OPEN THE DOORS

It was Saturday afternoon and I was on the 521 bus headed for the coffee shop for some conversation, then next door to Giano’s to have supper with Lisa, and then back to the coffee shop for more conversation with students. Everything was pretty normal at the end point of the trip, but there was a point or so of interest along the way. – One lesson you can take from this is, “Don’t be so determined to get to the end that you miss the adventure along the way.”

At one point along the way there is this intersection where an eight lane street intersects a six lane one. Over the eight lane street a bridge is being built and under the intersection a subway is being constructed causing closures of several lanes both sides of the intersection on the eight lane street. On weekends it takes over thirty minutes to get through the intersection.

There are several bus stops near the intersection, but with four solid lanes of traffic each way and construction barriers down the middle of the street for an opening down to the subway station being built below, busses can’t get over to the curb to load and unload passengers. The bus I was on was unloading and loading from the fourth lane. It was quite a sight, but that is not the point I want to get to. That happened latter.

During the height of the congestion, a father and young daughter got on and the daughter squeezed in behind the driver seat and whispered in the ear of the driver who was obviously the mother. The father and probably husband stood until the front seat opened up. The mother, who was frantically working her way through traffic, watching both mirrors, which are about two inches from the bus next to her, was carrying on conversation with her family. At one point she was next to this large truck and was so close that her mirror was behind the mirror of the truck, preventing her from going faster than the truck. This is when things started to get interesting.

The father’s cell phone rang and he hands it over to the driver who now adds conversation on it to everything else she is trying to do. Now don’t forget the daughter has her arms around the neck of the mother, leaning over the back of the driver’s seat. I know women are better at multiprocessing than men, but the breakdown came at the next bus stop. She brings the bus to a complete stop and keeps talking on the phone, but nobody is getting on or off because she never thought about opening the doors. Finally she left phone mode and got back to bus mode and realized she was losing control. The dad pulled the kid out from behind the seat and she hung up her phone and calmly opened the doors and things got back to normal. We cleared the congestion and were soon at the end of the trip realizing that cell phones need to be used properly or lives could be in harm’s way. This time it was only two doors that didn’t get opened, but it could have been much more serious.

The second lesson is, “Improper use of a cell phone could jeopardize your life and the life of others.” The cell phone clearly put the bus driver in a brain overload condition, or was it driving the bus that did it? Good question!