It's Evansville — An Inconvenient METS Bus Stop

An Inconvenient METS Bus Stop

Chris at Evansville Blog brought up an interesting topic and something I’ve grown frustrated with as well.

My pet peeve of Evansville Public Transportation is that there appears to be a bus stop on every single block, at least on main street. Is it too much to ask that people walk a block or two so that they can get on the bus? It’s actually a hazard, when you consider cross traffic pulling out in front of buses, people trying to pass buses picking up people, and then the idiots riding bikes that don’t obey any laws.

I agree completely. On the way to It’s Evansville’s downtown headquarters there are bus stops seemingly in front of every major building.

Another thing that is frustrating with the bus system is the lack of courtesy the drivers have. It’s hard to tell when a bus is going to begin moving again, so if you try to go by it, they don’t tend to wait for you to pass. Nothing like driving three wide on a two lane road.

On the east side the bus stops seem to be at the most inopportune places. There is a bus stop in front of the old Putt-Putt building on Vogel Road that can cause trouble on a busy day when traffic is coming in from 4 ways.

What’s your take?

photo courtesy of Bus Explorer

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed below are those of their authors and not necessarily endorsed or supported by It's Evansville. In all cases, the comments provided here are offered as a courtesy and will be moderated. Any content deemed off-topic or offensive will be removed without notice. Posting a comment here boils down to two things: 1.) Think before you type 2.) Respect the thoughts of others. See our commenting guidelines for more information.

Mets Driver

October 18, 2007 @ 10:30AM

As a METS driver I have to agree with there being too many stops and many located at hazardous locations, if you want a good example of a really rediculous stop, go to Vann and Pollack, there is one at the South East corner, then a shelter less than twenty feet around the corner, then another thirty feet from that, most of this is from poor planning I hate to say and the one at Vogel and Greenriver, everytime I stop there Im just waiting to get rear-ended. As for lack of courtesy from bus drivers, all drivers are different but most are safe and courteos proffesionals, but I personally and most will signal our intent to move back into traffic, when you see us stopped with our flashers on please be patient and we will be out of your way quickly, we will cancel our flashers and signal our left turn signal when moving again. For your safety DO NOT attempt to pass a bus pulling from a stop and NEVER trun right in front of a bus, in many places both of those actions are illegal and they should be here as well, when you pass a bus pulling from a stop, cars are often in our blind spots, the bus drivers are watching passengers in the mirror that board to be sure they are sitting so they do not fall, and watching passengers that got off the bus to be sure they are safely away from the bus, your best bet is to be patient and wait for the bus to move to pass it safely if you have another lane to do so, if not then be patient it will turn onto another road shortly. You are completely right about bus stops though, there are far too many too often close together. Another thing to factor in about your local bus drivers, is that our schedules are VERY tight and drivers are under constant pressure, often times it is all we can do to just barely make it to our transfer points at departure time and half the time we have to put buses on a 5 minute hold so they can get their passengers. We will move along from stop to stop as fast as safely possible, though we would love to be more courteous and wave people on etc., every second counts and when you have a bus load of people that need to transfer to another bus at a certain time so they are not late for work etc. that will be very upset if they are late and they always take those problems out on the driver, so that becomes our priority. I hope this helps and gives a little more information to your situation. -Your Friendly METS Driver