Why are bus drivers so slap happy on the brakes?

[mediman]

Yesterday I decided to travel into town on the bus. I had my daughter and 4 year old son with me. We were the last to get on the bus and so- as usual- it set off before we had found a seat. The driver accelerated quickly and then had to slam his brakes on for a red light at a pedestrian crossing. My initial reaction was to protect my son but this caused me to stumble into one of the hand rails, resulting in a spectacular purple bruise this morning on my right thigh! I was glad it was me and not my daughter or son.

Why do bus drivers need to drive at such a pace and then brake at the last minute?

This seems to be a recent thing in bus travel as I can remember journey's as being a leisurely experience.

As mentioned before this was the second time in a month that something like this has happened to me. Earlier this month it was a gorgeous blue and purple ensemble on my left arm.

In future I'm driving in. Parking the car is cheaper than the bus fares, and I know that I will get there safely.

 

Reason is the time limits imposed on the driver to complete a journey, same times are allowed for morning and evening journeys in rush hour traffic as the time allowed during the day, being a leisurely experience is not an option, is there any wonder the drivers get irate. As for the condition of some of the buses I agree some are in a very poor mechanical state, mainly the First Group vehicles. V.O.S.A. are allways stopping HGV vehicles and Coaches for inspection, but never have I seen a bus being stopped and inspected, I wonder why ?. Im sure that if they did start and inspect service buses there would be quite a few taken of the road with defects.