John Metcalfe
John Metcalfe was CityLab’s Bay Area bureau chief, covering climate change and the science of cities.
If a down-on-his-luck Ghost Rider was forced to take a job as bus driver you might end up with this: a flaming coach, smoking like a volcano, turning an everyday street into a hellish pandemonium.
The surreal footage, which emerged recently on Liveleak, was allegedly taken in Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine. Though the country is suffering a violent upheaval, even despite a February ceasefire, it’s unclear if the bus was a victim of assault or mechanical failure. It’s also murky whether anyone was still on board when the video was taken; from the way it slowly and aimlessly rolled down the street, we at least know it’s unlikely a (conscious) person was behind the wheel.
The person who posted the video calls it the “trolleybus from hell.” Myself, I prefer to travel first class to the land of eternal damnation in Russia’s “train to hell”: