“Attached is video of a bus that sat on our block for three minutes straight honking his horn because a car was parked too far into the street.
“The bus driver knew that we were contacting the owner of the vehicle, and once the owner came out and ran back in to get his keys he still continued to honk.
“The bus was full of children whom I’m sure were very frightened by the commotion. If a bus driver has so little patience he does not belong driving a bus.”
[TLS – Reader-submitted]
Bus driver is 100% correct. Learn to park like a mentch, and the whole town will thank you.
I’m with the bus driver on this one. The car shouldn’t be there he deserves whatever he gets
don’t blame the bus driver, the car shouldn’t be blocking the road. if your children were late to school you would be angry
The bus driver may have been correct in expecting clear passage for his bus, but that does not excuse him from creating such a ruckus. The way the driver reacted to this is what the letter-writer is complaining about. The car should not be there, but the entire neighborhood does not deserve to be treated to a three minute horn-honking. The driver should, indeed, practice more patience.
If the “children are very frightened by the commotion” then they need to get out more. Kids love honking horns and making noise, I’m sure they loved it.
Wrong, he should not beep like that, especially after he got in the car!
Also its not clear if the guy was parked wrong.
Yup! Bus driver may not have had patience but this probably happens on almost every block he drives on!!! And if something would happen to either car, he would be the one to blame. I don’t believe he was wrong.
May I ask why the builders are building the developments with such narrow streets that the school buses have a hard time navigating? If the buses are having such a hard time getting around in the developments think of a large FD ladder truck trying to get to a fire.
he is 100% right
If this was a one time occurrence his actions would be inappropriate. Unfortunately he experiences this every other block he drives down, and he is absolutely correct to make a ruckus.
As to the fact that the entire development was disturbed, they deserve it too. if your neighbor does something STUPID you should let them know that it is not OK. The fact that everybody allows this type of selfish behavior makes them responsible for these occurrences.
The bus driver was not wrong! All cars parked far away from curb and in wrong direction should be ticketed !!!!!
the builders are doing this because they make more MONEY! and that is really all they care about!
In response to “May I ask why the builders are building the developments with such narrow streets that the school buses have a hard time navigating?” the answer is because they want to stuff as many houses as possible into their land so they can make more money. And while I think it’s disgusting, if I was the developer I would probably do the same thing and so would almost everyone else, people want to make as most from their investment as they can.
I admire anyone who takes the job of bus driver in this town. It’s a very taxing job. One has to have nerves of steel to put up with all the traffic. I think the development in the video was in West Gate and you are not supposed to park on both sides of the street. The signs say so clearly.
I was waiting at the corner for my daughter’s bus and witnessed this. The bus driver is right. Every morning I watch how the bus drivers have difficulty turning down these streets because of the way people park. people park on the corners and far from the curb. I’ve seen buses backing up to get a perfect angle when turning so as not to hit the cars. It’s so dangerous and I’m sure they are very frustrated.
We buy houses in such places bec the builder lowers the price enough that we agree to live like that.we can’t turn around and blame them for wanting more money when we only have ourselves to blame. ( and we agree for a lot less money then they are agreeing too and we’re living with the results not them)
I can’t even imagine the frustration those bus drivers feel, I know just driving threw Lakewood can make one feel stressed and angry. I definitely side with the bus driver. Cars should not be lined on both sides of the road. By a home that provides enough parking for all who drive in he family. This is not Brooklyn or NYC it’s Lakewood NJ. The towns not equipped for the amount of people in it.
#8 is 100% correct. If there was an emergency and the FD or Medic unit could not get there quickly enough because of a lazy parker. It could be a tragedy.
To those who are griping about the bus driver honking, you’re making a statement that you don’t want the bus coming down your street! When bus service ceases because buses cannot get down any particular street, then you’ll have something else to cry about.
2 wrongs don’t make a right. Yes ppl park horribly and yes it’s not right but that doesn’t mean this is the answer . I don’t care what someone does I teach my children that we conduct ourselves in a certain manor regardless of the situation.
