Your comment just continues the appropriate gravatar trend. I fear mine will break it, though, unless I end my entry with “Curses!” or “Fools!” or something. Curses!
Ah, good times. I recall my first experience with vodka laced Gatorade on a high school field trip to Utah with the skiing club. On the back bench in the dark, cruising through Nevada.
That’s funny, because whenever someone tells me they’re scared to fly, I always tell them being on a plane feels just like being on a bus, only ya know…in the air.
When someone tells me they’re scared to fly, I tell them that a plane just went down over the Atlantic last week, so we’re probably not due for another crash for at least a couple months.
Or if there hasn’t been a crash in a while, I nod along and say, “Yeah, best to wait until God gets another one out of his system.”
Charter buses (like Greyhound buses), as this one appears to be, sometimes do, having ridden on a few myself. You don’t see them on shuttle buses or normal county or city buses, though.
That’s actually a city bus ( http://www.bloomingtontransit.com/ ). I don’t know of a BT bus having seatbelts, but they have a fair number of new vehicles and also it’s important to the premise of the joke.
Wheelchair accessible buses have seatbelts… for the wheelchair. These seats are the bench seats directly behind the driver.
The bus that is drawn, is a transit bus, however these buses are sometimes hired for charter purposes if it’s run by a private company. Where I used to live, the school buses would normally be chartered (as the city had no public transit) and driven by their regular driver.
As a current Bloomington resident who wrecked his car last year and has since ridden nearly every bus in town, the only seatbelts I’ve ever seen are for the driver or wheelchairs–neither really accessible to the average passenger.
I suppose he might have drawn the one bus I haven’t been on… the angle of the lightbar isn’t familiar to me either.
Seatbelts dont protect you, they protext the person in front of you from having you smash into them.
In car collisions its quite possible for the person in the back to servive, but kill the guy in front.
So its not really about “trust”.
I dunno how it is in bus’s though.
Actually, seat belts do protect you. Imagine being in a car and being ejected through the windshield to hit the ground at nearly the speed the car was traveling. Seat belts also prevent you from being bounced around inside the car, which can be also be very painful. Not the perfect solution, but better than not using them.
…yeah, if you’re not wearing a seatbelt, I’m pretty sure that guy in the back *can’t* kill you, because you are dozens of feet ahead of the car on the pavement.
It’s been in discussion as a federal regulation lately, but you know what’s really funny? Our federal highway regulations for vehicle safety standards (the crash test rating system) is entirely based on testing for both “with seatbelt” and “without seatbelt” standards.
So, the reason we can’t get high performance supercars without ugly add-on bumpers or additional weight is because we expect people to still not wear seatbelts.
Since 1985, it’s been the law, in Texas, that all drivers and passengers in any vehicle made after 1976 must wear their seatbelt. Yet, for the past 26 years, the law has had to be constantly tweaked because people still refuse to wear them. Because it too much trouble, or it’s uncomfortable, or because (and I’ve actually heard this excuse) it’ll mess up the person’s clothes.
Seriously, that’s like having to make a law telling people not to drink bleach — and then having to constantly tweak the penalties because people refuse to stop doing it.
Plus, I dont know about you, but ive never heard of a college within walking distance of a real lake. (although ive never actually looked it up). <l:{D
The University of Texas is 19 blocks (minimum, from the south end) from Lake Lady Bird Johnson (formerly Town Lake). So it can easily be walked by someone in good condition.
IU is probably a 20 minute drive to lake Monroe (it’s not that far as the crow flies, but there isn’t a real easy way to get there. Unfortunately, Bloomington Transit only goes as far south as our south side Kroger but also it’s important to the premise of the joke.
Several colleges in WA state are within a mile or two of nice waters. They are “Bays” and not exactly a beach-goers paradise, but we don’t require beaches up this way, anyhow.
Your gravatar couldn’t have been more perfect for that. For bloodshed is the one thing that makes Mike smile like that. Well…bloodshed and alcohol >.>.
Depends if your talking about a 747 or a fighter jet.
