There are bus stops that take you by surprise. If you use them often, you learn to stand up and ring the bell almost as soon as the bus leaves the previous bus-stop. I'm thinking particularly about the bus stop outside the Security Service on Millbank, and the Holmewood Gardens stop on Brixton Hill.
And then there is Vauxhall bus station and Brixton town centre. The bus waits at traffic lights to exit Vauxhall Bridge. It pulls into Vauxhall bus station. It drives very slowly to the end of VBS, then executes a 180 degree turn before driving the entire length back again, and stopping at the bus stop, where I stand up and get off, two steps behind the person who has mumbled 'sorry' in order to squeeze past me at the traffic lights. Similarly at Brixton, except that the slow slow cruise of the bus station punctuated by the volte face is replaced by a shudder shudder bump bump stop jerk jerk creep, unsettling the contents of your stomach, behind a dozen other buses. I stand up only as it stops at the bus-stop; if it's a bus that's terminating, I get off by the front door and am at the pedestrian crossing before the person who's previously pushed me out of the way in order to stand on the stairs for several long minutes.
They don't irritate me but amuse me. So very full of themselves, so stressed out, and for no purpose.
This morning at the crossing, I observed something much more disturbing.
A bus driver calculated that he didn't have enough space to move forward and join the tail end of the standing traffic without having his backside parked across the pedestrian crossing. So he stopped, until his exit from the crossing was clear. My understanding is that this is a correct reading of the Highway Code. This was the cue for about twenty people to cross in front of the bus, despite the traffic lights being green. Rather, one crossed and 19 or so followed him.
From the outside of the bus came a cyclist, peddling along the road. Not one of those 20 looked to see whether anyone was coming. Or if they did:
it's only a cyclist - and a woman in a flowery skirt at that, with a basket on the front of her bike
They just walked into her as she cycled along the road. I was gobsmacked! If I was her I would have been frightened or angry, surrounded by what was almost a frenzied mob of arseholes unable to control themselves for the extra thirty seconds until the traffic lights turned red and the green man appeared for pedestrians.
Their arrogance is breathtaking, the barely constrained aggression saddening. Not one of them can control his premature ejaculation. I can't help wondering if they get their wanking over as quickly as possible rather than taking time to pleasure their partners (assuming they have a partner).
