In Case You Need to Ride the Bus In (or Around) Seattle . . .

[peristaltor]

. . . There's something you should know. The buses are running late, sometimes very late. The King County Council wanted to do "something" about its massive budget shortfall, but didn't want to do anything that might piss off voters (you know, like cut the services that eat up the budget). They tried something that affects Metro and many Sound

Comments

[csue_n_moo]

Wow.

Here in DC, they're jacking up the rates while cutting service - Including trying to kill people with overworked and underservied escalators. Routes have been eliminated, although I think the schedules of the remaining ones are unaffected. It really is happening all over.

I drive to/from work since no transit comes near enough to our house to make it worth it. The only reason my commute has gotten better isn't because more people are riding Metro; it's because fewer people have jobs to drive to. :/

[rhonan]

The part that sucks it that the only time the drivers have for breaks, meals, and bathroom stops is in their recovery time. While everybody bitches about how public employee unions rarely face job cuts, they over looks the fact that they are not even guaranteed one break in a 10 hour shift.

[peristaltor]

Yep. Sadly, it's a bit worse that what you describe. Only a handful of recovery points have toilets (called "comfort stations") located nearby. Many are temporary sani-cans without running water. Others are shared with the public and therefore worse than prison facilities. Some are a five-minute walk away. By contract, we only get five minutes total to use the facilities.

If you have the seniority, you can pick work with longer breaks and better facilities. If not, you suffer. I've talked to operators that can squeeze in one comfort station stop in 3 hours, tops.

[alobar]

Hopefully no irate passenger will go postal and punch or shoot a bus driver.

[peristaltor]

No one (AFAIK) has been assaulted yet as a result of these cuts, but I have heard recently of shouting matches at layovers. It's only a matter of time, sadly, until this might escalate.

This is a safe and polite area, all things considered. Because of that, I'm sure the first assault will likewise be minor. Spitting is the most common assault, with very, very rare slappings and even more rare beatings. The beatings usually make the news, they're that rare. We've only had one driver in the system's entire history killed in the line of duty.

[ironphoenix]

Same as everywhere... cut all the slack out of a system, and watch it break.

Lean improvements require a lot of careful management and retraining in order to reduce waste incrementally, but who has time for that in the twitter age? Slash and burn!

[bleaknemesis]

How about equipping the drivers with catheters and colostomy bags?