Obviously, a 747 (or whatever) is a very big and lame looking fighter jet…(which in turn is a lame looking stealth bomber)
The kid behind you who keeps kicking the back of your seat while his mother completely ignores him, because reading about what Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are doing this week is wa-a-a-ay more interesting than making sure the little munchkin is behaving himself?
I believe that the official gist of the prior strip was that Dina got swept up in the crowd and carried along. Were this some sort of silly comedy comic, this would naturally lead to them being surprised to find that Dina was with them when they disembarked on the beach. (She would also have materialized a bathing suit.) However given the occasionally-makes-nods-to-sanity nature of this strip, I’d be a little surprised to see that happen, since it’s a little harder to sweep a person along unwillingly onto a bus that makes you pay to embark. So maybe the last strip was a one-off gag, teaching Dina the perils of exiting the room; we’ll find out either way soon enough I imagine.
Wow, life would have been a lot easier for me had Bloomington Transit been so extensive as to be able to go to Lake Monroe. When people complain about the public transit system in the Twin Cities where I live now, I simply describe Bloomington’s–the twice-an-hour-equals-rush-hour, the ridiculous transfer policy, the minimal service on Saturday and none on Sunday, the bus subculture of Bloomington, on and on.
She originated in Joyce and Walky!, the subscription-only sequel to It’s Walky!. But she had such limited panel time and was introduced to such a small audience, I kind of feel like she’s new in principle.
Seat belts on school buses. As a school bus driver myself I can give some solid information on the topic. As a federal standard, all new school buses (SBs) are constructed with compartmentalization in regards to seating. That’s why SB seats are so close together and high-backed–it restricts the forward-back motion of occupants in a front or rear impact (which is why we are always yellin’ at the kids to sit properly). In regards to full-sized buses, seatbelts are installed on a case-by-case basis, depending on the needs of the carrier, or state and local statutes. While universal installation of belts would increase the safety factor, David fairly accurately depicts what the belt would likely be used for. On a more serious note, in an emergency evacuation (fire or threat of fire, say) imagine a lone driver (not all bus routes have a monitor…) trying to unbuckle 40-70 panicked children– with backpacks an whatnot–and getting them ALL off the bus in about 2 minutes. Even with a seatbelt cutter, it is going to be tight. BTW, that 2 minutes? In the case of a fire, that’s about as much time you’re going to have before the entire bus is involved.
Does this mean my bus driver is doing something wrong by not protesting when I lay down and sleep on the seats?
In all seriousness, this is some good information. Thanks. 🙂
Oh hey, turns out I was half right (destination, but not mode of transport).
For my next trick, I will predict which actual part of monroe lake they’re going to…
Hmm, story and drama could be progressed by going to Fairfax or North Fork as they’re not as beachy as you’d think (one has a marina, the other looks like algae-infested ponds) but in order to retcon the old beach wallpaper into existence we need a decent sandy bay. Paynetown it is. Also it’s the most accessible for a bus service.
Have they actually picked up any swimming costumes, towels, etc, though? Everyone appears to be travelling rather light so far.
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Walky, you ain’t helping your case for PANTS.
In my experience, waving around a seatbelt like nunchucks usually keeps pants on rather than removes them.
Not necessarily. If someone pisses their pants in fear of the seatbelt nunchaku, they’ll probably take them off sooner rather than later.
if only they had some comfy pants to change into…
Obviously it’s Sal.
Not according to the tags, so sayeth the Willis.
Sir, do not bring FACTS into this.
Ooooh, I can haz use that?
I <3 walky
I take it that, on a separate bus, some girl is swinging hers around as though it were the Lasso of Truth.
True story. We had seatbelts once. Blood was shed.
No no no! You Gotta start your stories off dramatic! Like this:
“No $#!+, THERE I WAS…”
Those last two entries would have made for perfect conversation between the avatars involved.
Your comment just continues the appropriate gravatar trend. I fear mine will break it, though, unless I end my entry with “Curses!” or “Fools!” or something. Curses!
But isnt the content the most important part in the end?… ~
Can we… can we go just one day with mentioning avatars? Please?
Also, without seatbelts, you can have more kids on the bus than can normally fit.
And they go flying so much higher when you hit the speedbumps.
thus building up a nice, squishy cushion in the front of the buss in case of an actual collision. see? safer!
