For
Blacksburg Transit, a
bus sent to pick up extra
passengers on a particular route, or to take over a busload of passengers to allow the
route bus to get back on schedule.
Driving a Tripper shift can be fun at times. Basically, you (the driver) get to find somewhere convenient (usually on the VT campus) to park your bus until you are needed. If you are lucky enough to get a portable radio to carry, you can wander away from your bus occasionally, perhaps to places with vending machines or computers. When you are needed to follow a route bus, it's usually just for one loop, then you either return to your parking spot or go to a different route -- much better than doing Tom's Creek A six times in 3 hours like a normal route bus. If you're really lucky, the lead driver will decide he doesn't need you to take out a bus if ridership is low enough, and you get to chill out at base most of the evening.
Of course, it can also be pretty damned miserable too, if you get sent out with a bus, but aren't needed to follow any routes, and the heater on your bus doesn't work in 20-degree Blacksburg weather. It can turn a Thursday night into 5.75 hours of freezing cold boredom, broken up by occasional trips to Squires Student Center, wandering through Torgersen Hall, and finally McBryde Hall after midnight (because it's the only warm place close to your parking space open that late).
Another BT node...