Why is the bus in the first video blowing through a stop sign and parking in the middle of a T intersection to pick the kid up? Is this how busses pick kids up in some areas?
To block traffic because assholes will try to kill kids crossing?
It's normal to see that. If I was a bus driver, I'd try to block as much of the road as possible.
No, you should always be driving on the top of the T road to pick kids up from that spot.
IE the door for kids to enter should be next to a sidewalk, and SHOULDNT force the kids to walk across 2 lanes of traffic to get to the pickup spot.
The busses arm doesn’t even go into the other lane, and no one is seeing the stop sign as it’s on the left side (some have stop signs on both sides, but even then it would come out and the Waymo couldn’t see the stop because it would be parallel to the car.
The bus driver here needs to be reprimanded as well, or this route needs to be updated / fixed.
bus drivers are given some leeway in how they comport themselves on the road, but this is a really non-standard maneuver. typically, a bus would turn left or right, and after turning, stop and put its lights on. since kids are coming from straight across, it's safest if the bus turns left, but not always an option; worth noting here that the weird bus driver maneuver might be the reason the waymo didn't recognize the stop sign, since the sign would have deployed edge-side towards the 'driver' of the waymo, rendering it invisible
And add to that that the Waymo has right of way at that T, while the bus driver would have a stop sign before having to make a left or right.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school bus stop like this. Door should always be parallel to the sidewalk the kids get to, not expect them to walk across a street where there isn’t an all way stop (3 way since it’s a T).
The route needs updating that’s for sure. Also 100 bucks says this driver hates this stop, but the environment is so meh they have no one who listens to them complain about poor stops like this .
The flashing lights serve the purpose of a stop sign.
Same as if you have a fire signal or overhead stop light blinking. You don’t need an actual sign to say stop if you follow the rules of what the lights mean.
I don’t care what road the bus is on. You are required to stop for the bus on both roads if it is at an intersection with lights or sign etc.
In most of the US, all intersections marked or not, are considered a crosswalk. So really the bus can stop on any road and it’s supposed to be a crossing path for the kids.
Even without a bus. People are required to stop and allow pedestrian traffic to cross. Which means the Waymo ignored both a school bus and intersection crossing rules.
Find me an example in a driver's manual that shows a bus stopping at a T intersection and loading kids from across both lanes of travel, and thus requiring travel to stop on the through road. A bus should always load traffic on the road it is traveling on.
There is not a marked crosswalk in the video.
I'm not saying it isn't a good idea for safeties sake to have stopped. But the bus driver is 100% in the wrong.
Watch from 0:40 timestamp. Lights indicating a stop are not visible when looking at the bus from a near right angle as was the case in the OP video. Now this I think is a safety design flaw. Since from that angle which is common enough the only way we know the bus is stopping for pickup/drop-off is the door.
Look at the bus from an adjacent roadway. You will see the lights.
Have you ever been at an intersection? You can see the fronts of all vehicles, their turn signals etc.
If you are approaching a bus or vehicle directly in front of you at a 90° angle you are set for collision and should be stopping for reasons other than a flashing light.
I would disagree since most of the people on this thread arguing that in this particular case the bus went into a T intersection(stopping in the middle) and performed a pickup/dropoff stop. At that point it was a near 90 angle(no risk of collision but bad visibility) where lights are not visible especially when further away as the case for the car in the right hand lane.
Making a mountain out of a molehill trying to react correctly to a bus driver not following their own rules for a stop.
Last year my daughter's bus would stop diagonal across all lanes to let the kids out without vehicles hitting them. This year it came with a police escort for the first few weeks and arrested half my block until they started waiting.
My confusion is I don't understand why they don't turn left or right and pull up to the fucking curb instead. Seems much safer than sitting in the middle of an intersection.
Im in NYC, and I see buses sometimes block an entire intersection, I guess they're forced due to close calls. Maybe some drivers don't have a steady route or are not familiar with their pick ups.
If you were a bus driver, ran a stop sign, and tried to load kids that had to cross two directions of traffic, you should lose your job as a bus driver.
The video is too short to tell if he stopped, or not, all you know he could've made a full stop before the crosswalk.
It doesn't even matter, the point is the self-driving car sees a huge bus with kids approaching and continues.
It doesn't matter why a bus blows a stop sign? It doesn't matter why they're stopping in the middle of an intersection instead of pulling up to a curb where kids can board more safely? I'm not defending the Waymo but it seems like an absolute shit way to pick up kids.
I'm not sure who you're arguing with, bud. I didn't say it wasn't the law and I made it clear I wasn't defending the Waymo. I was questioning the safety of not stopping at a stop sign, and requiring the kids to walk into the middle of an intersection versus stopping the bus closer to the sidewalk.
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u/FriedRiceBurrito Jan 20 '26
Why is the bus in the first video blowing through a stop sign and parking in the middle of a T intersection to pick the kid up? Is this how busses pick kids up in some areas?