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Here's an interesting question: do bus drivers exist to drive buses, or do they exist to drive buses that are carrying members of the public?

This question is prompted by the regular sight of "not in service" buses passing by members of the public at Elephant & Castle — a very busy public transport hub in south London. Such buses beg the question of whether or not a bus driver is required as part of their shift pattern to complete in a day either a set number of route travails or a set number of hours. Logic would dictate that they would drive a bus for a set number of hours per day, given how the difficulties of traffic and delays etc. might impact on the circumnavigation of a set number of routes. Thus, the regularity of buses "not in service" is explained: bus drivers no longer on duty want to get back to the depot and thereon off home.

Therein lies the rub and the reason for the original enquiry: what is the duty of bus drivers? A time-based approach would suggest their duty is to drive a bus for a set amount of time per day, whilst a service-based approach would suggest their duty is to drive along a route a set number of times per day. Given the time-based approach currently prevails, it is clear that the public for which buses exist are not receiving as efficient a service as could exist because the focus is on the provision of buses as opposed to the service that each bus provides.

It is clear that a service-based approach is unfeasible, precisely for the reasons cited above. The "driving a bus" focus does show through on a much more practical level, however, for it is common for a bus to pull away irrespective of the number of people running to catch it. When such things happen — and experience shows that it happens very often — the bus driver not only reinforces the bus-driving focus that informs their work, but rather negates their purpose for existing at all. For whilst bus drivers may focus on driving a bus, bus users focus on the bus as a means of getting from A to B.

Alas, the case of bus drivers and bus driving is another, admittedly trifling example of competing incentives.

[1] — of course, bus drivers are people, too — but let us just concentrate on such individual's roles as bus drivers for the purposes of this post.

Tags — General Interest