The trick is having so many kids in there that they’re crammed in tight enough to function as a mutual seatbelt for each other.
You can get that third kid on the seat, the one who’s got one butt cheek on the seat and the other hanging out in the aisle.
Best Dorothy and Joyce faces to date in my opinion
Nothing like sitting on the cool “Not a Seat” seat in the back.
Ah, good times. I recall my first experience with vodka laced Gatorade on a high school field trip to Utah with the skiing club. On the back bench in the dark, cruising through Nevada.
That’s funny, because whenever someone tells me they’re scared to fly, I always tell them being on a plane feels just like being on a bus, only ya know…in the air.
When someone tells me they’re scared to fly, I tell them that a plane just went down over the Atlantic last week, so we’re probably not due for another crash for at least a couple months.
Or if there hasn’t been a crash in a while, I nod along and say, “Yeah, best to wait until God gets another one out of his system.”
Already Walky is making an ass of himself….& they haven’t even left yet! Go Walky!
Huh. I’ve never been on a bus with seatbelts! Our campus buses/shuttle buses home (about a ~120 mile ride) certainly don’t have them.
I guess I wouldn’t be trusted not to do that anyways.
Charter buses (like Greyhound buses), as this one appears to be, sometimes do, having ridden on a few myself. You don’t see them on shuttle buses or normal county or city buses, though.
That’s actually a city bus ( http://www.bloomingtontransit.com/ ). I don’t know of a BT bus having seatbelts, but they have a fair number of new vehicles and also it’s important to the premise of the joke.
Wheelchair accessible buses have seatbelts… for the wheelchair. These seats are the bench seats directly behind the driver.
The bus that is drawn, is a transit bus, however these buses are sometimes hired for charter purposes if it’s run by a private company. Where I used to live, the school buses would normally be chartered (as the city had no public transit) and driven by their regular driver.
As a current Bloomington resident who wrecked his car last year and has since ridden nearly every bus in town, the only seatbelts I’ve ever seen are for the driver or wheelchairs–neither really accessible to the average passenger.
I suppose he might have drawn the one bus I haven’t been on… the angle of the lightbar isn’t familiar to me either.
OTOH I (a european) haven’t seen a bus without seatbelts since … well, sometime in the previous millennium.
Seatbelts dont protect you, they protext the person in front of you from having you smash into them.
In car collisions its quite possible for the person in the back to servive, but kill the guy in front.
So its not really about “trust”.
I dunno how it is in bus’s though.
Actually, seat belts do protect you. Imagine being in a car and being ejected through the windshield to hit the ground at nearly the speed the car was traveling. Seat belts also prevent you from being bounced around inside the car, which can be also be very painful. Not the perfect solution, but better than not using them.
…yeah, if you’re not wearing a seatbelt, I’m pretty sure that guy in the back *can’t* kill you, because you are dozens of feet ahead of the car on the pavement.
I am pretty sure that Walky, like Nunchaku, will be banned in the UK if he keeps up his behavior.
Walkychaku!
I read that as Walkykachu.
Gesundheit
Last panel is timed perfectly. I burst out laughing when I saw it, loud enough that I think the people down the hall heard me.
“A fellow ‘chukker, I see!”
NINJA RICK!?!?
That’s precisely my first thought after reading this, until I saw the sleeve and thought “Oh… Walky!”
They’re on a bus, now?
Damn, that means we won’t see them for months.
i see wot you did thar
The publicity is trying to sell me a “modest bathing suit” Is this foreshadowing or something O.o
A good depilatory creme should take care of that shadowing if you want to wear something skimpier.
What happen to Dina?
She was crushed underfoot in the last comic.
Snap, crackle, pop happened, only not in the wholesome, balanced breakfasty way.
Has having seatbelts on buses become law in Indiana cos they’re not required over here in Oz.
It’s been in discussion as a federal regulation lately, but you know what’s really funny? Our federal highway regulations for vehicle safety standards (the crash test rating system) is entirely based on testing for both “with seatbelt” and “without seatbelt” standards.
So, the reason we can’t get high performance supercars without ugly add-on bumpers or additional weight is because we expect people to still not wear seatbelts.
