Broward County Transit October 4, 2012

Tonight I paid my vehicle registration bill.  Yes, I own a car; I can't drive it safely, but I own it.  My youngest son is about to acquire his driving permit.  And, as I paid that registration bill, I realized that I would rather traverse the county with a fifteen year old novice than take a Broward County Transit bus.

This morning on the bus, I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman who sat down next to me.  He's not Broward County Transit's biggest fan either.  He feels that, in general, the drivers are rude and self-serving; he then brought up the point that they are in a service industry and should be respectful to riders. What?!?!?  A service industry...respect...?!?!?!  I wonder how Broward County Transit views itself.   Somehow, I don't think they see themselves in the service industry.  He seemed disgusted by the filth, debris, and general smell of the buses.

 He liked my idea requiring every Broward County Transit employee to take the buses exclusively for an entire month...once each year.  They should pretend they live in the real world where they can actually get fired for not showing up to work on time.  Put them in the exact same stressful situations that most riders find themselves in daily.

(As a mother would explain to a small child) You see, Broward County Transit, real world employers don't promote people who routinely show up late for work.  Sometimes, they cut hours of late employees and give the forfeited hours to someone else, and sometimes...yes...they fire people who show up late too often even when they've taken the bus that is supposed to get to the destinations way, way in advance of a job's start time.  You see, service industry bus drivers and schedulers, there's a world you don't seem to know anything about.  It's not a game.

Let me just end with this; how can the first two buses out of the central terminal be late?  There aren't that many people out on the road at 6am.

Plenty more to come, unfortunately,

Still,
Condemned to Broward County Transit

Broward County Transit October 2, 2012

This evening, there was yet another new driver on my last ride home for the evening.  She wasn't hostile, rude, or aggressive as a driver.  The bus, however, stank of something important burning.  The windows apparently couldn't be opened so that we could have some fresh air!! ??? It was a very toxic smell.

  All of a sudden, about two miles from my final destination, an alarm rang; the bus came to a screeching halt,  and the driver started yelling for everybody to exit the bus immediately!!!  The engine was apparently on fire.  Yup.  Nice driver, timely ride, waited at the junction appropriately...and then...fire in the engine.  Well, I enjoyed it while it lasted...twenty minutes.

I remain...

Condemned to Broward County Transit

Broward County Transit October 3, 2012

I've been too busy to write, but that does not mean things are fabulous  on the buses. I won't go too far back, just two days.  On October 1, it was pouring rain most of the day which makes commuting of all kinds its own brand of misery, but waiting in the rain for the bus that may or may not arrive to pick you up on time or otherwise is uniquely miserable. I had been pretty fortunate with my connections that stormy day. My bus from work to the connection stop pulled in a couple of minutes early.  This happens on rainy days because people who don't have to be out are not out which means fewer stops.  Anyway, at the connection site, it was raining in torrents, and the connecting buses weren't there yet.  At this point, my fellow riders got off the bus. I was flabbergasted.  The bus we were on wasn't scheduled to depart for ten minutes or so and, optimistically, the connecting buses were not due for about five minutes.  Oh yes, it must be the wonderful new shelters that were built with the best interest of riders.  Well, no - not actually.  The new shelters are about one-third the size of the old ones; no one can be sheltered from anything in those.  The driver was out of his seat for a break from sitting making it obvious that he wasn't leaving imminently. Still, I was the only one left.  I had no intention of stepping out there until I absolutely had to.  When my bus arrived a couple of minutes later, I hopped out and ran the thirty feet to the bus and got drenched even with my rain gear.  Drenched.  That's how hard it was raining.  You can only imagine the others.
To my surprise, we had a new bus driver on my last bus home (bus number0741) .  In literature, lots of water is usually interpreted as a renewal, a rebirth, a new beginning.  Could it be that that ride would be a gentler, but still effective ride home?  I get crazy sometimes.  A cockeyed optimist, I guess.  The woman was so rude, I almost missed the old driver who pretends to be a deaf mute.  She yelled at a passenger for accidentally indicating a stop prematurely.  Hey, it's hard enough for us passengers to see out the bus windows with all the advertising wraps on the buses, not to mention the white muck (to be discussed in the future) that never gets cleaned, then add pouring rain in the dark.  Really, she scolded loudly a grown man who had already apologized for his error!  She was every bit as aggressive in her driving as the last guy, muttering to the drivers in front of her as if they could hear her barrage of complaints.  She arrived at the special junction, discussed in previous posts, six minutes early.  Again, the rain makes that easier...fewer stops...  The twist here is she didn't wait until her scheduled departure time.  She left six minutes early.  The joining bus wasn't even in yet??!!!!!  So, in torrential rain, the passengers expecting to transfer to my bus got to wait out in that pouring rain in an ineffective shelter for more than thirty minutes.  I can only hope they called often to complain about that situation.  The riders need to call in, clog the lines, but they also need to write to their Broward County Commissioners.  The county treats the riders of Broward County Transit without regard for service or wellbeing.  Maybe I'll start handing out addressed envelopes with letters of discontent addressed to the commissioners.  Hmmmm.  I'm percolating.

Until next time...

I remain Condemned to Broward County Transit