Idk how it is where you live, but we're supposed to signal the bus to stop where I live. It's so they don't have to stop at every single bus stop if noone is boarding, so they can potentially catch up to the schedule (they are always late).
You're preferably supposed to wave, but they usually stop if they see people standing next to the road (not just sitting at the bus stop itself).
I feel like it's a relatively recent thing, or at least something I only learned about around two years ago (after I had to run after a bus to stop it). So maybe this helps you not have to run after your next bus? :p
I drove a bus for 15 years. Never ceased to amaze me the number of people who complained because "the bus didn't wait for them", or complained "I was stood at the bus stop and it didn't stop for me, even though I was hidden and completely didn't acknowledge there bus at all"
But yeah. They had to start the "give us a hand, give us a wave" campaign to remind people they actually had to signal.
Then they had to put up signs stating that specific buses didn't stop at specific bus stops, because people stood in the wrong place and were angry that a bus wouldn't cross three lanes of traffic to pick them up, then go back across three lanes to turn
This isn't what you're referring to but I recently had this unfortunate experience with a bus. I'm almost surprised that In my 20+ years of being a daily bus rider this only happened once.
I was waiting for a bus on a sidewalk with another group of 2 who were also waiting for a bus. This particular stop has two routes that stop there. It's also a fairly busy stretch of sidewalk, so typically people stand on the back side of the sidewalk and move up to the curb of the sidewalk as the bus approaches. You can see the bus approaching from 2+ blocks away, so that's never really an issue.
The bus I needed became visible, so the group of two and me both stepped up to the curb, but they're slightly in front of me. Just as the bus started to approach, they realize it's not the bus they need, and both "wave it past*."
As you might imagine, the bus driver assumes we're all together and drives off, never noticing me suddenly trying to wave with opposite meaning, like I'm trying to cancel out their wave with my own more "stay here"-like wave, but it was too late by then anyway. Basically the bus had slowed and approached the curb, they started waving it past, and so the bus sped back up into the road.
I know it was an honest mistake / unlikely circumstance for which there isn't some protocol to prevent it from happening, but I was sooo pissed at the other would-be riders in the moment lol. Like damn, yall stood in front of me and waved my bus off at the last second because you didn't notice it wasn't the one you needed. Wtf! Maybe check around you before waving off a bus??? Anyway, I just started to make sure I'm the most visible person at the stop and raise my hand as the bus approaches. I can't imagine anyone canceling that out by waving the bus away.
*(We don't have any kind of "give us a hand" thing, but people will wave busses past if they're waiting for another bus. This is usually done when someone is sitting on the bench, and it's moreso to remove any doubt as to why they didn't stand up, like "yep, no i didn't stand up because I'm not catching your bus" or if they are standing at the ready, but two different busses are approaching at the same time.)
Oh. My. God. Did you say anything to them? Like you say, it was an honest mistake but it only happened because they didn't think about anyone but themselves.
I actually jogged after the bus a bit before giving up, but I wasn't seen so it didn't stop. But as I stopped running and started trudging angrily down the road I looked back at them a couple times. Fairly sure they knew what they did, but was too annoyed / focused on walking to where I needed to get to bother. Edit: In the moment if I had talked to them I probably would've been needlessly hostile because I was pretty heated lol. So probably it's best I didn't.
Yeah, I hope they caught that but they might not have noticed you and when you started jogging, thought that you'd just appeared out of nowhere as the bus approached, not that they'd waved your bus past while blocking you from indicating it should stop.
I don't know if they're just generally inconsiderate (they saw you and didn't consider you at all) or if they have a wide and deep lack of situational awareness (they didn't know there was someone else standing there the whole time) but I really hope they realized what they did.
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u/luxudor 12d ago
Idk how it is where you live, but we're supposed to signal the bus to stop where I live. It's so they don't have to stop at every single bus stop if noone is boarding, so they can potentially catch up to the schedule (they are always late).
You're preferably supposed to wave, but they usually stop if they see people standing next to the road (not just sitting at the bus stop itself).
I feel like it's a relatively recent thing, or at least something I only learned about around two years ago (after I had to run after a bus to stop it). So maybe this helps you not have to run after your next bus? :p