Half of bus drivers in Japan greet each other via hand wave, defying rules

Robots will take over the world!

The Nihon Bus Association has also advised its member operators to discourage it since 2012.

With shortage driver they just like to create more and more rule that are not inline with law at all.

Having one hand off the steering wheel does not necessarily violate Japan's traffic law, which obliges drivers to operate the wheel, brakes and other vehicle equipment in a "secure" manner, a police official said.

https://japantoday.com/category/quote-of-the-day/Many-bus-drivers-are-approaching-retirement-age-and-the-pool-of-drivers-is-shrinking

A hand wave or quick flick of the indicator blinkers to acknowledge fellow drivers is standard practice around the world.

Standard International Bus Driver Protocol Japan National Bus Association's dehumanizing, nonsensical rules.

And if you're serious about safety, JNBA, how about stop treating your drivers like absolute garbage and allowing them to wear sunglasses in the blinding sun and, perhaps, losing the stifling neckties and gloves in summer.

Edit: Standard International Bus Driver Protocol wins out over Japan National Bus Association's dehumanizing, nonsensical rules.

¨He added that for instance, a bus at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour could advance even 11 meters per second if one is not careful in driving.¨

Careful or not careful at 40km/hr the bus advances 11 meters per second. The quality of the writing is appalling.

What an utterly dumb, stupid rule! The same kind of thinking makes a rule that when a truck is parked, the driver has to put chocks on the wheels - even when it's on level ground!

The bus driver involved in the case told an inquiry that he nodded at the driver of another bus and briefly looked at it for "a few seconds."

Nodding or waving to another driver for a second ot two does not cause fatal crashes. Being a bad driver causes fatal crashes. No doubt it was more than a few seconds that he was distracted causing the crash. It sounds like a made up excuse. He was more likely looking at his phone.

The practice of bus drivers greeting each other while driving was banned by the Tokyo Bus Association in 2003

I had no idea.

What if they could signal hello with a friendly horn or light (the equivalent of "10-4 good buddy")? I can't believe that safety and good cheer are mutually exclusive.

Waving is natural, people will keep doing it whatever the rule

Who cares about the drivers giving colleagues a wake. Tram and train drivers do it too.

Travelling by bus in Japan isn't pleasant. They're painfully slow drivers - they make driving miss daisy look like a F1 driver.

A strange discussion and ruling, because they are special licensed professionals and have the known responsibility to always safely transport their passengers, so they of course know best when it is possible to greet another bus driver and when not.

I'm still waiting for it to be an offence to drive through red lights here in my city.

While not everyday, you can regularly see city buses turning against red lights.

A nod or wave - meh!

The topic of this article is the rules for bus drivers in Japan, by the government of Japan. Rules banning gestures by the antique government. A dumb rule, as someone already said.

Acknowledging other drivers by hand or a nod is an indicative they're awake and alert.

I can understand not wanting drivers to do this on city streets or when there's pretty heavy traffic.

But out on the open highway?

Sounds like another case of Tokyo Mentality being applied to the entire country. Seems a lot of Tokyoites think that the rest of Japan is just like the concrete jungle where they live.

At every intersection I wave or nod to other drivers. Never had an accident. It is just good manners.

Dehumanising Japanese people is a common practice, bus drivers included.

I wish they named the person who had nothing better to do than catch bus drivers acknowledging each other. What type of person would actually know the rules then have them enforced. I assume a management guy whose mentality towards his work is rule are rules and must be obeyed. I say guy because a female would not so petty and stupid to seek enforcement of the rules.

An important part of male bonding.

What an utterly dumb, stupid rule! The same kind of thinking makes a rule that when a truck is parked, the driver has to put chocks on the wheels - even when it's on level ground!

Please tell them how to do their work and make rules....

When I am driving in the UK I often put my hand up in acknowledgement of another driver giving way for me to pass in a narrow road, and they do the same if I give way. Another thing they do is flash their headlights as a thank you gesture. Not only is it common sense but it is good manners, and my dog do we need some decorum on modern roads.

Alan Ochoa Today 11:55 am JST

Thank god this is being enforced, I was riding the bus once and the driver gestured at another bus driver, causing both buses to explode simultaneously into smithereens.

But you survived to tell your tale.

Who the hell makes these rules up ?

This is surely one of the most embarrassing ideas the government has ever decided to try and impose.

This will cause unstoppable laughter around the rest of the world.

Of the 47%, how many were involved in accidents as a result of their actions? Those statistics are meaningless without a direct correlation to actual incidents.

This reporting is a waste of everyone's time.

Good to see Japanese bus drivers have sufficient self awareness to ignore such silly rules.

Silly rules and I guess it’s a slow news day for Japan today. Stupid rule stupid article.

A nod or quick wave of your hand in acknowledgement of your fellow driver is standard practice worldwide. I think the company needs to realize that their employees are people not robots and do away with this asinine rule. In the meantime, good on the drivers for recognizing the absurdity that is the rule and ignoring it in favor of treating their fellow drivers with acknowledgment and respect, something that goes above many J-companies' heads.

Ridiculously stupid rule!

"Rules were made to be broken."

And if you're serious about safety, JNBA, how about stop treating your drivers like absolute garbage and allowing them to wear sunglasses in the blinding sun and, perhaps, losing the stifling neckties and gloves in summer.

Or better yet, have those on the top of the JNBA follow their own rules in bus driving in the summer and see how they come out.

Too much importance to something that should not be dangerous if all other rules are obeyed.

But they point at ten different things before signaling and changing lanes and say Yosh after each pointing...

Stupid and dehumanising rule. If you don’t see London bus drivers waving at each other something is definitely wrong in the world.

The real danger on the road are the number of drivers glued to their phones

Setting off from a set of lights it is common for some dullard to not move for 10-15 seconds or longer-where are the cops?

What about all the Police that salute one another while driving around?