A private collection of material focusing on the never ending joys of the Trimet industrial complex-Follow the Twitter feed for complete coverage and trimet scanner calls
https://twitter.com/AlYourPalster
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Bus driving is a hazardous profession
They don't tell you this when you take the job. With the destruction of health care benefits people should really think twice before giving up their whole life to work in an urban bus district. The job requires your whole life too
Just like this driver, I can recall several instances of driving an express route and refusing to stop at a stop that an express didn't have to service and having a passenger get upset. I guess I have to be thankful that I didn't get assaulted or shot.
Plus, just as this driver cried as she explained that not ONE passenger out of the 30 or so that were on the bus, came to her aid or called 911 as she was trying to protect them by struggling to keep her foot on the brake --I too sometimes felt that if anything happened on the bus, that I was on my own and it would be me against all the passengers on the bus.
Maybe a driver can feel safe when working a commuter run that is taking downtown office workers to their jobs from the suburbs but on the typical routes in an "urban bus district," it's an entirely different story.
Transit work has become more and more dangerous as transit executives attack the workforce in the public domain as being 'overcompensated' 'overpaid' 'lazy with archaic work rules' etc etc.
This constant harassment of a workforce publicly creates a disdain for the people trying to provide the service.
I directly fault transit executives (not just Trimet but Trimet included) for vilifying their work forces publicly in their viscous attempts to steal back the gains that unions had made over the years.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/long_island&id=9444880
ReplyDeleteJeez, I'm glad I'm no longer driving a bus.
Just like this driver, I can recall several instances of driving an express route and refusing to stop at a stop that an express didn't have to service and having a passenger get upset. I guess I have to be thankful that I didn't get assaulted or shot.
Plus, just as this driver cried as she explained that not ONE passenger out of the 30 or so that were on the bus, came to her aid or called 911 as she was trying to protect them by struggling to keep her foot on the brake --I too sometimes felt that if anything happened on the bus, that I was on my own and it would be me against all the passengers on the bus.
Maybe a driver can feel safe when working a commuter run that is taking downtown office workers to their jobs from the suburbs but on the typical routes in an "urban bus district," it's an entirely different story.
Transit work has become more and more dangerous as transit executives attack the workforce in the public domain as being 'overcompensated' 'overpaid' 'lazy with archaic work rules' etc etc.
ReplyDeleteThis constant harassment of a workforce publicly creates a disdain for the people trying to provide the service.
I directly fault transit executives (not just Trimet but Trimet included) for vilifying their work forces publicly in their viscous attempts to steal back the gains that unions had made over the years.
Palm hits face....yet again.
ReplyDeleteHB