I wonder why female and male bus drivers are so different – I am not saying all – but many male bus drivers seem to hate their jobs and all the people in the world especially those that get on their bus – the women drivers in general do not seem to be so angst driven…what’s up with that…sure dealing with the public is not easy however – its easier dealing with it – when you have a unionized wage and benefits instead of a mcwaged one…
—Buser bitcher
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2009.
Interesting post OP. We have 400+ drivers so I think we have the wide spectrum of human emotion covered. My theory on this is as follows, but I might be way off with this one.
It has only been in the past few years that females have applied for transit in any appreciable numbers. The senior female drivers we have stuck around because they like the job, they’d have to in such a male-dominated field. Even today though, only about 1 in 4 new drivers are female, but that’s miles ahead of what it was. Many of the males you see have been at transit a long time and have allowed themselves to grow jaded. That said, there are a good number who do the job for the love of it and you can easily tell (ride on the 54 in the morning and you’ll see a perfect example). Nowadays, transit looks at customer service experience when hiring, something they never used to do. A few fall through their cracks, both genders. I think this might explain OP’s observations.
I’ve been at transit just under 2 years now and my feelings have changed a bit from when I just started. In the end, I still ove what I do, and being able to see the city is one of the great perks for me. One thing that surprised me though was that today, I still say hello to passengers coming onto the bus, something that oddly bugged me when I rode the bus years ago (I’m an introvert at heart). I figured my greeting would go away by now, but I figured from experience it actually puts a spring in a passenger’s step, albeit a tiny one, and can stop trouble from starting. That has been my experience, but there are 400+ more of them and none of them match mine 100%.
PDG, I LOVE John on the 54!!! I’ve been taking that bus for 3 years, and he always puts me in a better mood when he’s my driver =)
I’ve had some awesome female and male drivers and some assholes. I think there’s a little bit of it all. My favorite is the lady driver, I don’t know what number, she’s super nice and has an accent, English? She’s really nice!! Made my day!
I know the Brit too…she is fab! Also friendly, makes you feel comfortable…she is awesome!
I think my cousin is a great driver and supervisor too. My husband is always in a great mood when he drives his bus also.
it’s not they love or hate their job, it’s some of the bullshit they have to put up with. would you drive one,i wouldn’t,no way.and school bus drivers have a fucken hard time, with some smart ass little snot nosed bitch. how many can think of road rage or better yet, bus rage.
One of my favoritest drivers of all time actually lives in my building. He’s one cool motherfucker, I gotta say. Used to drive the 34 in the morning few years back.
I miss the older gentleman who used to drive the 18 during the day. He must’ve retired because I haven’t seen him in a long while, but he would say hi and ask you how your day was going, and even if you got off at the back door he’d tell you to have a good day.
There *are* some pricks who work for MT, I will say that, but I think the ones like the above mentioned example make up for that. I mean it could be worse: drivers in Ottawa were meanies when I lived there.
Also, I’ve been on PDG’s bus and he’s a pretty nice dude, I gotta say. Hopefully he won’t become jaded and grouchy 🙂
I love when I hear about bus driver that have “grown Jaded” over the years.
What are they, fucking Child Homicide Detectives? How fucking jaded can you grow from driving a bus?
what, is someone ripping up your transfers when you aren’t looking?
LL, driving a bus is not by any stretch a child homicide detective, but one doesn’t have to be witness tocruel murders to become jaded. If I were to become jaded, I wouldn’t wake up one day and decide to be jaded, it’d be a slow burn. Every time a passenger tries to use week old transfers, drink liquor on the bus, loud swearing around kids, and every traffic incident would add fuel to the fire. I’ve seen this process as a boss in my last job at a certain Highfield call centre in high speed. The right type of person will let most of the crap they take roll off them, but that gets hard when crap keeps coming. Lucky for me, I have yet to take any of the crap from passengers that I used to get from Americans on sup calls at my last job. That was messed up shit.
Jaded and grouchy? I think I’ll be able to resist the temptation 🙂
I am one of those female bus drivers who greet passengers with a cheery smile and a welcoming good morning, afternoon and thanks have a great day.
Yes I am jaded. I choose to keep it to myself and not reflect my feelings towards my passengers. I grew up looking for the good in people but over the years have began to look for the inherent bad in people. I have been a driver for over four years and in those four years have been punched, hit, slapped, spat on threatened, have had explicit sexual comments directed towards me and sexual advances all for doing my job. Is this all in a days work?
Loving life…. The above is a small amount of crap that I have to deal with seven days a week. Is there any wonder where the term “jaded” comes into play.
Personally I don’t notice any obvious difference in the demeanor of female vs male drivers.
I feel bad for what transit drivers have to go through, it seems they are the first person on which unstable or just plain rude people decide to take out their frustration with MT.
I guess you haven’t met the woman driver who sits praying over her Bible for God to protect her from these awful people… She’s a piece of work, that one. Her prayers usually keep us off schedule to boot.
It’s not males vs females. It’s some people hate their MT job and some don’t.