They called this morning, and sent an officer to my house to interview me. I will advise of further developments.

I'm not a rider of bike paths (but for some C&V affairs), and have had the exact same experience. I was shocked, frankly. One of my long-time objections to 'rail trails' is that they typically have one crossing some fairly major/major roads at places that were fine for something big, like a locomotive, but that offer no 'interference' from crossing traffic as one might have at a street intersection.

Good post, [MENTION=190941]jimmuller[/MENTION].

[MENTION=381190]Hypno Toad[/MENTION]'s story reminded me: I know a former school bus driver. Once, a kindergartener on her bus fell asleep and fell under the seat and stayed there, asleep. The bus driver parked the bus in the lot for the night without noticing the kid on the bus. She got fired and still doesn't understand why she had to be fired for that.

School buses are a threat! They are suppose to take ignorant people to a place where they get educated.

Near where we use to live is an elementary school is on the south side of a main road running east/west. Across the street is a campus of apartments, hundreds. A school bus stops in front of the school west bound to pick up kids with parents as ******* from the apartments. It drives about 100 yards, does a left turn to a paved turn around which allows it to now be east bound. It stops in front of the school to let the same kids out.

Oh, it is a two lane road with a divider and school crossing people.

How smart is that!

Is that who I'm thinking it is? Wow. I think I get what you said last time I was down, now

DD

Oh, you know it is.

I heard a very revealing conversation recently in my local coffee shop between a school bus driver superintendent and a prospective bus driver. The sup was basically telling this bus driver any and all ways to cover her ass - even to the extent that she told her how to get a lawyer to keep stuff off her driving record and to never report any driving violations to the school district!

If those two women are in any way indicative of the system, I'm giving the next school bus I see a wide berth. Smh...

DD

Yeah, they ought to be registered and have a background check! OH they do that! Just don't let them point that bus at you and stay well behind!

[MENTION=135635]scozim[/MENTION], I hope his take-home message was more than just "Some things you just shouldn't say to dad."

When my commute included a 12+ mile bike ride between Attleboro, MA and Lincoln, RI I was always amazed at the courtesy most drivers showed. I never saw an aggressively impatient or hostile driver.

Closer to Boston the drivers do not seem more hostile (except one) but they do seem less aware and frequently more thoughtless too.

Not many problems with school busses here, but don't ride near a church at leaving time. The faithful are apparently also the discourteous and impatient.

Sobering thread but also had an incident with a rabid mind school bus driver. Some years back while commuting - cycling, usually would meet up with another rider who worked at a nearby company. Going in the same direction and route, it was always fun riding as we both carried a similar swift pace. Sometimes we'd commute with our fast Italian rides and notch the speed up. Perhaps 10 minutes over driving time with an approx. 30 mile commute.

Most of our route was on a DESIGNATED bike route and some of it clearly marked BIKE LANE. Apparently, many drivers don't know what a bike route or lane is. The usual rush hour would create long back-ups for cage drivers, especially at one of the 4 way stops. Back-ups often exceeding a mile. Anyways, my riding partner and I would fly along the nice wide shoulder, BIKE LANE on the designated BIKE ROUTE. Hilarious as sometimes we'd approach the 4 way stop and a driver would yell that we are supposed to take our turn behind the vehicle line .... like everyone else. LOL.

But the best was a loaded school bus slowly crawling in this particular long line of traffic. The mental case driver obviously spotted us in his mirror, deliberately MERGED completely into the wide bike lane, stopped and opened his door. There was a nasty drop-off the asphalt surface edge to shoulder, so we had to stop and walk past this bus door. The driver was screaming at us and to get back to wait our turn in traffic at the end.... That school bus driver was a real nutcase. My riding partner unloaded back with some big time profanity. He was always a hothead anyways but I laughed it off yet kind of felt worse for the kids seeing and hearing all of it.

I had a neighbor that is a school bus driver. They were not allowed to go in reverse without calling the dispatcher for permission.

