I can has daysaver? Bus culture online

TWMDriver's blog is a blog by an anonymous (the routes have been changed to protect the innocent) bus driver working in Birmingham, and it fast became one of my favourite sites. He (or she) gives a fascinating look behind the wheel and inside the garage, railing at bad behaviour from car drivers, amused by odd behaviour by passengers ("he slept the whole way there even over the speed humps"), but always striving to give the best service. It's genuinely heartening to read someone who cares so much about what is after all a difficult public service job.

It's very well written, and reminds me a lot of one of Britain's best blogs Random Acts of Reality by Tom Reynolds (also a pseudonym) which is a blog about the work of a London Ambulance man, very well respected and a was turned into a book to high praise (TWMDriver, when you've been doing this for six months, let's talk book). This type of blog is in a sense closest to the dreadful "like an online diary" cliché that our traditional media use to 'explain' blogging (often very wrongly), but the diary format helps give character to those doing work that we might otherwise ignore.

You can imagine Travel West Midlands or the London Ambulance Service, or any big organisation, being nervous about staff blogs, but to deny the communication opportunities they offer would be very wrong. When I first came across TWMDriver's blog I was nervous about sharing it, thinking that if it came to the attention of the buses' bosses then it would quickly be banned. Thankfully a much more enlightened regime exists, which is great because better publicity for the company it would be difficult to find. In these days when Post Offices and even Doctors' Surgeries carry signs asking for "respect" (that dreadful word) for the people working there, nothing can be more likely to engender empathy than knowing what those on the other side of the ticket machine go through.

There's even a regular section where you can have your questions answered by the driver, a boyhood dream no longer frightened of the "passengers must not: distract the driver" notice (I'd bring those signs back, "spit, leave litter, allow dogs on seats, play radios or cassette machines" how many more can you remember?).

So, go and enjoy the ride, and don't forget to say "thank you" to the driver (apparently only a Birmingham thing).