Okay, I want to start off by saying that while I’m not a Transit driver, I am a frequent user of Transit and know many who do work for Transit and other HRM departments. I’m completely sick and tired of the way that the city, and Metro Transit in particular, are being portrayed in the media and the big stink that is being made about the incidents that have happened over the past little while.
First off, the papers likes to print all the stories about people complaining about their experiences, and it makes it look like all HRM employees are a bunch of incompetents. They forget that for every one person that had a bad experience, there are likely 10-20 who have had a good experience on a bus, or at worse a neutral one. The bus picks people up, then drops them off at their destination. Are there times when bus drivers do things wrong? Sure! But have any of you ever gone to McDonalds and encountered a PO’ed person behind the counter? What about a rude cab driver? Every profession under the sun has a few times when they f up, and if you just focus on those times, then it’s easy to believe that every time is going to be like that. It’s easy to say, “All Transit drivers are racist, nutbar people who shouldn’t be doing their job!” based on the constant bad press they’re getting. But I’ve been riding buses in this city for years, and there has been, perhaps, 2 times in the last 5 years that I’ve had a bad experience. I’ve missed buses because they were early, I’ve been standing at the stop and the bus drove right by me, and the bus has broken down and I’ve been late. It happens and I expect it on occasion. Suck it up, princesses!
Secondly, this period of bad press has resulted in a large number of people I’ve seen on the bus trying to cash in on it. Particularly kids, they will come on the bus and act like complete jackasses, and when the driver complains, they come back with, “Those papers are right about you! You’re all a bunch of racist assholes!”
Thirdly, while it’s not excuse at all, please consider that driving a city bus is one of the most stressful jobs in the city. They put up with so much shit from passengers, have to listen to kids swear, babies scream and cry, and then be yelled at because they were 5 minutes late or they don’t let people on after they’ve left the stop. They get no scheduled breaks, having to take them between stops. They sometimes don’t hardly get 5 minutes to run to the bathroom. And, yeah, they get paid $20 an hour, but at what cost?
Fourthly, the seal incident was nuts and I agree that the driver should be reprimanded, and I agree there have been a few incidences of un PC behavior, bad driving and outright racism. But those are the minority. We’re lucky this city even HAS a transit system, so consider that the next time you feel the need to bitch about it!
—Ticked off about Transit haters
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2009.
OP: It’s easy to say, “All Transit drivers are racist, nutbar people who shouldn’t be doing their job!”
er, you got a cite for that? I must have missed the article that contained that one.
It only takes a few bad apples to spoil the whole bunch, OP. And why would you expect us tax payers to feel “lucky” we have a transit system? Do you feel “lucky” you have a place to live when you pay your rent? No. You EXPECT it because that’s what you pay for. Imagine being locked out of your house for an hour a few times per week because somebody didn’t bother to do their job. Public transit is no different in the way of fulfilling service commitments.
Question, how more much money per hour should we pay the bus driver to drive their route on time AND stop at all the stops AND manage their passengers? Isn’t that the whole of what they’re hired to do? If you realize your tax dollars just paid the fool who blew past your waving arms at the bus stop… well, just think about it that way. We have a right to expect transit to perform consistently because that’s what we pay for.
Bottom line, the number of bad apples in this bunch has captured the media’s attention and rightly so. The clubbing incident is just one more thing that rightly taints the organization as a whole. It’s inspired you to defend MT, OP. Hopefully it also will inspire MT to improve their work force.
Chris Crocker, is that you?
i thought this is were your are suppose to vent/bitch about things, even bus drivers. if you love them then go to the love section and send them some. people have the right to complain if they want.
People will complain about Transit, regardless of how good the system becomes. I guess this takes the attention away from others like NS Power. Last month was NS Power bashing month, this month is obviously Transit. I wonder what it will be next month. And you are 100% right about people trying to milk the recent news in their favor. There was an incident the other day on the 68 when some punk got on the bus and then threw his bus pass out the window to his friend to catch the next bus. The driver saw this happen confronted the punk and asked to see his pass, obviously he didn’t have it anymore. The driver advised him of the policy and let the kid on the bus as a one time courtesy preventing an escalation. Then some idiot on the bus made some comment about being happy that she isn’t a stuffed animal and that the only reason the kid was told that bus pass sharing isn’t permitted was because he was black. The driver just sat there and took it. And the real kicker, the stupid punk kid got off about 3-4 stops down the road anyway, probably just got on to try and stir up some shit and then failed so he left. I hope the driver keeps their faces in mind and drives by them next time !!!!
OP- you forgot to mention that these are the SAME bus drivers who held the city hostage less than two years ago when they decided to go on strike (because 20 bucks an hour was not NEAR enough money to drive a bus given the very high education standards required). As I recall, their union decided to wait until the students came back for University before they walked out. Nice. I firmly believe that you reap what you sow in this world. These idiots have alienated the people of Halifax with their crazy wage demands and inconvenienced transit riders. And now they expect people to feel sorry for them?. Ya..ok.
