I’ve been happily commuting by bus for ~2.5 years. Where I live, there is only one bus, so if you are waiting at the stop, you are waiting for the bus that is coming. The bus comes, everyone gets on, nobody gets off, the bus goes. But, where I work somewhere near a quintillion busses stop. Busses come in packs, there is mass confusion, people get on busses, people don’t get on busses, people get off busses, people don’t get off busses, busses go, other busses come…wash, rinse, repeat. Given all the variation in the bus routes, people usually get to the stop about 10 minutes early. So sometimes, busses come and stop and nobody is interested so the poor little bus goes off without people. So…when you are at the bus stop and a bus comes, but not the bus that takes you home…Whadya do? I consulted my Ride Guide, and it helpfully shows a dorky person waving at the approaching bus to indicate heshe (the drawing is oddly genderless) would like to ride. Needless to say, nobody does that. The default around here is that the bus stops if there is a pedestrian anywhere near the stop unless the driver is an ass, then the bus just doesn’t stop. Is this the norm, or is it weird here?
I have been riding the bus for a year and a half now: a year in Hawaii and several months here in Colorado. I like that I don’t have car expenses like gas, insurance and payments and that I’m not contributing to the area’s pollution, but I do miss the convenience (and warmth!) of having a car and might have to break down and buy one.
Anyway, back to the OP … in Hawaii, SO MANY PEOPLE ride the bus that you are never the only one standing there, and thus, you don’t have to signal the driver that you don’t need that bus.
In Colorado, the driver will slow as he/she nears the stop, but if no human steps forward or indicates through eye contact or body language that they want that bus, the driver just keeps going. The buses are on a much tighter schedule here, and have far fewer passengers.
Go to the station and catch a train. Or walk. I’m generally catching the bus to or from work and it’s only a 45 minute walk anyway.
Catch a train then walk.
I usually wait for the bus either at the train station, where the bus numbers are clearly marked, or on a particular corner where, although I’m often the only one getting on, there are almost always people getting off. Also, since every bus that comes by that corner is going to the train station, I’ll take any of them.
On the rare occasion when I’m waiting for a particular bus at a stop that several buses use, I’ll just sort of shake my head to indicate that the driver doesn’t need to stop for me.
On the rare occasions that I’m the only person waiting at a stop used by multiple routes, and a bus I don’t want to get comes along, I’ll take a step or two backwards away from the curb to indicate I’m not interested. However, more often than not, there are other people also waiting at the same stop, so I just stay out of the way of anyone who might want on or off of that particular bus.
Yup, I’m one of those that ride the bus called TheBus.
Our buses run on a schedule. They have a little machine up front that hooks up with GPS or something and tells them whether they’re early or late and by how much. I believe that’s why we won best transit system in the US twice in the last 10 years. Meaning a bus that is early (which is worse then being late, especially for those once an hour routes) will often stop and open the door anyway to assure he’s not too far ahead of schedule. Which is infinitely more appealing the driving 15mph and trying to catch red lights. My word that drives me nuts.
Of course buses are rarely ahead of schedule what with traffic and will often look for stops that can zoom by to catch up. Often taking the excuse of a partially filled bus to zoom by pretending that there’s no room. Of course getting people to move back in buses is a huge hassle for them but still!
As I wait for the bus I’m usually standing in a disinterested manner so that even if I’m near the curb it’s obvious I don’t intend to catch the bus. If the driver happens to begin to slow and catches my eye and I’m the only person there then I take that as he thinks he needs to pick me up and I’ll wave him on. They almost always give me a beep of thanks.
P.S. I’ve been thinking about starting a thread on your daily celebrities. The people you see on the bus every day but never exchanged a word with. If anybody wants to start that thread they can take it.
Usually in Chicago where I live the busses come incredibly frequently. Still…there are occasions where it seems like you are waiting forever. The surest way I found to make my bus come would be to light a cigarette. Once lit my bus never failed to show within 2 minutes.
I wait at a few multi-bus stops daily.
When it’s not my bus, I step back from the curb, look straight and meaningfully at the driver, and shake my head just a bit. They always understand what I mean.
If it is my bus, usually I stand expectantly at the curb and do a little wave.
I usually give a bit of a wave to say ‘go on by’. I always feel a bit of a fool though when the bus stops anyway to let someone off…
Fern Forest, it’s nice to hear they’ve improved on a system which was already very good ten years ago.
I don’t take the bus very often these days, but when I do, if I’m the only one waiting at a stop which services multiple routes and the bus I’m not waiting for comes along, I’ll take a step back from the curb and shake my head.
CJ
Like Siege said: Stand back from the kerb.
I read the thread title at first as “What do you do if your bus doesn’t come” and am intrigued to see that a couple of people posted as though that were the topic 
Here, where lots of buses run from New Jersey to both uptown and downtown NYC, and to internal New Jersey, if it’s your bus you wait with your arm stuck out. If it’s not, you keep your arm at your side.
In Sydney the bus stop signs actually say “signal driver”, but generally you only have to do that if you’re at a minor stop. At a major bus interchange, you don’t bother. Same thing goes for pressing the button to activate the “I wanna get off” bell. Only at the small stops, but probably not at the big commuter bus/train interchange, where the bus will just stop anyway.
More directly to the OP, I see a bus coming in the distance, and I walk towards the curb by the bus stop sign and wait until I can see the route number. If it’s not mine, I step back and don’t make eye contact with the driver.
A similar thing happens when I’m walking home late at night after work, and empty taxis will invariably slow down when they see me, sometimes flashing their brights. I avoid eye contact, but just raise one hand palm-outwards briefly (but not my arm) to tell the cabbie I’m a tightwad who’d rather walk, and not looking for a taxi.
This stuff seems to be pretty universal, judging by this thread.
Busses here have both mandatory and optional stops. At the mandatory stops, the driver will stop even if no one is getting on or off. If that’s the case where you are, don’t feel bad about an imagined failure of communication. At optional stops, I step back and shake my head if the bus isn’t mine.
I read it as that after I posted it, too. Sorry for the confusion but the inflection didn’t come across through the keyboard. If my bus doesn’t come or doesn’t stop, I whip out my cell phone and call Metro and bitch. Especially if it is cold out and I have to wait another hour in dangerously cold conditions. Besides, they wouldn’t post their phone number on the bus stop sign if I wasn’t supposed to use it, right? So I guess the consensus is to walk away from the curb and look nonchalant. Would whistling a tune help?
I don’t know if this is what you mean, but I recently gained Chandler-look-alike and Tom-Cruise-a-la-A-Few-Good-Men look alike on my route. Chandler can’t help it, he just looks like that. Tom, on the other hand wears aviator sunglasses and a bomber jacket…he tries…too hard…and fails.
Just don’t approach the bus. It’s easy to tell beforehand if the bus coming is the one you want so if no one is getting on, no one approaches the doors and the driver quickly moves on. Usually everyone is back from the road anyways, or in a shelter if there is one, and they move when they see their bus coming.
Whack-A-Mole is absolutely right, the best way to ensure that YOUR bus shows up is to light a cigarette. Of course, this only works when you actually want/need the cigarette and not if you’re only lighting up to cause a bus to come. The universe knows the difference!!!
Russell
I move back from the stop and look down, or pretend there’s something really interesting going on with my cell phone.
Heh, me too. I stare with great interest at my cell phone.
I have tried the cigarette thing, only sometimes it backfires. I light a cigarette, see the bus approaching, snuff it out after less that 3 drags, run to meet the bus… and realize it’s not mine. After a round of cursing I light another cigarette… and then of course the real bus shows up. :smack: