how to deal with harassment?

[istar]

I had a jarring incident on the yellow line last night. I was approaching my stop, so I went to stand by my bike on the hook, and a man started yelling at me to get my hands off "his" bike. He repeated this about 10 times in the eternity it took for the train to stop. I just ignored him until the doors opened, and I loudly said "NO, this is MY

Comments

[lady_angelina]

I'm sorry to say that this kind of behavior happens ALL the time on TriMet, and it has indeed gotten worse over time. It also seems to depend on which part of town you're in or which route (and sometimes which time of the day). For instance, I was on the #6 a few years ago, and it was after 7 PM and already dark and getting cold out, so I closed the window that someone had left open. The guy sitting a couple of seats away from me promptly came up and JERKED the window back open so that it broke and could never be shut again. That really scared the hell out of me, so I immediately went all the way up to the front of the bus and took a seat there. I wanted to tell the driver, but was afraid that the guy would see me ratting on him; if he was belligerent and strong enough to break a window, I didn't want to think of what he could do to me.

Don't even get me started on all the fights that break out for absolutely no reason. I remember this one time, I was on the bus just a half a mile away from my stop to get home (thus, I'm not listing the route for reasons of privacy, but let's just say that I live in one of the less "dangerous" neighborhoods), and all of a sudden, this guy the next seat down starts whaling on his seatmate for apparently no reason.

And just a few weeks ago, I was minding my own business and obviously on my mobile phone calling my work to let them know that the bus was running late, so I was going to be late to work but was on my way. There was a guy sitting across from me, trying to get my attention, so I thought maybe I was talking too loud, so I put the call on hold and apologized for talking too loud. He then promptly asked me for money, and I said, "Sorry, but I'm on the phone with my work and I need to get right back to it." And what did he do, but kick me in the legs and curse at me.

TriMet is just really scary to ride on anymore. =(

:(

[istar]

I'm so sorry to hear of the trouble you've seen... my experience is nothing in comparison. Like leorising1959 said, don't hesitate to report incidents (once you're in a place where you feel safe). Even if there's nothing anyone can immediately do, Trimet can use report metrics to determine where to beef up police presence along transit routes.