Being a bus driver would be so difficult. Having to ride the bus myself I've see some crazy shit go down in the back LOL. Also, I'm sure most people here could relate when I say other drivers and pedestrians can be fucking IDIOTS on the road. So think of a time when you were driving and someone cut in front of you and you had to avoid them. Now think of how much more difficult it'd be to do that with a bus full of people. Also I'd be scared to be a taxi driver. the craziest people take taxis, crackheads, drunks, etc. And you'd have to be in close quarters with them the whole time, who knows when an angry drunk is gonna snap and punch you or something? or some retard decides to rob you.
I agree with u badfish90. I don't think people realize that commercial pilots have a pretty damn easy job (with the exception of not being home a lot). If u look online at major news articles like CNN and 60 min u will find articles regarding how commercial pilots have become so much worse. Most of the time, these pilots don't even have contact with plane, their is so much technology in those commercial jets that they can pretty much (with the supervision of the pilot) can take, land and fly to the destination by themselves. Now there is a difference between a good pilot and a bad pilot and that difference is when something on the plane goes wrong. The good pilot will compensate and land the plane safely, where as a bad pilot will crash and kill everyone. The truth is, many pilots are shitty (commercial pilots) and thats one of the reasons why there have been many more crashes and deaths involved with flying commercially. Now Im not talking about all pilots, small privately owned airlines, generally have very experienced pilots and Fighter pilots are obviously damn good.
I'm pretty sure the training to become a pilot is much more grueling than the training to become a taxi/bus driver. Not that they are both important jobs, but c'mon now.
Dude, why do I have to keep saying this? I'm not comparing the two jobs. But, they're both public transportation, and they both make our lives easier. So, how come people continue treating the bus driver like dirt and the pilot as a saint? We should be thankful of both. I never thought I'd have to argue why we should appreciate it when a person makes our lives easier.
If that person looked literally anywhere on this thread, he'd see why that was my response. But, I don't think answering the same thing 8 times in a row is so irrational of a reason to get irritated.
I watched either a tv show or a clip in psychology class where an actor went into a restaurant and asked people if he could have their table When the actor wore regular clothes people said no. The more official he looked the more often people would allow him to have that table. (he was asked to wear many different uniforms; police, military, etc.). It wasn't just uniforms of authority, but I forget what the others were so they weren't included.
Yeah, I'd assume a person who just had their life saved would be more appreciative than a person who was given half a twix bar. But pilots and bus drivers perform the same function. They take you from point A to point B. The way people show appreciation for a pilot is by thanking him or her after they land. I can honestly say, I've never seen one commuter thank the bus driver. If this board is any indication, the general public takes the bus driver for granted and even thinks low of them.
I have found that bus drivers get enough respect. People always say bye or thanks when they disembark, no one calls them retards or whatever. Despite the fact that they drive like shit, accelerate while you're trying to put your coins in the machine, and miss your stop half the time. If you're working for a private company as someone with the skills to smoothly operate a multimillion dollar jumbo jet, you're obviously in a slightly different pool of fish than a person with a large vehicle license who works for public transportation.. hence why they're garnered with a higher degree of respect in general.
I guess it's like this: People don't appreciate the bus/cab driver because they've been known to be unreliable and people believe it's a job most people can do. But, flying a plane takes a much higher degree of trust. Hence more respect is given to them.
Then maybe it's my surroundings. People in my area usually act like the bus driver is invisible, except for the rare occasion when the 90 year old woman who shouldn't be milling about in public alone in the first place hops on board and traps the driver into telling him why he should be excited that her grand nephew's birthday is on Wednesday. But, I live in Chicago and most strangers seem miserable around here.
Pilots go through way much more intense training than say a bus driver or taxi cab driver. I mean it kinda is rocket science to learn how to fly a plane properly, so why not acknowledge that fact and give them a little more rep about it?
I can understand that but I still think the problem lies in what you sorta addressed. People assume it's easy to drive a bus in the city, when it's not even close to be the same thing as driving a tiny honda.
Look around the thread, I'm not advocating we take the pilot down a peg. He's fine where he is. I'm just advising we shouldn't take the bus driver for granted. We shouldn't treat them like garbage.
perhaps also people are bitter and consider the bus an inconvience because they can't drive themselves like other people.
Bus and taxi drivers don't drive like shit, they drive as best as they can to get you to your destination as fast as possible. It just looks like shit because they have to avoid and go around everybody else and occasionally break laws doing so. I took a shuttle van through NYC and that driver deserved props for not taking three times as long.