FOR WHAT? Exercising your freedom of speech?

Sorry, I usually don't rant here but that is [self-censored - use your imagination]!

I'd like to think if that had been me, I would have said "Go right ahead" as I whipped out my trusty flip-phone and dialed 911 myself. Let the school administrators apply one of their "no tolerance" policies to one of their own, for a change!

Signed,

Internet Tough Guy

When I was a sophomore in high school, the last year I rode a school bus, high school seniors drove school buses, and they had manual transmissions, too. They even took them home at night so they could start their morning route from home. I was friends with the guy who drove my bus. He lived in the neighborhood and was a total stoner, like Otto on The Simpsons, but 17 or 18 years old. I think Otto is supposed to be a little older than that.

My, how times change.

Last time something like this happened, i went down hard and went home & upgraded my single pivot brake to a dual pivot with decent pads.

Last night I was riding home down a wide, well lit, straight, gentle hill with 2 front lights (1 flashing). I slowed a bit because a car turned from a parking space on my side of the road, across all lanes to go up the hill. Ok, no biggie, they had enough time (just). The car parked behind it followed with their lights off, as i was reaching down to change from 53x12 to 53x13 (so i must have been going about 40-50km/h). With 1 hand off the bars, i slammed on my front brake, and the Kia Pimento passed in front of me with cm to spare. My rear wheel lifted well off the ground, and because i had a hand off the bars, my bike turned sideways in mid air. Somehow, by the grace of Moser, i recovered it.

The car did not stop, and i had to turn around and chase it all the way up the hill to a red light. I made them pull over, made them turn off the car, and let me sit down to catch my breath (heart was about to explode).

The driver was apologetic, but didn't understand that making me chase her down to even say sorry was bad. Her apology was that it had happened, it didn't involve admitting any fault at all. I wasn't going to argue with her, so I called the police. The police officer took all the details, her rego, the location, etc. He was very helpful until it got the the question.

"Are you on a motorbike or a push bike?"

That was it. He asked me a few more questions, but his interest was gone. He told me they were very busy that night and couldn't send anyone (this is on a very central arterial route). If i wanted to take it further i would have to come into the station tomorrow. I had to walk around the corner to explain to him how I had no interest in prosecuting her, or wasting my time on this, i just wanted a sincere apology and for her to recognize what she'd done. I knew i couldn't talk her into it, nor did i want to try, and if he couldn't send anyone she was just going to get away with it. He wasn't going to help.

So i went back and stupidly tried to talk her into an apology. I explained how insane what had happened was and she goes 'yes! i saw! i was so shocked! i didn't see you! you were going so fast!', so then i asked, did she expect, that i would keep riding, and she would keep driving? She said 'No no, because i did not even see you'. I very calmly and slowly explained to her that i was not looking to prosecute her, and i just wanted an honest answer, could she please ignore trying to avoid liability, and give me something here. She got defensive (of course), and i got absolutely nothing by way of an apology. Enraged, i started putting my shoes back on to leave & swore at her. She started shouting back about how she was going to call the police, and how i couldn't do that.

I said, Do you like to waste your time on tedious legal matters? Because i personally don't see the point in wasting my time prosecuting you, and I'm doing you a huge favor here letting this go. You very nearly ruined my life, and i'm doing you a favor here, but you're too stupid to see it.

I left her in the hands of a very patient young middle eastern dude who had been impartially observing the whole thing (he did tell me i couldn't swear at her- fair enough), as he tried to explain to her my perspective. Her ~18 yo son/ boyfriend who didn't / pretended not to speak English seemed both amused that i thought i had any rights, and amused that his stupid mother/ gf was being shouted at.

It is truely depressing to know that the police do not care about me in this country, but it makes me happy to know that all around the world, people like me enjoy cycling and do not allow it to be ruined by anyone.

Stay safe all and remember to ENJOY riding.

whoops, guess my reading comprehension is severely diminished in the late hours