (Unless you're totally zoned out looking at your phone, maybe.) Feels like a low-stakes thing to stress over for a decade.