Why you should never press the bus bell at the last minute

If you’ve taken the bus before, you might have noticed the are typical commuter types: The ones who talk really loudly like they’re in a marketplace; the ones who take up more space than they should; those who press the bell at the last minute, etc.

Some of the behaviours, though not encouraged, can be tolerated. But, one Japanese individual found that it is about time to sound an alarm – specifically, to warn people why they should not press the bell at the last minute. When it comes to pressing the bell to tell the bus driver to stop, there are a few approaches.

One, once the bus leaves the current stop, you press the bell and inadvertently confuse the driver.

Two, for the ones who are not familiar with the route, you press the bell after the bus is some distance away from the previous stop.

Three, for the ones who confidently know the route, you press the bell when you know you are almost reaching the stop.

Four, you are not paying attention and almost miss the stop, but your swift fingers leap onto the bell and the bus screeches to a halt.

Or five, you do not press the bell at all and leave it to the minions, I mean, other commuters to do the work, especially when it is a popular stop.

Among the approaches, the second and third seem like the most ideal, and the fourth the worst. As there is quite a number of commuters who fall into this category, Japanese Twitter user @nhk928 decided to put up a request:

“If you press the bell at the last minute, there will be sudden braking and will cause accidents in the bus! In-bus accident is equivalent to pushing people and penalises the driver! It is possible that the driver may be sacked as a result!”

In response to the tweet, there was a range of opinions, from finding it unreasonable to put full responsibility on the bus driver, to evaluating that less bus drivers will in turn affect the commuters. On top of that, there were many queries about why people press the bell at the last minute. @nhk928 also commented that there are announcements on the next stop, which should make it easy to understand when to press the bell.

As a bus driver herself, @nhk928 wished to highlight the gravity of pressing the bell at the last minute.

“If our driving license gets penalised due to in-bus accidents, we cannot continue to make a living. If we are fired and try to apply for jobs in another company, we would face difficulty as the company would ask for the reasons for leaving the previous company! In-bus accident is not simply about commuters falling over! Please help us out.”

For the safety of everyone during the bus ride, wouldn’t it be more considerate to press the bell in advance?