The Little Yellow School Bus

By John Williams

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"Haven't we met a'fore?" drawled Jack as he slipped over his official papers. "So you have a truck driver's licence?" commented Mr. Gordon as he scanned the documents, he was hiring Jack for the new fast run.

"Sure, I've been hauling goods for nigh on twenty years." Jack replied confidently. Thus started Jack's long career as a driver with the ABC Transport Company hauling goods back and forth daily twixt town and city. The routes he had to drive were left up to him and he was able to capitalize on his local knowledge in order to bring his loads in ahead of schedule on many occasions.

One day Jack received a notice informing him that the ABC transport company was cutting back its truck division but that there was some room in the school bus division, Jack was instructed to make plans to drive a school bus instead. It was assumed that Jack would be a fine school bus driver after hauling trucks for so many years. No-one asked whether he had a school bus driver's licence. On Monday morning bright and early Jack reported to Mr. Gordon to pick up his route map and get his new bus ready.

"What's this?" Jack asked as Mr. Gordon's secretary handed Jack a box of three ring binders crammed with papers.

"Why, that's your route map. Its really quite simple. All you do is..." explained Mr. Gordon's secretary as she rifled through the pages pointing here, then there and finishing with, "so you have to do the same route every day but keep in mind that you may be asked to pick the best route. Er.. excuse me I have a call on line two." Jack spent some time perusing his box of binders and figured a great route which would get him to his destination in record time.

"I'll skirt the city and avoid all the construction mess", he thought to himself. But this was not to be. As Jack started out on his trip Mr. Gordon informed him that he could not use the highway.

"You see Jack," Mr. Gordon explained. "The bus you are driving now is not designed to run fast, so taking it out on the highway would be a complete disaster. And besides, I know you would really much prefer the challenge of dodging potholes and traffic as you negotiate the city streets and practice your driving."

"Well actually I think I would really prefer the highway and besides I don't think this bus is ..." But Mr Gordon was busy and wasn't listening anymore. Jack was a patient man and followed his route for some time and learned through experience which prescribed sideroads to take and which to avoid.

One day as Jack was busy dodging potholes and keeping right, one of Jack's passengers on the bus pointed out a curved side road which seemed to lead to other roads where the traffic flowed more smoothly. The sign on the road was clearly marked with: "Access Restricted: School Buses Only". This was a clear invitation to school bus drivers who were often on the lookout for better routes.

"Can't even go exploring after hours by car to see where it leads", Jack complained to Mot the passenger.

"Include it on your route map and see where it goes," Mot urged, "but be sure to keep a record of what you find and share it with the other bus drivers so that they will be able to decide whether to take the curvy road or not."

On the bus trip the next day Jack took the new curvy road and noticed that there was a slight improvement in the traffic flow. But his old route was so ingrained that he often forgot about the new curvy road and simply trundled on as before. Part of the problem was that when the traffic was particularly heavy, he was most distracted and forgot about taking the curvy road. (Or as Jack now called it the "A.R." road, short for Access Restricted.)

One day as Jack was taking his bus on the A.R. road he heard the wail of a siren beside his little yellow school bus, and as he glanced over he saw a traffic cop signalling him to pull over.

He pulled over.

"What's with you taking this curvy road all the time?" The cop asked and explained that he had been keeping an eye on Jack for some time now.

Jack told about the traffic being lighter and that this seemed like a better route to take.

"Tell me what you do when you come to a railway crossing in a school bus?" asked the cop who was not really interested in why Jack was taking one road or another, but was much more interested in whether Jack knew the rules of the road for driving a school bus.

After Jack had demonstrated a working knowledge of most of the rules of school bus driving the cop told him to drive on but to be sure to follow the rules and that this would eliminate the need for taking Access Restricted roads.

"Whew! At least he didn't ask me for my license," Jack thought as he wheeled the bus back on the road.

Jack had tried one A.R. road and reasoned that if one had resulted in a better route then there were sure to be others that would be even better and lead to smoother routes yet. If he could just get a lighter traffic day so he could make note of other A.R. roads. "I haven't seen that little road before," he thought to himself as he noticed another Access Restricted sign while he negotiated the rush hour traffic. "That might be just the one I'm a looking for..."