A Pet Peeve

One of my (yes, I do have several) particular and continual annoyance are school bus procedures.

#1 - that they stop at one house, pick up the student, go two or three houses down and stop again and pick up the next. There are just so many things wrong about this and it happens again and again.

#2 -the bus stops, all flashing lights going, and you wait. You wait for the bused passenger to come out of the house, after apparently they have seen this big yellow vehicle. You wait as now they say good-bye to mom (yes, kissing mom is a good thing) and now you wait as you see the bus aide meet this passenger, exchange pleasantries and they walk to the bus.

Today I had another head shaking observations – the bus stops at a house in the city of Gloversville (point, no rural road, no hazards etc). I wait, out comes a young man, teen-ager probably five foot six or seven, half way to the approximate twenty steps to the bus a bus aide gets off and meets him, they both enter the bus and I wait while they are seated.

As I am starting to go, I see the bus come to another stop, flashing lights and the works, two doors down. I pull over, just because I enjoy being aggravated and watch in my rear view mirror as another young teen promenades out of the house and the same routine is repeated.

Yelp, I am sitting there shaking my head thinking how much gas (diesel) all over the county from school buses sitting, waiting, stopping and going is being wasted. I am thinking the heck with taxing sugar free soda, you want to fight obesity Gov. Paterson or school districts – lighten up on the regulations, the pampering and get kids moving

I know that none of this is the bus driver’s fault, or the district’s bus garage employees, or the aides – they are all just following procedures.

As an individual who rode a bus to school, on my list of pet peeves, procedures that are ridiculous.