Here in Washington, DC, I've noticed that the bus drivers who have regular routes and regular schedules know the people on their routes quite well. We're supposedly an anonymous urban area, but I've had bus drivers grill passengers about elderly passengers who aren't at the stop at their regular time (one driver called the ambulance for an elderly woman who was always there at the same time every day and suddenly wasn't, and his call did result in the EMTs arriving and finding her having collapsed and in need of medical attention in her home where she lived alone) and on one route that I took, when our regular driver got reassigned, we missed him so much we all took him out to dinner for a farewell party. I think a lot of people in public service jobs take a great deal of satisfaction in doing good where they can. Certainly, on my regular route, the bus driver is not allowed to drive from our stop until he has had a good flirt with my two-year old.