EVERYWHERE — All city bus drivers are friends with each other, according to anyone who has ever observed one bus passing another.
Bus drivers spend their free time together, waving at one other, being chummy and telling funny anecdotes about their profession, according to insiders.
“We also get a big kick out of bus jokes,” said Tom, a bus driver for over 12 years. “What did the granny say when she saw a teenager board the bus without paying?”
“She said, ‘That’s not fare!’ Good one, eh?” he said.
Even when off-duty bus drivers run into each other in a shop, for example, they do not shake hands, preferring to give that special bus-driver wave in which the elbow stays in place, the forearm is slightly raised, and two fingers are flicked in a downward motion where they remain for a half beat.
“We’ll leave that side-to-side, full-arm nonsense to truck drivers and utility workers,” Tom said. “We bus drivers are a good lot, and by using our special wave we want the world to know we’re all friends.”