In D.C. Area, King of the Route

Longtime Metrobus Driver to Be Honored for Safety Record

Robert Miles, 58, is one of four Metrobus drivers to have gone more than 2 million miles without an accident. He has won Metro's Roadeo driving-skills contest 17 times. (By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)

The ride on Robert Miles's shiny new Metrobus is smooth and even. On the route from the Greenbelt Metrorail station to Laurel, Miles steers his 40-foot-long "New Flyer" with a light but firm touch at the wheel. At each stop, it glides to a halt a few inches from the curb. No jerky starts, no sharp lurches.

Miles, 58, is the best bus driver in the Washington region, having logged nearly 2.8 million miles in horrible traffic, road and weather conditions without a single accident in 29 years. He is one of only four bus operators among the transit agency's 2,315 to drive more than 2 million accident-free miles.

Miles has an additional distinction: He has won the authority's annual bus operators' Roadeo 17 times, qualifying him to compete in the International Bus Roadeo contests, which require bus drivers to safely steer their vehicles through a series of maneuvers against the clock.

Today, Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) is to honor Miles's achievements at Metro's Landover maintenance garage. The governor is also honoring Metro Transit Police officer Raymond Bond, who caught a suspect in a shooting in February 2005.

Dubbed "the MVP of the bus system" by Metro board Vice Chairman Charles Deegan, Miles hones his Roadeo skills while driving his daily routes -- from Greenbelt to Laurel in the morning and from New Carrollton to Bowie, where he lives, in the afternoon. He figures he logs more than 70 miles a day and might as well do as much training as possible. "It's not exact, but it helps," he said.

He takes his corners precisely and tries to pull his bus to a stop so a front tire is no more than six inches from the curb and a rear wheel is no more than 15 inches away. In the competitions, the judges stand at a curb with yardsticks. The best he has done in the international competition was second place some years ago.

He demonstrated the stop in Landover's bus garage parking lot at the end of yesterday's morning shift. "You don't want to be too close in the back," he said. Otherwise, there is a danger of the overhang hitting someone or something when the bus pulls out.

"See that?" he said, standing by the bus, sticking his right foot from the curb to the front tire near it. "That's about eight inches. The judges deduct one point per inch off from six inches."

This year's international competition is in Anaheim, Calif., at the end of next month. Top drivers from the United States and Canada will compete on an obstacle course with 90-degree turns, emergency stops and narrow, winding paths with only inches of clearance on either side. Drivers have to complete 11 maneuvers in seven minutes.

Miles said his right turns need a little work before he will be ready. The same is true for his emergency stops, he said. When he can get some time alone in the Landover garage lot, he will practice by driving 20 mph to a stop sign, then braking. In the contest, drivers must stop within six inches of a pylon, which they can no longer see as they speed toward it.

Miles said other drivers tease him sometimes that they are going to take his crown. "You get a little nervous," he acknowledges. Maybe one day that will happen, he said. Still, he is happy to coach other drivers, and "a few guys have come in second place," he said.

A native of Yanceyville, N.C., Miles used to be a heavy-equipment operator, running primarily bulldozers. "It was dust and dirt year in and year out," he said. "It's much warmer and cleaner in a bus."

He keeps his 17 trophies on basement shelves. In the early days, he used to receive a $500 award as well. Cost cutting stopped that practice in 1994, but an agency spokesman said yesterday that Metro is considering reviving the cash award.

At Deegan's urging, the agency gave $500 prizes in December to bus drivers with more than 1 million miles without accidents.

The award that Miles will receive today is not going in the basement. He is sending it to his 92-year-old mother, who lives in Yanceyville. Then he is planning to take the afternoon off.