Hey Bobby33, you would be surprised how many of the drivers have Bachelor’s Degrees and Masters Degrees. Crazy wage demands ? You must be kidding, the starting wage is somewhere in the range of 44,000/year which is decent but you certainly won’t be living in luxury, which seems to be what most people around here think. Nobody asked anyone to feel sorry for the drivers, just to respect them as you would anyone else. Contrary to popular belief, drivers aren’t out to get anyone or screw up anyone’s day, sometimes it just happens, it is after all a public Transit service. Go to other cities with transit systems and you’ll always get the whiners, but truth be told, the vast majority of them do their job correctly and love their job. And anyone who thinks they can do a better job, apply when they hire, or STFU.
People working the check out at grocery stores, or retail in general, also have to put up with crying babies, rude customers and unscheduled breaks. If they over react the way a very small percentage of MT drivers have been reacting they get fired. They are not well compensated for what they have to do nor do they have a strong union to stand behind them.
I do agree that it is a small percentage of people causing trouble for the majority of good employees. However, MT just like any other organization should always strive to be better. If these people causing the ruckus can’t be shown the way then they should be shown the door.
I’m curious if the OP is one of the ‘bus groupies’ that sit at the front of the bus and endlessly blabber at the driver. Has a driver ever flipped their twigs in that situation? It’s warranted!
hrmboy, I was on the 68 during that occurrence. Were you the guy sitting at the back when they got on, or the bus driver?
If you want to get a good feel for what this job is like, hop in your car, drive for 8 hours in the urban area, take the odd bathroom break when you can get it, merge into and out of traffic 100+ times, lather, rinse, repeat 4 more times a week. Tell me how you feel after that. The following week, rent an RV and do the same. At that point, you’re getting a good feel for life as a bus driver. if you’re still not freaked out, join us.
Yes, we have a few bad apples. Yes, like in any occupation, people mess up from time to time. No, we don’t deliberately run late, that just happens at times due to any number of circumstances like traffic, accidents, breakdowns, or getting nailed with a blue shell.
Life goes on, and in case anyone hasn’t noticed, so have the buses.
who else didn’t read this cause it’s WAY too long :S
This is the most tiresome post I’ve read in a long time. I wish to fuck more people would use point form instead of going on and on and fucking on…
Plastic Diver Guy, how bout you go work for minimum wage as a server in a restaurant on your feet 8 -10 hours / day, 5-6 days a week then see how you feel about tipping or eating or setting the table or preparing food or serving your family dinner or even buying shoes, but we get your point. My point it’s the driver’s job to weather the stress of 8 hours in a bus as it would be mine to deal with aching feet on a daily basis if I were a waitress.
Excuse me – life is all about choices. If you choose to be a bus driver or waitress, either suck it up or apply to Home Ed for their Gerbil Stuffing program.
I’ve come to appreciate the bus drivers in hfx a lot more after experiencing the asshole-ary of bus drivers in other cities. Sure there are some raging hemroidic assholes driving busses in HRM but there are far less of them than there is in other cities. In ottawa it was usually hard to find a NICE bus driver. Most were surly bastards.
Just putting that out there.
agreed with ttfn…we all have gripes about our jobs, however we did choose them. regardless of the level of pay or the amount of stress, we have choices.
no one is perfect, and to expect this..even of our bus drivers is unreasonable.
Probably Chris Crocker’s cousin.
I heard it was Chris Crocker’s Puckered Hemorrhoids.
If the pay isn’t there, or if it wasn’t worth it, those waitresses could do something else (tips are tax free after all, which make it really worth it). Simply put, driving a bus is a career unlike what you cited, which is a job. Same goes for being a cashier… Nobody’s ever made a career of being a cashier unless you move up to management. Yeah, it’s been a bad couple of weeks, but who the fuck cares? These guys get paid to do a dangerous, unappreciated job half of us would never do.
John: that’s why you don’t take a job based on pay. I thought I’d go into the federal public service based solely on the fact it paid VERY well for my job type. Then I spent a year doing it.
I’d rather make min wage wiping asses on the side of the street with my tongue than do that ever again.
be careful, you may get some takers for that service Kitty. tehehe
There are enough of them to warrant the attention they’re getting. It’s no secret that there are some mega jerks working there. I will never forget the time a #42 bus didn’t give a pedestrian enough time through a crosswalk (yes, on a ‘walk’ signal!) and was literally a few inches away from running him over. It was terrifying, the guy could have been killed if he didn’t RUN out of the way. I can readily believe that there are bus drivers out there who are complete assholes.
I think the part where he said “please consider that driving a city bus is one of the most stressful jobs in the city” is pretty funny, I agree that the shifts are pretty shitty at times and the bathroom break thing would suck, But c’mon how stressful can it be to drive around the city all day. I did it for years in a big delivery truck and it certainly wasn’t stressful. dealing with people can suck for sure, but how many of us work without dealing with pissy people at one time or another. Driving a bus , stressful haha. Give me a break.