I have been a bus driver since late 2006. I know the inside story, the scoop, the down low dirt of what it takes to be a bus driver, how to handle kids and adults, and how to survive on the "streets" so to speak. I used to have a blog, feel free to browse it or ask me a question here.
Being this has happened a few times while I've been on the bus, generally if we can get the kids to safety, we do so. That usually means a business, other school, or other means of shelter. If we can't we can scope out best and worst case scenarios incase the inevitable does happen. One time we had to evacuate into a middle school and another time we evacuated into a local government office.
Because there are some districts and states with a very strict publicity policy
If I could be guaranteed not to lose my job, yes. But too many people don't like social media and I have already gotten in trouble for it thats why I stay anonymous.
They get pretty loud. From the drivers seat it doesn't sound too loud, but moving away from the noise of the engine it can get really loud. The bass and treble are marginal at best.
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Most of the time we follow the posted speed limit. Though the maximum speed we should go is 55, it can be dangerous in a highway situation so we tend to bend the rules and top out the buses usually if they're governed at 60 or 65 in order to not impede traffic. Some companies and districts do not govern their buses and those are the ones we see most often speeding way faster than they need to be with kids lives at stake. Personally I don't think i could go faster than 59 to 61 with children on board.
There may be charter trips and those use buses that may be school buses as well?
That's a tough question. Most districts purchase buses based on capacity and usability. The capacity of these buses are 48 passenger, 40 for the ones that are wheelchair accessible. The standard capacity for a school bus is 72 passengers at 3 to a seat. Of course this figure is impossible the older and larger a child gets. My route alone takes me an hour and a half in the morning and almost 2 hours in the afternoon. I transport more than 85 to 90 children across all age groups on a good day. A bus like that while appealing because of the comfort items, is impractical because even at full capacity i would need to make at minimum 2 rounds to get everyone to and from school. Many routes are designed to have the maximum number of ridership and in some cases will exceed that amount. Even on the longer routes. If the district had drivers available and enough finances available then sure. But otherwise i think it would waste valuable resources.
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