Intentionally swerved at...

[Eden]

by a SCHOOL BUS! Unbelievable, this is a person who is supposed to be responsible for children and she was threatening me with a vehicle. At least there were not any kids on the bus at the time. I got her bus number and reported her..... What I really wish is that the punishment for these people was being required to take an effective cycling course...

[SadieKate]

Did you call the school? This is probably the easiest call to make because it should be incredibly easy to identify the driver by time of day and route.

I did this when a UC Davis bus raced passed me to pull into a spot infront of me that was not a bus stop. This was on a regular evening ride. Never happened again after my call.

[Eden]

I called the transportation office for the district and spoke to a supervisor. I got her bus number, so she should be very easy to identify....

[Biciclista]

wow, Eden, what an awful thing to happen. What a jerk!

[salsabike]

Eden, please let us know if you hear back from the school district. I am glad you could get the identifying info and report this. Chris got cut off two weeks ago by an SUV on 4th Ave., slammed into the back, got some face cuts--and the SUV left. No one had any identifying info. And I would SO have liked to talk to the SUV driver. His 30 year old Raleigh International fork and frame are bent.

Good on you for being able to report. Glad you're okay.

[Trekhawk]

Buses have always seemed to get a lot closer to me than any other vehicle.
Perhaps the drivers are not as good at judging the size of the vehicle compared to say a truck driver.
Swerving at you is just plain sickening . So many jerks out there. Glad to hear you are ok.

[SadieKate]

Did you call the school? Hmm, guess I should read more closely when multi-tasking.

Let us know what happens. Fortunately, I did hear back when I called in my incident.

[Eden]

Buses have always seemed to get a lot closer to me than any other vehicle.
Perhaps the drivers are not as good at judging the size of the vehicle compared to say a truck driver.
Swerving at you is just plain sickening . So many jerks out there. Glad to hear you are ok.

There's no doubt it was intentional.... she came up behind me beeping first. There's a bike lane on the road, but it is right next to parked cars, thus dangerous to use. The road is 2 lanes with a middle turning lane and the lane itself is wide. I was just to the left of the bike lane - out of reach of car doors, but still well over in the lane. There was no reason she could not have easily gone around me. Oh - and its not like she was going anywhere that quick anyway. I was right behind her all the way down to the lid where I turned off to go through the tunnel... (that's about 6 or 7 blocks for those who don't know the area)

I'll have to call back to follow up. The supervisor gave me less than a lot of faith that he'd actually do anything... and he hung up on me while I was attempting to ask him to follow up with me.... (I wanted to give him my phone number)

This is the third time in just about a month I've been harassed for nothing more than not hugging the curb...... I'm getting a little sick of it.

[pardes]

That is inexcusable and I hope you follow up with the supervisor and the supervisor's supervisor AND the school.

[salsabike]

Where was it, Eden?

[Eden]

On Martin Luther King Way, about 1/2 block south of Cherry. It was one of the 1/2 length busses (good thing, if it had been longer she probably would have hit me)... now I know what they say about the kids on the short bus :rolleyes:, but c'mon now the driver is supposed to know better than that....

[salsabike]

Wow, a special ed bus! Any bus driver needs to know better, but that's a double badness--those guys need to be able to manage their tempers and their judgment because they have to deal well with tough but vulnerable kids. Let me know if you need any help pursuing this through the school district.

[bmccasland]

Dare I suggest the police?

[uforgot]

If the bus supervisor had hung up on you, you need to move up. You did the right thing calling the supervisor first. Follow the chain of command and just keep moving up until you get some satisfaction. Call the superintendent of schools. The supervisor should take this very seriously, and if he doesn't then you need to complain about him/her also. You can request to be put on the board agenda if all of this doesn't work. Pretty time consuming, but it may keep others from being put in the same situation. Let us know how it goes.

[Tuckervill]

I'd put it in writing to the bus supervisor, too, with a CC to the superintendent.

Karen

[NbyNW]

Hey Eden, I just saw this. Anything new? I wonder if Cascade Bicycle Club collects info like this, or if their advocacy people can help . . . this sounds like inexcusable behavior for a school bus driver.

Good luck!

[KeepingUp]

What a jerk! No if he/she were to hit you with the kids on the bus they'd probably feel like the biggest lame.

[beccaB]

I wonder if the driver is and employee of a transportation company, or works for the school. School employees have to answer to the community and are held more accountable.
I work for my school district as a school bus driver, and I can honestly say that the 12 of us are very careful around bikers and walkers. It's rural here, and that probably makes a difference.
The last time I encountered bicyclists during a bus run, I gave them a lot of room and waited until visibility was clear before passing, in the other lane.
They were waving at me to pass them but I didn't feel comfortable doing it until I could see down the other side of the hill. I was also admiring their speed on a hill I can only do 8mph on.

[beccaB]

Buses have always seemed to get a lot closer to me than any other vehicle.
Perhaps the drivers are not as good at judging the size of the vehicle compared to say a truck driver.
Swerving at you is just plain sickening . So many jerks out there. Glad to hear you are ok.

I don't think it's possible to not know the dimensions-school bus drivers are highly trained and have to jump through hoops and take all sorts of tests, written and road tests. Especially city drivers, with cornering and all that. It had to have been on purpose. The special ed buses tend to be less long, but every bit as wide as regular buses. The only other thing that might be a factor is if the
side mirrors are out of adjustment, but the driver should have realized that during pre-trip inspection.

[beccaB]

Ok the more I think about it the madder I get because we use our radios to inform other drivers in our fleet to watch out for this or that pedestrian , or biker or whatever. We have one well traveled road that leads out from the school area, and we're always saying "watch out for the... headed east on M50"
And I'm the only one there who bikes.