I am so angry!!!

[Sparky]

Our transt system doesn't recognize anyone over 19 as a student and therefore doest allow us student fare rates even if we have valid student id.

The bus company I used to work for had the same policy, only our cut off was 18. The thing was that the low fair was supposed to be for high-school students. Since this is a college town it caused a lot of confusion, so they changed the name to "youth" discount.

Surely you don't think the world owes you a discount on everything just because you're in college do you? Of course you don't. I mean, it's nice to get discounts, but not every company cares that you're in college. "You're an adult, not disabled, so pay up" is their attitude.

As for getting passed up -- which other people have mentioned -- it can be hard to tell if a person is waiting for a city bus or a school bus. And I remember one time when some people were standing on the corner having a conversation; I pulled up and one of them looked up, looked me straight in the eye, and shook her head no. So I started to drive off, just to have her start yelling at me for passing her up. Failures in communication happen.

But I acknowledge that the complaints in this thread are pretty much all legitimate. Rant on, good people!

[customersruinmylife]

About five years ago, I was waiting for the bus with a friend. The bus pulled into the stop and opened its doors. I turned to my friend, said goodbye and went to step onto the bus when the driver suddenly closed the doors ON MY LEG and pulled away! I had to yank my leg out of the door otherwise I would have been pulled under. The whole time the bus driver had a smirk on his face.

I called the bus company, emailed them and even visited their main depot, and I got absolutely no response. It still makes me angry to this day.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Perhaps someone should point out to them the British mining industry.

"What British mining industry?"

Precisely.

And of course, there's the Muntab question.

"Where's Muntab?"

Exactly.

[Broomjockey]

Man, I've had a few bad drivers once in a while, but nothing to compare to some of this stuff. I feel for ya.

[rerant]

I've had this happen to me many times and as recentl as last week.
Transit employees here are, for the most part, gigantic jerks. And as someone who rides tranist no less than 40 times a week on average I consider myself something of an authority on the subject.
Recently my city announced a fare hike and as soon as they did I started keeping a log of all major transit issues (rude drivers, buses that don't show, etc.)
Its been one week since I strted that log and already I have 9 incidents.
I take down the day, time, route, location and bus number for every incident and before the new year (when the fare hike is supposed to kick in) I'm FedEXing a copy of all the incidents to the head of our transit company as well as to a buddy of mine who works at a local newspaper.
I've commissioned my friends to do the same, as well as start a letter writing campaign for fair treatment of college/university students.
Our transt system doesn't recognize anyone over 19 as a student and therefore doest allow us student fare rates even if we have valid student id.

[Chromatix]

Perhaps someone should point out to them the British mining industry.

"What British mining industry?"

Precisely.

[Shalom]

I never did understand why strikers think that pissing off their customers will be helpful to their cause. I remember the Verizon strike of 08/2000 when there was much sabotage being committed: someone came into the telco room in our apartment complex and slashed a lot of wires. They got my voice line but missed the ISDN (because when they installed it there weren't any more good pairs in the cable from the telco room to my part of the complex, so at my suggestion the installer used one leg from each of two bad pairs, and the saboteur must have not noticed the two single connections). This is supposed to make me feel sympathetic toward them? Hell no.

(In that same strike, someone tried to slash what he thought was a major phone cable, and by mistake got the 13kV electrical feeder that was on the same pole instead. Electrocuted not only himself, but his buddy who was trying to pull him off the wire. http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/...ded_2_uni.html)

[mariamousie1]

What the bus drivers want is higher pay (right now they get $23 an hour, which sounds pretty good to me, but what do I know ). If they do get higher pay, the fares will go up and bus passes will become more expensive. So they could really use support from us since they went to the mayor and the mayor refused to get involved at all. I hope someone pointed this problem out to them. Of course there's always the chance that these incidents were complete coincidences, but I doubt it.

[Salted Grump]

I'd like to point out that, in the recent OC Transpo strike up here, the drivers picked the 'best' time to pressure the city (aka; Middle of freaking WINTER), but their demand was completely ludicrous; (permission to set schedules as the individual wanted, not as needed).

Needless to say, the general public was Livid within a week, and OC Transpo still hasn't completely recovered from the fiasco. (they posted major losses last year, IIRC)

[Flygon_Trainer]

Woah! I've never had anything like that happen to me!

The bus system here works extremely well, usually with no major fluxes in schedule unless construction has destroyed the bus routes. I'm sorry to hear it's happened to you guys!

[gremcint]

Strikes work for two reasons, lack of product from the company and from public support. If you dick around your customers for no reason then you won't get public support. Also why do you deserve more whatever (I don't know the details of the strike) when you aren't willing to do your job?

[mariamousie1]

Well, I've been on the bus three times since then, and my trips have been uneventful. I guess someone pointed out to the drivers that treating their passengers like crap won't make us want to pay the higher fares when the strike is settled.

[mariamousie1]

Andara: I've seen drivers do that here, and sometimes they would drive right past if I was the only person at the stop, when I was in high school. My mom called and complained about that. We'd call and complain now, but with the strike, probably nobody would care. The bus drivers here are jerks. I hope they don't get the higher wages they want. They've lost any support they might have gotten from me.

[Andara Bledin]

I've never been passed by a bus that should have picked me up except on a few occaisions where the bus was so late that they were dropping off only to try to get back on schedule. I've had plenty of them just plain not show up, though.

I once got to watch a Metro cop chew one driver out for about five minutes for not making a pickup at a major transit center, however.

I was at the second stop after the transit center, waiting on a different bus, and I guess the Metro cop had been at the center watching the buses go through when this driver pulled up, let a few people off, then shut the door on the passengers trying to get on and drove off.

The worst part is that the people at the stop, most of whom were on their way home, had already been on the train for who knows how long, and would have to wait another hour for the next bus of that line to pull through.

^-.-^

[tropicsgoddess]

I'm sorry this happened to you.

I felt the same frustration with the taxi cabs around here a couple of weekends ago.

Maybe he's just psycho like the bus driver from South Park?

Oh you mean Ms.Crabtree? Man, that sucks about the strike, but the drivers shouldn't take it out on the passengers, IMHO.