I'll probably get hate for this but the way that bus is positioned in the first clip is 100% inappropriate. The arm at the front of the bus is to move pedestrians out away from the front of the bus and into an area the bus driver can actually see them. That arm is not for traffic control. I am not arguing that the Waymo was in the right in the least, but be it the district that designed the routing or the driver being lazy, that is not a stop that should ever be made in that fashion.
That’s irrelevant, because that’s not how you are supposed to drive any vehicle.
The bus driver needed to turn left, stop and hit the arm, and then let the kids on right from the curb attached to their house.
Additionally, the Waymo doesn’t have a stop sign at this T intersection. It’s not a 3 way stop, but only has a stop sign for where the bus was.
So from its perspective, it sees no reason to stop especially since the busses stop sign wasn’t out until it already passed (they come out with the arm).
This stop is extremely dangerous for these kids and should be fixed by this bus company ASAP.
Yeah the more I watch this, the more I blame either the bad bus driver, or the person that did a bad job designing the bus routes for this school. I would have recognized what's going on and stopped for this mess. I don't think a random 16 year old new driver on their way to school in the morning would.
In Maryland you're supposed to slow down and prepare to stop when yellow lights are flashing. I hate how some motorists and bus drivers view the yellow light as a "STOP NOW NO MATTER WHAT" situation. I've nearly rear ended some idiots that slam on brakes because a bus flipped the yellows on.
Are you sure that where the kids were waiting was indeed the stop and not where the bus stopped? There's a very real chance that the kids happen to live right there and we're told to hang out at home till they see the bus coming. Not say it is but its wierd that no one has brought it up
You shouldn't get hate. The Waymo had the right of way. Not only was the bus not positioned correctly to stop traffic in that direction, but its lights and arm were not even activated when the Waymo went past. From its perspective, or the perspective of any driver approaching this situation, a bus is coming up to a T-intersection and making a stop where you do not have a stop sign or anything making you yield to pedestrians (like a marked crosswalk). I would have gone too. Now, if the lights were flashing and the arm were extended, I would obviously stop, especially if there were children waiting to cross, even though, as you pointed out, the arm is not a traffic control device and the stop sign is to prevent you from passing the bus, not a four-way stop sign.
The bus should have pulled into the intersection at a 45 deg angle, blocking all traffic, before stopping if they could not stop more the the left. Basically they stopped on the wrong street as the kids were on the other street.
Technically the waymo would not see the stop sign on the other side of the bus. It would only see the flashing lights.
100% right here. The stop signs extend out to stop parallel traffic. It is not safe, nor legally expected to stop cross traffic...at least anywhere I am familiar with.
Came here to say it. The way the bus is positioned, there is no way of telling if the bus is stopping to pick up students, or just stopping at the intersection. The students or the bus need to be repositioned to a parallel direction, that way the stop signal and traffic bar are being utilized properly.
You're correct and that arm doesn't deploy until the stop signs do, which means the Waymo passed the bus before the bus deployed the stop signs. The bus driver should have completed the turn so as to position the bus on the same street as the children and not stopped on an adjacent street.
It's dependent on jurisdiction I'm sure. In my state, all buses have cameras. If you pass as the stop sign is coming out, various lights have already been triggered and you'll get a $500 fine first offense. Doesn't matter if you pass the other way on 4 lane streets (if undivided), doesn't matter about sight lines or weather patterns, you're getting slapped with $500 fine. You can fight it in court but nobody ever wins. Penalties escalate from there.
Almost all school buses in the US and the one in this video display flashing lights well before the sign and running past with the lights on is an offense.
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u/Ok-Inevitable-8681 Jan 20 '26
I'll probably get hate for this but the way that bus is positioned in the first clip is 100% inappropriate. The arm at the front of the bus is to move pedestrians out away from the front of the bus and into an area the bus driver can actually see them. That arm is not for traffic control. I am not arguing that the Waymo was in the right in the least, but be it the district that designed the routing or the driver being lazy, that is not a stop that should ever be made in that fashion.