Well, trauma is perhaps too strong a word. But I did have a few “incidents” on the bus over the weekend.
First, on Friday, I was taking the bus down to the DC Improv to meet the wife and some friends. The bus driver decided that the light at Connecticut and Florida just north of Dupont didn’t really apply to him. A few cars thought that maybe it did, and registered their disagreement with their horns. No one was injured.
Then, on the way home from the 10K, we were on the same bus line, the 42, going north on Connecticut. We were at the Q St. stop, and a gentleman in a large Range Rover decided that he wanted to pass the bus before he missed the light. Unfortunately, his Range Rover was wider than the space between the bus and the Jersey wall. Oops. So he hit us. I actually didn’t notice the impact, but the bus driver had to stop and call it in and wait for her supervisor or something. So we walked the rest of the way home.
I was a little disappointed in the reaction of the passengers on the bus, some of whom expressed a lot of anger at the bus driver. It wasn’t her fault that she had been rear-ended, or that she had to wait for permission to move the bus. But try telling that to the angry people on the bus.
Anyway, I think the bus driver handled the whole thing well. She called it in right away, then told the bus passengers what was going on. She apologized for the inconvenience. Not much more she could have done.
And riding the bus still beats driving in the city.