Saturday, September 11, 2010

drama on the bolt bus (lyn)

I usually take a train to Boston but the $100 price differential between the bus and the train is too great to ignore this time.  Tonight is the Y reunion and I'm staying over at Jean's.  I'm up early to pack my bus food --a mug of coffee, a vitamuffin, and some fruit.  By 9, I'm on the filled-to-capacity bus and we're on our way.

Somewhere in Connecticut, about two hours into our trip, I hear the annoying chatter of someone on their phone.  I'm sitting close to the front of the bus and am surprised to see the bus driver, lost in a deep, animated conversation.  This is not something I’d even considered in my list of reasons for not liking the bus.

True, the bus driver is on a hands-free headset, but I still don't like it.   I pretend Alexander is sitting next to me and I say nothing.       

A few minutes later she gets another call.  Again, the call is clearly personal.  This time I decide to say something.  In anticipation of a confrontation and refusal, I snap a picture of her with my no- flash iPhone.  She doesn't notice and continues merrily along with her conversation.

“Could you please get off the phone?” I ask. "I'm on a hands-free phone, " the driver remarks.  In New York it's illegal for cab drivers to talk on a hands-free phone so I have to assume that the same is true of a bus driver carrying 50 or so passengers on a major interstate.  I tell her (in case she’s not aware) that it’s against the law to drive a bus while talking on a phone.  She ignores me, so I add, “OK, but I have a photo of you on the phone.”

She responds with the same reaction I would expect if I had said, “I’m carrying a bomb.”  She immediately shouts, “You what?  You can’t take a photo of me without my permission.  I demand that you delete it right now.”  I say I won’t, and add, “I was just taking a picture of the trees outside the bus and you must have gotten into the photo.”    An actual photographer sitting near me chimes in that it’s not illegal to take a photo of a person in a public place without their permission;  it's only illegal if I plan to  sell and/or publish the photo.

The bus driver then swerves onto the shoulder of I95.  She gets up from the driver’s seat and turns and faces all the passengers.  “This woman is taking pictures of me without my permission and unless she deletes them we are not moving until the police arrive,” she grandstands to the entire bus.  Of course she makes it sound as if I’m sitting in my seat snapping away.  She doesn’t mention anything about her talking on the phone while driving.  She tells me again to delete the pictures or she will call the police.  I don’t want to anger the busload of passengers, but then someone helps me out by saying, “Don’t erase the pictures.  You have every right to take them.”  So I call her bluff.  “Go ahead, call the police.  I’ve done nothing wrong, “I say (not pointing out again that she’s the one at fault).  I am so glad Alexander is not with me.  He’d be mortified at this point.  Especially considering that I was nearly thrown off the Amtrak train from Providence less than a month ago.

After only a few minutes the driver realizes she can’t sit on the side of the road forever.  She gets back in her seat, and pulls back onto I95.  I hear her on the phone again, explaining to someone (maybe the police) that there is “a passenger  taking photos of me without my permission.”  I don’t know what it is that is said by the person on the other end, but whatever it is, the result is that no police every come to see me and we continue onto Boston in silence.

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