Spring Break
How dangerous is a bus? Bicycles are worse
Despite bus drivers' great reflexes, cyclers should use caution on campus.
By: Kaitlyn Drinkwater
Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: Opinion
When I was young, as in still riding in a booster seat, I thought there was a force between cars that kept them apart, like the repelling sides of magnets. I knew this wasn't true, but I liked to pretend it was. In my 3-year-old mind, it made sense. I had never witnessed a car wreck. What I did see, every day, was thousands of cars, pedestrians and cyclists moving in close proximity, but never touching.
I've grown out of ideas like that, but it seems some other Aggies haven't. As a regular patron of A&M's public transport system, I can't count the number of pedestrians or cyclists I've seen dodge fearlessly in front of a bus and force the driver to slam on the brakes, confident they will get across safely because they have made it every time before.
As we were reminded on Jan.14, not everyone makes it every time. Given their sheer bone-crunching size and power, students would do well to be a little afraid of the buses.
"I am [scared of the buses] since that girl got hit. I'm more careful now," said Monica Sales, a junior English major.
"I didn't even know a lady got hit. I'm more scared of the bikes than the buses," said Holly Miller, a sophomore general studies major.
There are surprisingly few accidents involving the buses considering the number of buses and the miles they drive - about 1.4 million a year, according to the Transportation Services Web site. Only 66 incidents took place in the 2003-2004 school year. About 20 of those were minor scratches from bus mirrors.
The lack of major accidents can be attributed more to the bus drivers' ninja-like skills, which allow them to maneuver the mammoth vehicles like motorcycles, than to pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers giving them the respect they deserve.
"The worst are the bicycles. They need to obey traffic laws just like a car, but sometimes they don't know it," said a student bus driver who wished to remain anonymous. "You don't always have the right of way. You can't enter an intersection when a bus is coming an expect it to stop for you."
Regardless of the rules of the road, others should give way to the buses. No matter who started it or who is at fault, unless you drive a semi, you will find yourself on the losing end of any altercation with a bus.
I've grown out of ideas like that, but it seems some other Aggies haven't. As a regular patron of A&M's public transport system, I can't count the number of pedestrians or cyclists I've seen dodge fearlessly in front of a bus and force the driver to slam on the brakes, confident they will get across safely because they have made it every time before.
As we were reminded on Jan.14, not everyone makes it every time. Given their sheer bone-crunching size and power, students would do well to be a little afraid of the buses.
"I am [scared of the buses] since that girl got hit. I'm more careful now," said Monica Sales, a junior English major.
"I didn't even know a lady got hit. I'm more scared of the bikes than the buses," said Holly Miller, a sophomore general studies major.
There are surprisingly few accidents involving the buses considering the number of buses and the miles they drive - about 1.4 million a year, according to the Transportation Services Web site. Only 66 incidents took place in the 2003-2004 school year. About 20 of those were minor scratches from bus mirrors.
The lack of major accidents can be attributed more to the bus drivers' ninja-like skills, which allow them to maneuver the mammoth vehicles like motorcycles, than to pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers giving them the respect they deserve.
"The worst are the bicycles. They need to obey traffic laws just like a car, but sometimes they don't know it," said a student bus driver who wished to remain anonymous. "You don't always have the right of way. You can't enter an intersection when a bus is coming an expect it to stop for you."
Regardless of the rules of the road, others should give way to the buses. No matter who started it or who is at fault, unless you drive a semi, you will find yourself on the losing end of any altercation with a bus.
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