May 2002

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Atlanta, Gwinnett County is one of the many surrounding
counties that together make up the greater metropolitan Atlanta area.  Until recently, Gwinnett had
the distinction of being one of the most highly populated counties in the U.S. not to have a public
transit system, a situation which changed back in November of 2001 with the launch of a shuttle bus
service running six express routes between Atlanta and Gwinnett.  I think this is great.  I support
public transit and think that it is long overdue.  That having been said, I've noticed for quite some
time now that Gwinnett Transit drivers have some rather peculiar habits.  One such habit is that of
stopping in areas that are not designated as bus stops, which is exactly what the bus in the photo
above is doing. 

There are two things happening in this photo that aren't readily visible: (1) someone is getting off the
bus; and (2) the driver has chosen to stop right after crossing over an intersection (at the rider's
request, I'm sure).  So what's the big deal?  Shortly after this bus stopped, the light turned red for
traffic going my direction, and green for the cars on the intersecting road.  Half of my car is sticking
out in the middle of the intersection, and there were two more cars stopped behind me, which means
there were two and a half cars blocking the intersection when the light went green for the cars on the
intersecting road, all because this dimwit decided to stop all willy nilly where he wasn't supposed to
and stop the flow of traffic behind him.  Notice that the bus driver didn't bother using his turn signal
or anything to warn the motorists behind him of his intention to stop.  One second we were all
moving, the next second we all came to an abrupt halt.



Okay, so maybe I'm being too hard on him.  After all, one of his passengers probably asked him to
stop there because he or she was too lazy to walk from the real bus stop, and the driver was just
trying to be nice, right?  Well, here's the same bus just one block later.  The driver just finished
running a red light.  What you can't see in this picture is that there's a white pickup truck to the right
 -- the driver of that truck had to slam on the brakes to avoid a collision.  Thankfully, running red lights
is not one of the things I've seen Gwinnett Transit drivers do habitually.  Still, I'm beginning to wonder
where Gwinnett Transit got its drivers from!



Speaking of lazy people, I had just finished refueling my car and was about to leave when this Volvo
pulls into this parking space all haphazardly.  Now, I know we all park crooked from time to time,
but if you look carefully, this dolt has parked far enough into the adjacent handicap space to prevent
anyone else from actually parking there (i.e., a handicapped person).  It's no big deal, but on the
other hand, it's no big deal to straighten out either, is it now?  I mean, how long would that take? 
Two seconds?  Three at the most?  Lazy, lazy, lazy!