Elaine Ray: Bus Drivers Are Saints

In early 2024, Anastasios Adamopoulos, a Chicago bus driver, stopped his bus and ran toward two burning houses to wake the people inside. His actions helped save more than a dozen lives.

That story reminded me of my own less dramatic encounters with bus drivers.

In August of 2022, I dropped my 18-year-old car off at a used-car store in Fremont.  Since then, while I’ve enjoyed lifts from generous friends, taken rideshares and occasionally rented cars, I’ve traversed the Bay Area mostly by bus and train. I’ve saved money, developed time-management skills and walked more. But when asked how it’s been to live without a car, my response is often: “Bus drivers are saints.”

Taking the bus through the hamlets along the El Camino, I’ve seen impressive levels of kindness and professionalism that make the extra steps and planning worthwhile.

I began this experiment when COVID was at its peak, and it remains a threat for workers vulnerable to public exposure. But I’ve yet to see a driver waver when passengers, masked or unmasked, need assistance getting their wheelchairs secured or help boarding a bus with their overflowing shopping carts.

I think about the battles drivers choose, like not reacting to passengers engaged in passionate arguments with unseen adversaries or deciding to ask rowdy teenagers to watch their language.

I’ve seen drivers explain to riders why they weren’t supposed to let them off at intersections that weren’t stops, and I’ve had drivers wait for me and others when they noticed us running down the block when they could have kept going.

I’ve yet to see a driver run into a fire the way Adamopoulos did. And while he should be lauded for his life-saving heroics, the daily acts that drivers navigate also deserve a shout-out.

With a Perspective, I’m Elaine Ray.

Elaine Ray is a writer based in Stanford, California.