Passing By

…because not everyone knows when to do this.

Do you know when you can and can’t pass a school bus? There are three school bus stops on my way to work, and all three of them are within a 3-mile radius of my work, which is annoying as hell when I’m trying to get to work on time. I ask you if you know when you can and can’t pass a school bus because if you do happen to pass one when the red lights are flashing and the stop sign is out–and if a police officer happens to catch you–that is a ticket that cannot ever be removed from your driving record, last I recall. The PDF linked here regarding State Laws may help you to determine the laws in your state. In AZ, it’s pretty simplified, but not when it comes to the yellow flashing lights that flare up prior to the red ones.

For the past week, I have unfortunately hit the same stop at the same moment four times when the bus stops and the yellow lights start flashing. It’s the panic-driven moment of “do I stop or can I keep going without getting a goddamn ticket? And is the bastard going to flip that stop sign out right at the moment I’m passing him?” I think the latter is the scariest part because what if s/he’s having a bad morning and there’s a cop right fucking there? At any rate, those flashing yellow lights are warnings, just like the yellow traffic lights. The bus driver warns us (for a good long while too, in my case, thank the gods) that he’s going to be hitting that red soon so the students can hop on the bus.

Since I work for the same district, I hope that bus driver never has a bad morning as I’m passing by.