No follow through
On a Saturday when coming back from Central Library on bus. Bus full of noisy rude kids 17 to 22 yrs. old. Swearing, screaming, bouncing back and forth in isle acting like they owned the thing and quiet passengers definately out numbered. One group exceptionally bad, had a couple girls that were acting up and bus driver asking them to watch language, had threatened them with explusion.
Bus driver had tried to eject one of the passengers and when girl refused, did not follow through and wait for security or police to arrive. Instead gave in to the yelling from the group causing problem. Then her girlfriend accused me of kicking her. Told her she was mistaken; I had been reading and trying to ignore the crap going on. Then she threatened me and when she left bus kicked me in shin. Having seen earlier lack of follow through by driver knew it was pointless to address issue with driver.
Contacted bus company on Tuesday following after deciding they should have it on record despite fact that I had neglected to get name of lady I sat next to who could verify story. as a fifty yr. old female who just wants to use bus system this was alarming.
Mar 24th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
The driver did the right thing, It did.nt need the police.
Mar 25th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Being a bus driver myself, I think the driver should have given them one warning and then pulled the bus over and kicked them off if they chose to continue that behavior. If they didn’t go, the police should have been called. In defense of the driver, there are a LOT of attacks on bus drivers. Many are about the fare and people who try to play “let’s make a deal” or not pay at all and many more are about just this situation. Some drivers just want to get home at night and not end up in the hospital. It would be helpful if passengers would back up the drivers in letting these kids know that this behavior is not acceptable on the bus.
Mar 27th, 2007 at 10:22 am
I don’t think the driver should have pulled over and waited called and had police on the way but sometimes waiting for the police can sometime escalate problems when this person kicked you did you tell the driver because sometime with that much going on on the bus how would she notice one of the ‘quiet’ people getting kicked . The drivers can’t control the kids any better then the ignorant parents that raise them
Mar 28th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Sadly, this type of behaviour is pretty typical on busses. Especially from kids of this age. In the age of lawsuits there isn’t a whole lot anyone can do, especially the driver. There really isn’t a whole lot a driver can do without harming themselves or disrupting service, or both. I wonder if a better solution would be to have the Transit Police waiting down the line, board the bus and kick them off. Does anyone know if its ever done this way?