So I’m driving along on a state highway here in Coweta County—one on which the posted limit is 55—and I come up on a parade.
About a half a dozen vehicles are stuck plodding along at 35 behind a short bus with the logo of a day-care chain that we have in the area. Apparently this has been going on for a while because eventually the two vehicles immediately behind the bus pull out and pass on a double-yellow.
The bus driver is riding his brakes and acts like he’s lost, or on something. A third vehicle—a pickup with a trailer—tries to follow the other two that escaped, but oncoming traffic robs him of his opportunity.
One location of this day-care chain is not very far from my home; I start to worry that if I don’t get out of this parade I’ll be behind this short-bus driver for most of the afternoon. There’s a traffic light coming up, and I consider my options:
I could make a left at the light and end up taking a long way home, the only advantage being that I don’t have to look at the bus’ slow-moving backside anymore. I could stay put and hope the short bus isn’t going my way. Or, I could duck down a short detour to the right, come back around to the light from a different direction and hope that between being able to go faster and the timing of that light I’m able to get there before the bus has gotten through the intersection.
I take Plan C. It works. It shouldn’t have worked; there were too many variables against it. I should have ended up taking that other, longer way home. But the bus was waiting at the light as I got there, and the intersection was clear so I could make a right turn and wind up ahead of the parade.
For all I know that bus is still leading those other drivers, only just now getting to the next major intersection on that stretch of highway.
I think that day-care chain needs to hire people whose short-bus experience is driving, not riding.
Afterthought: Maybe the driver thought he was a portable school zone…
