Is it just me or is anyone else saddened by the fact that bus drivers just don’t seem to wave at one another anymore?

Only yesterday Pond, did I see two bus drivers wave at each other as they drove past on the same route.

Its not all dead.

Posted about 1 year ago by faith

I wave at other people in new Minis (not Foxtons though, they get a different wave). They tend to just look back at me like I’m some kind of mentalist and shouldn’t be allowed to drive.

Posted about 1 year ago by eviltwin

I often see bus and tube drivers give a wave as they pass one another.

Posted about 1 year ago by cobo04

You should visit Colliers Wood – they’re very friendly there and always wave.

Posted about 1 year ago by mollusk

When I was little my mum used to drive around in a Citroen 2CV, and there was much mutual waving with other 2CV drivers. I used to love that. Made up for the cold winter mornings when the bloody thing refused to start and I had to sit in the back patiently waiting to be driven to school while my mother swore like a fishwife.

Posted about 1 year ago by archie

Maybe it’s seasonal. Us bikers wave at each other in the winter, but in the summer, the power rangers come out, unable to control a bike with 2 hands on the handlebars, let alone one. A few of them took to waving at each other with their feet, although I was once ‘waved’ at by someone taking both hands off the bars to do a ‘tiger growl’ motion. Not sure what that was about.

I’m not sure how this applies to bus drivers; ignore me.

Posted about 1 year ago by flippy

They don’t wave any more because they’re too busy beating up old ladies with one hand and texting with the other (steering with their knees), but they do still acknowledge each other with that ear-splitting PEE-WOOP noise from their alarms.

pee woop smile cheery wave not on your life

Posted about 1 year ago by plum

Seen bus drivers using their mobiles while driving !! Both while I was on the bus, scary, and when they passed me.

Posted about 1 year ago by cobo04

When I was little my mum used to drive around in a Citroen 2CV, and there was much mutual waving with other 2CV drivers. I used to love that. Made up for the cold winter mornings when the bloody thing refused to start and I had to sit in the back patiently waiting to be driven to school while my mother swore like a fishwife.

Archie, are you my brother? This was the story of my childhood – especially in the depths of winter when the car seats would sometimes have frost on them!

Posted about 1 year ago by MEW

I still see them wave to each other but only really if it’s the same route.

I’ve built up a back story in my head of how it’s little teams of 125-drivers and 263-drivers and they’re all competing to be the best route. Hence why drivers for opposing teams wouldn’t wave to each other.

Can any bus drivers confirm? I think I’d be mightily disappointed if there wasn’t some rivalry going on.

Posted about 1 year ago by sahra-t

they do still acknowledge each other with that ear-splitting PEE-WOOP™ noise from their alarms

God that noise is irritating and if you happen to be on a route where they pass a lot of other drivers, it’s almost like a flippin Pee-woop™ Symphony.

Mind you, am I right in saying, they only Pee-Woop™ each other if they work the same route?

Posted about 1 year ago by robram

On the route that uses single-decker buses between Clapham Junction and Chelsea Harbour (and probably somewhere else after that), I saw the bus driver diligently wave to other bus drivers coming in the opposite direction, and like Pond felt that all was right with the world. Then a bus came along with a black man at the wheel, and our driver pretended he had something in his eye and was thus unable to wave.

Hearteningly, bus drivers will still give a mighty wave or thumbs-up when you’re driving and allow them to proceed before you. Regardless of the weather, out will come that (occasionally) gloved hand and it won’t acknowledge you with a weak-wristed, half-hearted sort of semi-wave; it’ll be a full on, fingers-outsplayed, make-no-mistake-I-am-grateful kind of uber-wave.

Even drowning people can’t be arsed to wave like that these days.

How does cobo04 see tube drivers wave to each other?

Posted about 1 year ago by BraveNewMalden

He doesn’t. He’s being silly.

Posted about 1 year ago by pond

Silly old cobo04!! !

Mrs BNM and I used to pootle around in a Volvo 480ES, a kind of comfy sports car that was then a brave departure for Volvo. It was the only Volvo that didn’t require the driver to wear or hat or to drive along at 29mph with parts of his coat trapped in the door.

We’d flash lights and wave at the few other people who’d bought one, and they’d do the same to us. I’ve just googled it and it was front-wheel drive. I never knew that. Why should I know that?

Posted about 1 year ago by BraveNewMalden

No, they still do wave – at least in not-really-London-zone-6. They even stop in the middle of the road and chat to each other. Which is nice.

Posted about 1 year ago by pato

In Bromley, they give each other a thumbs up. That just seems extra cool.

Posted about 1 year ago by iris

I used to wave at other Talbot Horizon drivers. Now, that was a car.

Bus drivers? Cunts. Why would you want to wave at another cunt?

.....

Posted about 1 year ago by Juvey

Why do you need to be a bus driver to wave? I wave to lots of people on the bus for the fun of it. Maybe I get bored easily. Maybe I have a short attention span. Maybe I need to get out more.

Posted about 1 year ago by anthony

I wave at people on trains. Sometimes I even get a wave back. The bus drivers in Holloway tend to give each other the one-fingered salute, which is rather charming for this modern age of violence and hatred.

Posted about 1 year ago by HorseyofGormenghast

when i’m on the 243 and we pass another 243 and the drivers DON’T wave, i get a bit nervous, like they might be having a bit of an intra-depot tiff like danny devito used to have with the beleaguered man with the big nose in ‘taxi’, and one of them might suddenly lose his head and decide to ram the other bus in a fit of irrational pique. i involuntarily grip my sandwich bag extra tight for a second and feel like a sad, friendless loony out of an alan bennett play.

Posted about 1 year ago by givemethevalium