The bus drivers in Santiago are a case for itself. I am a person who always grew up in western world, so my view could be little bit tilted, but judge yourself.
If a person wants a bus to stop then one has to “stop” it like when you are getting a taxi in New York.
In Santiago it is not normal for bus drivers to stop because there is a bus station on one’s route. If nobody presses the stop sign in the bus and nobody is showing off hand with a thumb up on the bus station, the driver will not stop.
If bus driver does not want to stop at a station, they do not stop.
Have you heard saying; “it is your world, we are just living it”. Well, that is a kind of a life of a bus driver in Santiago. It happens to me many times. If a bus driver just do want to stop, then he (I should say one or s/he, but most of the drivers are men) does not stop. He just passes the station.
A bus driver can kick you out off the bus anytime for any reason.
This happens to me once, but I saw it multiple times. If bus driver thinks the bus is full, he can just show you a hand gesture “go out” or “leave” and you have to go. Because he will not drive away until you leave the bus. Or if you are talking to him about the way he drives, which is another story and my next point. You cannot say anything. I was not saying because my Spanish is not good enough to get in an argument, but multiple times I saw a verbal argument between a passenger and a driver. It ends up by driver kicking the passenger out.
The way a bus driver drives.
Really, really, fast, this is the answer. For the first time, I was standing in the public transportation bus and a bus was waiting to for a green light. We were the first in the line, and bus driver transmitted natural, but the gas pedal was all the way down. You could just hear to engine going full speed. The same thing race drivers do on the start of the race. Lastly the drivers often just speed up even they see there is not space.
Not always, but more than once, bus driver left the door wide open during the ride.
I cannot even imagine what would happen if in Western world civilization if a person would get injured because the driver left the door open. Well, look at my video that it really happens here.