‘Responsibility’, that was the word that I kept reflecting on as I sat in the front seat of the bus. But unlike my days on the bus to school where I would sit in the front seat as I was feeling squeamish, I was in a different seat.
I had wheel in front of me, and another fifty seats behind. I was in complete control of this bus.
Fifteen minutes before, I had stepped out of my SUV and walked over to the depot, unsure of what was in store. ‘Would I actually be driving a bus? It is only around the depot, right?’ I had asked myself. Soon I would learn that I WAS going to be driving a bus, but it just wasn't around the depot...it was around Willoughby.
Driver training manager of Busways Group for a decade, Andy Curnow, stood to my left and began to guide me through the different switches, dials, levers and buttons that surrounded me. ‘This lever clicks up and down which adjusts the seat's height, it's customisable to every driver’, Andy said, in a gentle and calm voice, a tone that never changed throughout the route. He said that if you approach speaking to trainees with a calm voice, if you need to shout ‘STOP!’ they will definitely take notice.
I turned the key in the ignition, powering up the twelve-and-a-half metre long bus. To my right, I pressed a red button and watched the doors shut like an accordion. Releasing the brake, I began to roll forward, before Andy gave me clear instructions of how to LEAVE the depot. I felt ‘responsible’. Not only for the size of the vehicle that I would be driving, but also my understanding of how important these everyday heroes actually are – getting us to places safely, efficiently and routinely.
From the safe concrete asphalt of the depot, to turning corners, travelling through tight streets, understanding positions at traffic lights, merging on the main road, checking my fog line (white line to the left on the road), indicating between lanes, going over zebra crossings in public areas, and even manoeuvring the multi-tonne bus around roundabouts, I felt completely safe in the professional care of the Busways trainer.
Even though the only passengers on this training route were from the media and communications department, I was no longer anxious. As ‘the wheels on the bus went round and round’, I felt like I could genuinely become a Busways bus driver, and this was that perfect first step.
