4136 ... again

Ah, today was a repeat day. Good old 4136 - ran smoothly and only a few minor squeaks. I'm not sure the driver trusts its brakes, though. He approached every stop with a lot of pumping action - like driving on ice - lots of little and not-so-little jolts for the riders. I know they have a time schedule, but can't figure out the driving pattern. Sometimes they do the bat-out-of-hell thing between stops and other times I know I could walk faster. Bus driver thinking: "Whoa, I'm late, better speed it up ....... yow, I'm early, better slow it down." Except sometimes it's speed, speed, slow or it can be slow, speed, slow or slow, slow, speed, or you get the idea.

Speaking of speed, last night's ride was interesting. A woman on a scooter boarded the bus at Tempe High School. The scooter boarding required the driver to get out of his seat, make the seated passengers move so he could put the wheelchair seat area up, put down the little ramp, wait for the scooter to drive onto the ramp and elevate to bus level, then wait while she got the scooter in place. It was a lot like parallel parking a car, except she did it in about 3000 little back and forth movements - nearly took out one passenger's baby toe. Anyway, once the scooter was in place, the driver buckled it in (notice the passengers aren't securely strapped, but the scooter is...), he returned to his seat and we were on the road again.

The middle of the bus was now full of standing people who were formerly sitting where the scooter was now securely buckled. The lady on the scooter yelled to the driver, "I want off at Jack-in-the-Box". The driver said, "10-4" but the lady either didn't hear or didn't recognize 10-4 as an acknowledgement. Again she screamed, "I want off at the Jack-in-the-Box" and this time the driver said, "OK". It is now apparently a hearing situation because, for the third time, the lady hollered, "I want off at the Jack-in-the-Box!" At this point, everyone on the bus yelled, "He said OK!"

Now for the speed part - the Jack-in-the-Box where she wanted off is the bus stop located one mile south of the bus stop where she got on. It is a regular stop and all she needed to do was push the button - still not sure what all the yelling was about. Anyway, we stopped and the whole procedure was repeated in reverse, including the 3000 tiny maneuvers to get out of the scooter parking space. The ramp was lowered and the woman and scooter zoomed away, up the JIB driveway. It was almost a cloud of dust and a hearty hi-ho Silver kind of thing. While the driver was putting the bus back together, one of the passengers commented that those scooters can go 11-15 mph - I don't doubt it having watched her blaze off into the sunset. What was apparent to all of us was that in the time spent getting on and off the bus, she could have driven her scooter the one mile from the bus stop to the JIB and been inside enjoying a burger and fries before the bus made it there. I wondered about battery power, but those 3000 maneuvers had to take some juice, so it seemed to be a wash, powerwise.

Oh well, everyone was kind and non-complaining and patient (except maybe a little irritation during the yelling part) and it made for another bus story.