Letter: Slow motion school buses act like they own the road

Posted 9/3/18

To the editor:

School buses, you’ve got to love them.  For 10 months out of every year, they pick up your children and bring them to school, leaving you free to do whatever it is you do, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Letter: Slow motion school buses act like they own the road

Posted

To the editor:

School buses, you’ve got to love them.  For 10 months out of every year, they pick up your children and bring them to school, leaving you free to do whatever it is you do, before they get back.  Under normal circumstances this really isn’t much of a big deal unless you are one of the unfortunates *most of us) who, while driving to work, end up behind a school bus.  And it is there, my friend, that you will stay.

With life as stressful as it is, throw in a school bus while on your way to work and the stress level rises to explosive proportion when a school bus does one of two things: (1) stops every 500 feet over the two miles (Main Road, Tiverton, from Hooper Street to the Little Bear) to pick up kids who, apparently, are incapable of walking less than a half mile to a larger bus stop (in elementary school my sisters and I walked just under a mile to school – we were 6, 7 and 8 year olds – through the cemetery and on to the sidewalks of busy roads); (2) after the bus has picked up the kids it continues to hold up traffic while it waits for a straggler who is slowly walking toward the bus from 300 feet away, without a care in the world and, in no hurry to get to the bus.

For this ridiculousness, I have solutions:

(1) The people in charge of bus stop locations should get their acts together to come up with a cost effective way of preserving our taxpayer dollars by establishing one bus stop every mile.  That’s right!  Get those parents to drive their kids to the bus stop or have them drive them to school – one or the other!  And, if kids have to walk a mile to the bus stop, good, it’s probably the only exercise they’ll have all week.

(2) For those stragglers, leave them behind.  If they cannot or will not make the bus stop on time, then make them get to school themselves, or worse (for them) have them get their parents to bring them to school.  You snooze - you lose!  Cause, guess what?  All those people sitting in their cars behind the school bus made the effort to get to work on time, until the bus got in the way.

To make the whole experience more infuriating is what they now have the bus monitors doing: At all these stops, the monitor gets out and crosses to the middle of the road to guide the kids across the street to the bus.  (No problem so far.)  The kids board the bus.  (Here comes the problem.)  The monitor must take a step or two beyond the door of the bus, toward the back, and stoop down to look under the bus.  The monitor then turns around and walks directly in front of the bus and stoops down again to look under the  bus. The monitor returns to the door of the bus and stoops down again to get another look under the belly of the bus.  Finally, the monitor boards the bus.  This occurs every 500 feet (or less) for two miles!  At this point, everyone behind the bus is late for work.

One summer morning (school’s out) I attempted to leave the house 7 or 8 minutes early to stop at the pharmacy.  The kids are all on vacation, so I had no problem.  That’s what I thought.  I start to drive the 1.1 miles to the pharmacy (again, on Main Road, Tiverton), but I can’t get there, because I just approached vehicles that had come to a complete stop and were all trapped behind a school bus that was stopped before the house it arrived at – right up against the sidewalk and parked in front of their front door (you can’t get any closer than that unless you get out and knock on the door).  Apparently some child had to attend a special program for the summer, which I am fine with because we are only talking about one child, not a whole bus stop full.  But wait.  The bus, with its flashing lights, stop sign extended into the street, giant bus door pushed out into the open position, is just sitting there.  Nothing is happening.  I don’t know how long the other four drivers were sitting there, but I sat for an entire minute and a half.  Okay 90 seconds does not sound like a lot of time, but you all know it most certainly is when you are trying to get to work, or anywhere, in a hurry.  Now I am stuck behind Big Yellow that is not giving any sign that anything is happening to get that bus rolling.  After a minute and a half I have had it!  I pull my car into a sharp U-Turn and just go directly to work.  By the way, the traffic was backed up approximate ½ mile, just about to my street. 

And now for my final rant:  One day I was on my way to work – it seems no matter how early I try to get out the door I always manage to get stuck behind the bus.  Why?  Because there are several school buses rolling around the same area – oh, there’s thoughtful spending of the taxpayer dollars.  Anyway, I am one of many stuck back there, but on this particular day I happened to be directly behind the bus so I could see all the-goings-on.  Also, I began timing each stop (this is Main Road, again, a straight road with millions of stops in two miles – every 500 feet or less).  We finally get moving when the bus stops for reasons I could not figure out.  It did not have its lights flashing or its stop sign extended or its door open.  As a matter of fact, the cars heading the other way were blowing right past us.  I look around and, to my left, I see, in the giant parking lot for the bank and Post Office, another bus, that a moment ago entered the parking lot and was slowly turning its gigantic self around, and then began heading back toward the road.  Wait, our bus does not have a directional on.  What exactly is the bus driver doing?   We just sat behind the giant Twinkie for 12 minutes enduring the multiple stops to pick up teenagers – I am now way behind schedule – and this so-and-so wants to hold traffic up even longer to let this other bus enter the road before us.  That was it for me, I did not care what others thought, I landed on my horn for all I was worth and let it blare.  It did me no good though because the bus did not move until his buddy got on the road before him.  I was beyond angry!

What angers me about these bus drivers is they act like they own the road, with no regard for the train of vehicles behind them trying to get to work, or anywhere, on time.   

Louise Dina

Tiverton

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.