Q. I ride the bus to the Windward side pretty regularly. Sometimes the driver stops at the Nu'uanu YMCA along Pali Highway, leaves the engine running and gets off the bus for about five minutes. Then he returns to the bus and goes on. I guess he's stopping for a bathroom break before heading over the Pali but I'm wondering if it's bus policy to leave a bus loaded with passengers waiting with the bus running?

A. Ken Hong, vice president for O'ahu Transit Services, which runs the city bus system, said the policy calls for drivers to secure buses when leaving them at any location.

He said the driver should turn off the bus because of the danger that someone could drive away.

And Hong said he also reminded drivers to communicate with the passengers about why they're stopping. "Let your passengers know you're taking a restroom break," Hong said. "When you're sitting there waiting, five minutes seems like 25."

Q. Recently, I was riding on those new buses that look like they have a battery on top and have a different push bar or handle for the back door. I noticed on one trip that three passengers appeared to have so much trouble with getting the back door open that they missed their stop. Two of them were elderly and had to walk much farther because of the problem. Can the driver just open those back doors automatically?

A. Bus official Ralph Faufata said the new buses have a sensor that should prompt the back door to open. "It's a beam that is broken," he said. "They don't have to physically touch anything. It should break that beam and cause the rear door to open."

Faufata and Hong ask that you and other passengers who see a problem report it to the driver or the bus company so officials can check if there are malfunctions.

Hong also said the drivers are trained to check a mirror at the back door. "If they see someone standing there, they should open it," he said.

Faufata also suggested that passengers can help to let the drivers know that they want to get out. "If they are at the back door, just call out, 'Back door please,' " he said.

He said the drivers have a switch that can open the back door but are trained not to use that automatically because it can cause other problems. If someone is expecting to have to activate the door sensor by pushing on a bar, then the door opens "and they fall out," he said.

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