Skip to main content

Here's a thought

If the city wants commuters to switch to public transit, how about giving the drivers a little training in customer service?

I have to say I will be skipping to my friends' house to pick up their car, because I can't stand the public abuse the bus drivers dish out. Not just to me, but to other parents as well. For some reason they really like to pick on the parents of small children.

In this city, anyone over the age of two is expected to pay $2.25 for bus fare, but nobody bothers to pay if their kid is four or five, and the bus drivers don't enforce it. Some of them, however will grumble every time we get on and don't pay, but if we offer money, they won't take it. They just like to grumble. There's one driver who asks the father of one of Bean's classmates every single time they get on the bus, "how old is he?" And every single time he replies, "he's four" and she starts grumbling. This same driver passed one of the mothers and her son while they were waiting at the stop, refusing to pick her up because the bus was almost full. She called to complain. That driver never causes me grief, but yesterday she sped past our stop and then hit the brakes violently when she realized her error. After we picked ourselves up we managed to jump off the bus before she sped off again.

The driver who gave me grief this morning has previously closed the back doors on me while I tried to jump off. Bean had already jumped out and had me by the hand, and he was screaming "Mommy!" while the door closed on my back pack, trapping me on the bus. The driver would have continued if the students on the bus hadn't started yelling at him. Bean was slightly traumatized by this.

This morning the same driver gave me hell because my bus pass wouldn't swipe, and he accused me of trying to use a 30-day pass for "the past six months." I told him a month ago I had a car, and offered to pay with my coffee money. When he refused it I had to wonder why he gave me any trouble at all. Why grumble about it? If it's bothersome, enforce the rules, or else shut the hell up!

Anyways now I am especially grateful for the use of a car for the next two and a half months. I have to think up something extra special for this family to show my gratitude.

Seriously, Karissa

Comments

  1. That is absolutely terrifying! Poor B! I got yelled at by one of them once, too. It's almost as if they receive the money for the fares themselves, the way they behave.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:03 PM

    I just found your blog - glad to find another Canadian to follow! I can't believe how much debt you've paid off. Way to go!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting! I will have it published as soon as I can.