There have been many times i have wanted to blast my horn like that bus driver did. Whether or not he has a good reason to blast it, it is wrong to do so. I have had many many good, justifiable reasons to blast it and have not because of normal decency to humanity.
I live on this block. It is not the drivers fault who parked their cars there. There is not enough parking spots for everyone in this devlopment. They do not put up “no parking signs” on the street. My childs bus does not turn down the street because he says it is not safe to do so. He goes around the block. Thank you Joe!
I wish bus drivers could hand out tickets for all these selfish car drivers!!!!
You are not judging the bus driver fairly. if the bus driver was on his way to school a few minute delay gets compounded. The children that haven’t been picked up yet tend to go inside their homes to ask their parents if the bus will be coming. They usually leave someone to look out if their bus comes. When their bus does come late the bus driver will be delayed even longer waiting for the child to get on the bus. As the bus gets more delayed this problem is compounded. If the driver was on his way home he may have had another route scheduled after he was fine this route.
I drove a school bus in Lakewood for a few years. I refrained from driving inside developments, especially if cars tended to be parked there.
Driving a bus in reverse is very scary. There are no mirrors which show what is behind the bus. I used to daven every day that I should bring the children to and from school safely and on time. Out of the kindness of our good lord I never had an accident with the bus. The routes were too long and the kids would get rowdy and restless especially on the way home after a long day at school. I’d often come home with a headache. I usually had to ignore when they fought, jumped around. In the summer the kids were even rowdier. The buses don’t have air conditioning and hot kids get wild. If a child was completely out of control I’d ask their parents to transport them for a few days. Their parents didn’t like when I did that.
This was probably not the first time that this driver experienced such a delay. Hopefully, the people in that development will learn something from this.
Drivers in this town need to be more courteous to bus drivers. They are driving many children at once. If they are late to school it causes much bitul Torah from our purest souls. We should allow school buses the right of way whenever applicable. The bus has a harder time turning at a stop sign. The bus has many little children on it while you have few people in the car. Flash your lights at the driver to signal
the driver that you will allow him to go at a stop sign even if you had the right of way. Please don’t speed up to beat his yellow blinking lights. Kids are unpredictable. When they see their bus they might run towards it even if the bus driver hasn’t put out his stop sign yet. I wouldn’t put out the stop sign until I saw all the cars nearby at a full stop.
May Hashem continue to watch over us and all our children.
And who said these people parked away from the curb?!?!?!?!
Seriosuly people?!?!?!?!?!
To my take,
It is westgate and there are NO signs saying you cant park on both sides of the street
please people park like a mentch
Why is my comment not being printed? You do not want any comments addressing the way the driver of the car pulled out of there?
My last post was deleted. I guess the Scoop censors any negative mention of the school board, municipal committee and nonpublic schools. The only negative comments were about poor municipal planning, overcrowding, over development, traffic congestion, the proliferation of very small nonpublic schools, and the pressures on bus drivers to arrive exactly on time. Consolidation or enlargement of existing nonpublic schools would greatly reduce the number of school buses on the road. However, I’m am deeply offended by this blog’s practice of censorship based on particular views. No names or profanity were used, only an honest opinion of why the busing situation creates stress for drivers, their livelihoods depend on arriving timely.
Please delete my last comment #28. I reread the comments and it showed my original post was not deleted. Regrets for the accusation against the Scoop.
It sickens me when people are “out to get” the bus drivers and fail to acknowledge on whom the responsibility for this situation lies. I live at this corner and I can see our car parked right near there. This is at the corner of Kingsfield and Pressburg in Westgate. Our side of the street is new and with double the amount of people parking on the street now they need to adjust the parking regulations. I have asked Westgate to address this numerous times but despite being reassured that this will be taken care of, my requests have been ignored. It frightens me to see how many buses have to BACK OUT of the street with kids on the bus because it is too narrow. Westgate is full of little children and it is extremely dangerous. Maybe a video of all the close calls on that corner should be posted. My sypathies if the honking disturbed you (NOT) but I don’t blame the driver in the least bit. Enough is enough.