_{This is Day 10 of the 30-day Traffic Koans contest. Details on how to enter can be found here: https://steemit.com/traffic-koans/@jedau/traffic-koans-halfway-update-1505319420-6600256}

A scrawny, fidgety man trotted along the hallways, lugging around stacks of paper on his arms. He has a deadline, and didn't have time to spare.

In front of him walked a rather hefty fellow, who could pass off as a sumo wrestler had he been born farther east.

The fidgety man tried his best to overtake the larger man, but he was unable to do so, on account of the larger one being quite nimble for his size. Time was ticking quickly, so he knew he had to make a move if he wanted to meet the deadline. Fortunately for him, the larger fellow slowed down to a halt.

Unfortunately, the larger fellow stopped to talk to an equally large fellow, blocking the path of the narrow hallway.

The fidgety man tried to plead for them to give way, but they refused to yield. He instead threw the papers he was carrying into the air.

Now, I'm pretty sure that not all of the countries could relate to this, so I'm going to say this outright as well. The topic I am trying to discuss here are baby buses who refuse to give way.

_{The mother bus (left) with its baby bus (right, obviously)
Image Source}

Aside from jeepneys, there are these delightful dreadful contraptions called baby buses. They're way bigger than jeepneys, but way smaller than buses. In a way, they're like the Turkish Dolmus that @meesterboom and his good lady had an unfortunate run in with. It's like they had an identity crisis, but then decided to just be the douchebags of the Philippine roads. As you can see, I'm not a fan.

I've discussed before how I can't generalize all the jeepney drivers, because some are really just working hard to earn a good living for their family. But baby bus drivers? Nope. Definitive douchebags.

The roads they operate on aren't as wide as jeepneys. Usually, there are only two lanes, so if a car would overtake them, it would have to do so on the other lane, which is fine if executed properly. But, and I don't know how, they have this collective strategy to not let vehicles pass them. Perhaps it's an effort to keep their fellow baby buses to not pass them and steal potential passengers. Allow me to illustrate.

Like jeepneys, they can't be bothered to have their taillights fixed, which is extremely convenient whenever you're driving at night.

Also like jeepneys, they consider every place a potential passenger stands in as a stop. They don't care if the person is hailing them or not, heck they would stop even if a person doesn't look like they would board. Such consideration.

The only way to combat them is to get enough space so that when they abruptly stop, you would be able to overtake them.

Too bad for you if there's an incoming baby bus from the other lane, because they will stop just ahead of the baby bus in front of you regardless if there are passengers boarding or alighting.

Every. Single. Time. So fun!

The only way out of this situation is for you to overtake even before they could get into position, brake directly at the point they intersect, honk wildly and don't release it until everyone gets irritated. Or, you could just slipstream and slingshot right before they slow down so that you can overtake before they converge.

I know it's a long shot, but has this happened for you before? Of course it's not the same concerted effort to block both lanes, but has this accidentally happened to you? Perhaps you could share stories of being cockblocked. I feel that's a good analogy for this.

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