SOME DRIVER'S JUST WONT WAIT

I was upset about the 20 driver leaving two passengers behind after I had made a special stop so that they could catch that bus. The driver was still at the stop but as soon as I let them off she decided to close the door and pull away. Personally I found it very disturbing, and give credibility to much of the Anti Trimet crowd.

Many bus drivers live in a world separate from the world of current events, especially the very specific world of transit news, in Portland and of course the rest of the country. They don’t have a clue as too what Is going on around them, nor do they apparently care.

Well, the bus drivers in the break room where pretty much laughing about the situation, which I found equally disturbing.

As I came out of the restroom, I engaged the three that were joking about the whole situation. This is a re-creation of that event.

“I would not have done what she did, I stopped specially so those people could make that bus, and then she took off anyway, obviously on purpose. So now we have at least two more people running around that hate Trimet, which is not what we need. (Driver’s are chuckling as I go on) Would it have killed her to let those people on the bus? No, of course not. So what was the point of that behavior? When is the next bus, a half hour? Now they are stuck out here, in the cold! I know that every driver has the right to run their bus as they see fit, and the rules do permit that sort of behavior, but its not of any positive purpose, it just creates more an more animosity to for us as a group.”

We were talking about the rules, “once you pull away that’s it”, said one of the drivers.

My pal DT, said, “Once you get close to the end then you don’t give a fuck!” Everybody laughed, including me. “Like you, you mean.” I responded, more laughter.

The other driver, we will call him driver X, said “how many people can you leave running to you!”

Oh boy, I thought, how does Trimet get these people? Maybe they need a real shakeup in the HR department. They seem to be doing a horrible job, recruiting and hiring real schmucks.

“We are supposed to be trying to help people I said”.

Driver Y shared a story: “A long long time ago, I was driving a 57, it was late, both of my bike racks were taken, and this third guy comes up and says ‘can I throw my bike inside’? Don’t you see there are two bikes on the rack? ‘Other drivers let me put it inside’! He would have had to roll over toes to get to the back of the bus!

“I do it if there is room on the bus”, I said.

DT spoke up again, “I won’t do it any more!”
“You’re a mean ass person DT!”

DT’s eyes lit up after that one: “Trimet won’t back me up so fuck them!”