Rules of the Road

[artthouwill]

Today while riding the 71 71st/South Shore bus, I observed TWO different drivers break the same law on the same bus. While heading eastbound past Dorchester, the Metra Electric tracks enter into and become the center of 71st St. There is a RR crossing just west of the Stony Island station. AT each crossing, there is a YIELD sign. There was a car heading west on 71st turning south to cross the tracks. The female bus driver did not yield to him. Fortunately there was no accident. But I wondered, what if a train had been coming. Soon we were at Stony Island where there was a bus driver change. While the shift change was taking place, an EB train passed. That meant those gates actually started coming down after the bus had passed that intersection.

Ok, so the next driver takes over and we get around Cregier or Constance somewhere, and there is a car turning south to cross the RR tracks, and again, this driver does not yield to the car. The car was expecting him to yield, and had to hit brakes once he realized the bus wasn't going to stop for him. Then this happened again somewhere east of Jeffery (I want to say Paxton). Now I'm thinking "Do these drivers read? Do these drivers know the rules of the road?" At first I thought well maybe since 103rd took over the entire route that these drivers may not be familiar with 71st St, but ever since the route was expanded to cover the old 27 S Deering, 103rd was handling the 112th trips while 77th did the short turns at 73rd/Exchange.

I certainly hope this isn't a daily occurence, otherwise an accident is waiting to happen.

[Busjack]

The rule is always that the "right of way" is not a right.

On the other hand, I'm not sure if you are criticizing the bus or car driver. One time, I stopped for a yellow at 71st and Jeffery, and by the time the light turned red, someone went around me (to the right) and went through the red. But, then, there were the stories a couple of years ago about CTA drivers thinking that they were exempt from red lights.

I guess that's why there are stories about collisions with Metra trains on that line.