BUS STORY # 238 (Outside The Box)

Yale and Randolph: The Eye of the Needle, originally uploaded by busboy4.

There’s a bunch of us watching the 222 coming up Randolph and heading for that right turn south on Yale, toward the airport. 

It’s a tough turn these days because, in what must be the 50th road repair project on this section of Yale in the past nine months, the outside southbound lane is a ditch, and the middle lane is blocked off by a row of construction saw horses with big-eyed orange lights. 

That leaves a tight entrance into the inside lane with saw horses on the right and an elevated median with a traffic light pole on the left. 

The driver has to really thread the needle here. 

We watch the light turn green and the bus move forward. We watch the driver turn, then slow, then stop. He’s not gonna make it. 

And he’s stuck. 

He’s essentially crosswise now, pointing southeast. Going forward will put him up onto the median and into the signal light. But traffic is stacked up behind him and there is nowhere to back up. 

Those of us watching from the street are quiet. Not one “He oughta” from the entire group -- and these are mostly guys, too. 

The driver waits until the three northbound Yale lanes have cleared, then roars around the median and up the wrong side of the street. 

There’s a mix of gasps, exclamations, and laughter from the group. A couple of guys give the driver a thumbs up, but I can see from his expression he is neither amused nor pleased with himself. 

We see the first car come round the bend from the airport. It’s in the middle lane and the driver certainly has a clear view of the bus coming toward him on his side of the street. 

Not too far up, there’s a breach in the median, an opening for vehicles trying to turn left onto Yale. The bus driver converts that to an escape route back to the right side of the street. He’s there well before the first car passes him. 

We are all too thunderstruck to cheer. It takes a few seconds before the first nervous laughter clears the way for a scattering of all’s-well-that-ends-well comments. 

And you sure aren’t gonna hear any “He should’ve” from me.