Come along for a ride on TTC Week, starting with a bus that looks like it is signaling a lane change but keeps going straight ahead.

The response to our plan for a week of TTC columns was overwhelming; more than 150 emails came in with questions and complaints, and many with praise for employees and the system itself.

It’s enough to keep us busy until spring (if it ever arrives), and we thank everyone who went to the time and trouble. All of them will be forwarded to the TTC, so they know what you told us.

Related:Commuter life: We want to hear about your route to work

We’ll focus on five issues or questions that were asked by readers and would occur to others, followed by columns on the uplifting things said about drivers and front-line staff.

It’s worth noting that we don’t get nearly as many TTC complaints as we did four or five years ago. The TTC had a long overdue epiphany about the same time and began investing in things that influence rider perception: renovated stations and washrooms, cleaner subway cars and stations, new streetcars and buses.

With 1.7 million riders daily, someone will always have a beef, but the TTC is cleaner now and more attentive to riders, which is why complaints to us have tailed off.

But it still does things that raises questions and annoys people like Robert Woodcock, who asked why “buses are allowed to make thousands of false lane-change signals daily?

“The TTC seems to have a policy of using their left-turn signals when they pull away from a stop. It is my understanding that turn signals are only for indicating a lane change or to signal that one is going to actually make a turn.

“On more than one occasion I have, as required by law, jumped on the brakes to allow a TTC bus to pull into my lane, only to discover that the driver has no intention of changing lanes.

“I believe they are using their left-turn signal illegally. How is one to know when (they) actually intend to change lanes?”

We’ve wondered the same for years, and also believed that if the left turn signal on a bus or any other vehicle in the curb lane of a multi-lane street was activated, it was signaling an intention to change lanes.

And we’ve been caught off-guard by bus drivers who hit the left turn signal as they pulled away from a curbside TTC stop, only to suddenly swing into the middle lane, right in front of us.

Bob Drouin, the TTC’s manager of route management, offered us a detailed explanation of why the left turn signal is used by buses pulling away from a stop but not changing lanes.

“Operators use turn signals to keep other motorists informed about what the bus is doing,” said Drouin.

“This includes when servicing a stop in a live lane of traffic. The turn signals are used even if the bus remains in the same lane of traffic it was traveling in prior to stopping.

“Before servicing the stop, the right turn signal is activated to indicate to other motorists that the bus is about to do something more than continue moving down the road. It will be moving to the right.

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“While stopped, the right turn signal remains activated to indicate the bus is in operation, not disabled or waiting.

“Before leaving the stop, the left turn signal is activated to indicate to other motorists that the bus is about to go in motion.”

But it still seemed wrong, so we called driving coach Ian Law, who writes for the Saturday Star Wheels section and operates ILR Car Control School, where he teaches advanced driving.

We were sure Law would agree. But the first thing he said was, “TTC drivers are doing the right thing,” which let the air out of our balloon.

He referred to section 142(2) of the Highway Traffic Act, which deals with signaling when moving from a parked position: “The operator of a vehicle parked or stopped on the highway before setting the vehicle in motion shall first see that the movement can be made in safety (and) shall give a signal plainly visible to the operator of the other vehicle of the intention to make the movement.”

Not only are bus drivers correct in using the left turn signal when pulling away from a stop, the rules of the road require them to do it, he said.

It’s better for other drivers to err on the side of caution, “and if you’re not sure, assume they’re coming over and give them some room. And if they don’t, they don’t.

“How long would it slow you down to allow for the possibility that they could come over, maybe a second?”

It may be confusing, but it’s the law, so stand warned.

MONDAY: Complaints about the TTC’s public complaints process.