Unless you have access to autobahns, you can never fully utilise the power of a high performance sports vehicle anyway.
No, sadly I only ever drove on the autobahn in a 1973 Mercedes ambulance. Not very zippy, I’m afraid.
Then I assume you were not prone for that ride.
By the time you read this comment, Plasma Mongoose will have a new avatar.
Studies show that school buses don’t need seatbelts, kids are safer with closely spaced, padded seats.
Since 1985, it’s been the law, in Texas, that all drivers and passengers in any vehicle made after 1976 must wear their seatbelt. Yet, for the past 26 years, the law has had to be constantly tweaked because people still refuse to wear them. Because it too much trouble, or it’s uncomfortable, or because (and I’ve actually heard this excuse) it’ll mess up the person’s clothes.
Seriously, that’s like having to make a law telling people not to drink bleach — and then having to constantly tweak the penalties because people refuse to stop doing it.
I knew that was Walky before I saw the tags for the strip…. I have officially read too much of Willis’ comics… or perhaps not enough :\
My brain knew it was Walky, my heart hopped it was Sal.
I hoped it was Ninja Rick, would make sense wouldn’t it?
So does this mean you’re a Seventh-Day Advent Hoppist?
Rimmer you really are a smeghead :p RD reference win!!
Dude, seatbelt chucks yo.
Never thought about it, but yeah, that would have totally happened.
Wait, why are they taking a bus? Can’t they just walk?
What makes you think it’s walking distance?
Because It’s Walky!
…ouch.
From previous posts, it would appear that they could take an hour or more for driving alone.
Plus, I dont know about you, but ive never heard of a college within walking distance of a real lake. (although ive never actually looked it up). <l:{D
The University of Texas is 19 blocks (minimum, from the south end) from Lake Lady Bird Johnson (formerly Town Lake). So it can easily be walked by someone in good condition.
IU is probably a 20 minute drive to lake Monroe (it’s not that far as the crow flies, but there isn’t a real easy way to get there. Unfortunately, Bloomington Transit only goes as far south as our south side Kroger but also it’s important to the premise of the joke.
Yeah, I didn’t think there was a Lake Monroe BT bus. Also, I seem to recall University of Wisconsin in Madison being pretty close to a lake…
The Evergreen State College in WA has its own 900+ acre forest with a trail to the beach…
That’s true, he specified real lake but not real college 😛
(I’m at UW and part of the campus is right on the water)
Several colleges in WA state are within a mile or two of nice waters. They are “Bays” and not exactly a beach-goers paradise, but we don’t require beaches up this way, anyhow.
Davidson College in NC is practically waterfront on Lake Norman.
May the unintentional blood shed ensue.
Your gravatar couldn’t have been more perfect for that. For bloodshed is the one thing that makes Mike smile like that. Well…bloodshed and alcohol >.>.
Billie’s blood might just give him the biggest high. Is that a death ship?
Dave you have a Herman Cain ad on your site right there
Just thought you oughta know
Aw, it’s Bloomington’s own atheist bus billboards! Are you trying to rile the conservatives on purpose now, Willis?
God only knows what will happen if Joyce discovers she’s riding an atheist bus.
I just discovered that Pajama Jeans are a real thing.
I almost bought them, but then I thought it might be rude if I got them before Walky did.
Not at all! Just let him know, so he can live vicariously through you!
A bus is not like a jet, but on the ground. It’s like a very big and lame looking car. Gosh, Joyce, how can you be so flippin’ stupid.
Depends if your talking about a 747 or a fighter jet.
Obviously, a 747 (or whatever) is a very big and lame looking fighter jet…(which in turn is a lame looking stealth bomber)
Eh, they’re all just space shuttles that don’t go high enough.
Hmm. Uncomfortable chairs? Check. Aisle down the middle? Check. Cramped bathrooms in the back? Check. Obnoxious members of humanity? Check.
Yup, buses and airplanes are a lot alike. =P
The kid behind you who keeps kicking the back of your seat while his mother completely ignores him, because reading about what Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are doing this week is wa-a-a-ay more interesting than making sure the little munchkin is behaving himself?
Check.
Joyce. You should know better than to ask such questions.
So I suppose one of them is going to find out that they unwittingly brought Dina with them on the bottom of thier shoe or something?
I believe that the official gist of the prior strip was that Dina got swept up in the crowd and carried along. Were this some sort of silly comedy comic, this would naturally lead to them being surprised to find that Dina was with them when they disembarked on the beach. (She would also have materialized a bathing suit.) However given the occasionally-makes-nods-to-sanity nature of this strip, I’d be a little surprised to see that happen, since it’s a little harder to sweep a person along unwillingly onto a bus that makes you pay to embark. So maybe the last strip was a one-off gag, teaching Dina the perils of exiting the room; we’ll find out either way soon enough I imagine.
I can’t imagine her having a bathing suit, but can see her with pail and shovel in that backpack. Or hunting fossils along the shore.
Wow, life would have been a lot easier for me had Bloomington Transit been so extensive as to be able to go to Lake Monroe. When people complain about the public transit system in the Twin Cities where I live now, I simply describe Bloomington’s–the twice-an-hour-equals-rush-hour, the ridiculous transfer policy, the minimal service on Saturday and none on Sunday, the bus subculture of Bloomington, on and on.
Based on Walky’s speech patterns, I’d honestly have expected “Nunchucks!” rather than “Nunchaku!” I have underestimated him.
Galasso: “FOOL!”
FOOL!
He probably watched The Boondocks
See? Thats also me. My comps been out of commission, and I was borrowing my roommates old laptop
That is one looooooong seatbelt!
Just wondering this now: Is Dorothy a character original to this strip? I don’t remember her from It’s Walky! or Roomies!
She originated in Joyce and Walky!, the subscription-only sequel to It’s Walky!. But she had such limited panel time and was introduced to such a small audience, I kind of feel like she’s new in principle.
Ah, okay. Thanks Willis.
Wait, really? Every school bus I’ve been on has had seatbelts and every other bus didn’t o.o
Depends on your state. Indiana is definitely in the “no seat belts in school buses” column, though.
Seat belts on school buses. As a school bus driver myself I can give some solid information on the topic. As a federal standard, all new school buses (SBs) are constructed with compartmentalization in regards to seating. That’s why SB seats are so close together and high-backed–it restricts the forward-back motion of occupants in a front or rear impact (which is why we are always yellin’ at the kids to sit properly). In regards to full-sized buses, seatbelts are installed on a case-by-case basis, depending on the needs of the carrier, or state and local statutes. While universal installation of belts would increase the safety factor, David fairly accurately depicts what the belt would likely be used for. On a more serious note, in an emergency evacuation (fire or threat of fire, say) imagine a lone driver (not all bus routes have a monitor…) trying to unbuckle 40-70 panicked children– with backpacks an whatnot–and getting them ALL off the bus in about 2 minutes. Even with a seatbelt cutter, it is going to be tight. BTW, that 2 minutes? In the case of a fire, that’s about as much time you’re going to have before the entire bus is involved.
Does this mean my bus driver is doing something wrong by not protesting when I lay down and sleep on the seats?
In all seriousness, this is some good information. Thanks. 🙂
I’M ON A BUS! I’M ON A BUS! I’M ON A BUS!
I feel so ashamed. \
Oh hey, turns out I was half right (destination, but not mode of transport).
For my next trick, I will predict which actual part of monroe lake they’re going to…
Hmm, story and drama could be progressed by going to Fairfax or North Fork as they’re not as beachy as you’d think (one has a marina, the other looks like algae-infested ponds) but in order to retcon the old beach wallpaper into existence we need a decent sandy bay. Paynetown it is. Also it’s the most accessible for a bus service.
Have they actually picked up any swimming costumes, towels, etc, though? Everyone appears to be travelling rather light so far.
Cool. Today I learnt the real reason busses don’t have seatbelts. It’s been bothering me for years.
There’s 102 things in the average bus that walky can use to kill you, including the bus itself.
I remember riding on a few school buses with lap belts. Nobody ever used them.
If /only/ there was a Bloomington Transit bus that went to Lake Monroe… It would have made my freshman year significantly better.