New Guy

It's obvious from the first second I board my bus home that he's a new driver. For starters, he's over 10 minutes behind schedule, which in the bus world is a dead giveaway.

But even more than that, as I board, the young, trim, pleasant driver greets me with a genuine smile and says hello. Other than the uniform, he bears no resemblance to the bitter, scruffy, middle-aged veteran drivers I see so frequently. Dead giveaway.

I take a seat near the front and notice that he also has a coach with him, seated right next to the door within conversational distance of the driver.

And there's the running late thing. He has fallen so far behind schedule that I see what would have been the next bus pass us while we're at a stop. Now every stop we approach has been stripped bare of passengers, mere seconds before our bus gets there.

After about five minutes of this, the other bus driver decides to give the new guy a break and kills a bit of time at the next stop, allowing our bus to assume its rightful place in front again. New guy honks his horn in triumph as we zip past the stopped bus.

The other thing that happens when a bus runs ten minutes late is that the stops become fuller. At every stop, there are the people who have been waiting since the bus was supposed to have been there, the people who were running late and would have missed it by a few minutes, and the go-getters who always arrive at their stops five minutes early just in case. When the other bus had lapped us, it picked up these small crowds. Now they're getting on my bus.

An older native gentleman is the last to board at one of these packed stops, and instead of showing his bus pass or dropping his fare in the coin box, he approaches the driver and shows him his ID. He is speaking too softly for me to hear him, but it's obvious what he's asking. The driver responds, "Don't worry about it." Then the man asks, "Can I get a transfer?" Without thinking, the driver hands him a transfer strip, guaranteeing him a free bus ride anywhere for the next 90 minutes.

As the man heads for a seat, the driver's coach leans forward and says something to him, again too faint for me to hear. But I know exactly what she's saying, and as she sits back and continues to talk, she gives him some constructive criticism. "It is up to you whether or not you want to let someone ride free, but most drivers will not give out a transfer. But you'll find your way and get a good sense of how to approach those situations."

It's good to know that if I ever forget my bus pass that I can probably still get a ride if I ask nicely.

There's my stop.