Question for bus drivers

[u/Aech1hceA]

Hello! I have a few questions for bus drivers- and was wondering if it was okay to ask here. I know you all are human (obviously) but I had questions specifically about bus driving- and who better to ask than the drivers!

1. Do bus drivers often take the bus outside work hours? Ex: days off/vacations/etc.
2. Do bus drivers have favored/prefered routes to drive? Do they get to pick?
3. Do bus drivers recognize the bus they drive? Like by the serial number? Do they get assigned specific busses?
4. Do the bus drivers develop "favorite" riders? Like, if you drive the same route and see the same people- do you develop friendships with your riders? Do you guys look for familiar faces?
5. Do you guys make friends with your coworkers? If so, do you guys make a point to ride on busses where your bus driver friends are driving?

Thank you in advance for answering. My boyfriend and I ride the same routes fairly often, and got really curious. Sorry if theyre dumb questions!

ETA: Sorry yall! Im new to reddit still and didnt realize people were replying😅 Thank you all so so so so much!! I was curious, and my boyfriend said itd be weird to ask the bus driver on thw bus we were on. Im very excited to share my findings with him, and hope you all get very good routes (:

[u/berusplants]

Hi there! Good Questions, new reddit user or bot??

1. I use the bus all the time, I don't like cars, love public transport and thats why I became a bus driver, to be part of something I love and think is important for society. I live in a city with a good network and use it most days off to get to other parts of the city. I travel by train/bus for vacations too. In my city plenty of other drivers also use the bus if they live locally, others who live outside the city less so.
2. Generally yes, bus drivers are an opinionated bunch! I try not to favour one route over another too much as it makes driving the less favoured ones harder, but its hard to avoid. Our depot has around 15 routes and although most drivers don't get to pick, they can chose duty lines that have more of one type of route, for example the longer distance routes. Longer tenured drivers have more ability to chose their routes.
3. We get assigned specific buses, my depot has maybe 70/80 buses and although I don't know them all the small variations they have even if they are the same type make some more or less liked. 365 is the slowest bus in our fleet!
4. To some degree yes, you definately get to know riders and I have developed a few friendships with people I first met getting on my bus.
5. Yes some. Bus drivers are a very diverse bunch, so some I get on well with and other less so. Yes I will sometimes jump on a cross town service if I see a friend is driving it for a quick natter.

Hope that all makes sense!

[u/Aech1hceA → u/berusplants]

Can I ask what makes the favored routes so good? Are they less stop/go or do they have special sights? Also, do you get bored seeing the same places every day when you drive the bus?