Dents and dings notwithstanding, one can tell how much time one has behind the wheelby looking no further than the defect card after making relief. Senior operators can rollwith whatever they have been given. Others, take “safety significant” to levels seenonly at the National Security Agency. The biggest variable to accepting equipment,headway, and, as training …
Author Archives: driverdoug2002
The Fare Box
Sadly, this favored chapter in book 1 has become a nostalgic memory. Renew your fast pass today! Surveys of time use show much time is spent in the bus zone loading passengers. Although this would seem to be a revenue loser as those who board in the rear would be evading the fare, my experience …
Not All Stops are Equal
When buses are missing, the time between buses doubles so waiting time increases. It can become very unclear to those standing at or near multiple line bus stops why the bus passes by. The bus is full because double headway means double passenger load. One phrase used frequently by bus drivers are the phrases, “my …
Yard Starter
When we start our day, we pass by the receiver, sign in for our coach, and then see the yard-starter if we have no coach assigned to us. The receiver has our bundle, called a paddle, which includes our run’s timetable with scheduled checkpoints, books of transfers, defect card, and any bulletins we need be …
Trashing San Francisco
There are many YouTube videos about the closing of Nordstrom downtown in the SF Shopping Centre–adding to the long list of Walgreens’ drugstore closures–and the New Whole Foods at Hyde and Eighth and Market. Also in the Google algorithm are stories about crime, trash, needles, and homelessness–especially the interviews on California Insider with Siyamak Khorrami …
Lost and Found on a Cable Car
After riding the Cable Car to Fisherman’s Wharf, I decided to look at my watch and see what time it was. My watch was no longer on my wrist. I recalled taking off my jacket when I got on the Hyde Street Cable Car at the Powell turntable. The cuff of the jacket tugged on …
Last Stop – Another Day Closes
“Last stop people.” Another day closes. I can pull in knowing I passed the test in avoiding collisions with other cars, trucks, pedestrians, skaters, and cyclists. Most important, I didn’t make contact with any rideshare drivers looking down at their phone and being inattentive. The thousands of ride share cars coming in daily from out-of-county …
Have It Ready
Guys, I did it! I kept the same job for over 21 years and got out clean! I got my retirement paperwork done three months before my 62nd birthday—on February 13th, 2020—one month before Covid hit. I did my last run on June 2nd, 2020. That morning I woke from a dream of smiling faces …
Alamo Square – The Painted Ladies
Named by Mayor James Van Ness in 1856, this 12.7 acre park in the middle of Victorian mansions built during the 1870’s to the 1920’s, was noted as a watering hole in between the commandant’s quarters in the Presidio and Mission Delores Basilica, both occupied and controlled by the Spanish, who were the first European …
Vision Zero
Look up and look left before crossing.
The Dao of Doug: A Bus Driver's Perspective 