There’s something big and yellow driving around the roads of Melbourne right now – a bus with a giant hippopotamus on the side.
Public Transport Victoria launched the “Driving safely with buses” campaign in May 2024.
They call me the Hiphopopotamus, my lyrics are bottomless….oh sorry we meant Hippopotabus!
Much like a herd of hippos on roller skates, a bus can’t stop in time if you cross it’s path.
Don’t cut in front of buses.
Along with an associated web page.
Buses play a vital part of Victoria’s integrated transport system, with over 400 regular bus routes out on the road around the state.
Taking care when driving around buses helps keep you, passengers and other road users safe.
Imagine seeing a herd of hippos on roller skates in your rearview mirror, you’d give them space wouldn’t you?
Well, a bus can weigh up to 13 hippos, that’s 18 tonnes. So, much like a herd of hippos on roller skates, a bus can’t stop in time if you cross its path.
Don’t cut in front of buses. Even near misses can mean disaster for you and those on board.
Share the road. Give buses space. Keep our roads safe.
Riffing off the existing “Beware the Rhino” tram safety campaign created by Yarra Trams back in 2011.
As part of the campaign, a newly delivered hybrid bus operated by Kinetic Melbourne received a bright yellow and black promotional livery.
An interesting feature being that they left the windows on the passenger side of the bus uncovered – something that never happens on trams.
PTV also placed ‘Beware a bus weighs as much as 13 hippos’ bus safety posters at a handful of bus stops considered too quiet to sell ad space for.
And Kinetic programmed a special ‘BEWARE give buses space’ message into their destination screen, for use on out of service runs.
Scrolling through ‘BEWARE’.
And ‘A bus weighs as much as 13 hippos’.
You can see it scrolling through here:
Passenger side of the bus? Pity those non-passengers on the other side!