Bad-back woman
I’ll just paste the entire email I sent to customer service @ SW Transit this morning as my bus tale. Maybe I’m the one out of line, you decide.
Hi, I rode the 696 this morning, it departed East Creek a bit after 7AM, Leonid was the driver.
Yesterday I rode essentially the same bus, I believe Leonid was the same driver. The bus was 90% full by the time I got on, but only 2 people sat in the back row. I attempted to sit in the middle seat of the back road, and a woman put her feet down so I wouldn’t be able to sit there. I sat anyways, and she pulled them back, and told me she has a bad back and needs to lay down, so I have to find another seat. She repeated that I have to move to another row so she can lay down, so I moved to another row.
Back to this morning – The bus was 99% full – 3 seats open in other places, and once again, only two people in the entire back row. Another passenger, and bad-back woman. I went to the back of the bus, sat down in the middle seat of the five, and she started up with her bad back story. Then she said “Oh it’s you, from yesterday.” She told me I had to move, I told her that this isn’t an ambulance and there are no EMT’s on the bus. If she needs a medical transport she should use one, not the public transit system.
She:
1. Told me she pays taxes.
2. Told me I’m a punk.
3. Struck me with her hand.
4. Called me an “asshole”.
5. Called me a “passive-aggressive asshole”.
6. Told me I’m going to “burn in hell”.
7. Laid down across “only” two seats, and had a pushing-kicking tantrum with her bare feet against me.
8. As I exited the bus in downtown Minneapolis, she gave me a vague threat that “what I did today is going to come back to me”.
I’ve been riding SW Transit for 2 years and have generally had nothing but praise for your company, it really is envied by my coworkers who ride other bus systems on our way to downtown Minneapolis. However, I cannot and will not be treated in this fashion again. I did not bring this to the attention of the driver, partly because the bus was underway and partly because I kept thinking the behavior was going to stop, which it didn’t. The woman’s threats to me, if continued, are enough to file a police report over.
Please address this situation one way or another. Either I was in the wrong and your wonderful black buses double as medical transports, or real handicapped needs should be addressed in an appropriate manner and her behavior was severely out of line.
Sep 5th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
You are in the right. The bad-back woman was completely out of line. Frankly, I suspect she was just being a jerk and in fact had no medical issues.
If she struck you, she is guilty of assault.
Good luck. Post again when it’s all over; I’m curious.
Sep 6th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
You seem like a very selfish person who would fail to accommodate a fellow human being in need. Should we lock up blind people because they inconvenience you when they cross the road slowly or people in wheel chairs because they take up more space on the bus too? You need to be more compassionate and less of an arrogant over privileged jerk!
You are also clearly incorrect about transporting disabled passengers. The ADA requires a reasonable accommodation for disabilities. If she was unable to ride PUBLIC transportation or sit up in a normal fashion that is a disruption to a major life activity and thus a disability. Having a couple lucky, non-disabled people stand for a few minutes on the way into work to ensure that she was able to remain independent seems like a small price to pay. Perhaps you’d do well to consider what her life must be like before you go out of your way to try to inflict misery on others!
Really, would you want your children (if someone like you even has any) to see how poorly you treated that poor woman?
Sep 7th, 2008 at 8:24 am
AccessForAIlMN has a point. However, anyone who’s ever had a bad back knows “Laid down across ‘only’ two seats, and had a pushing-kicking tantrum with her bare feet against me” is simply not possible for someone who really has a bad back.
The buses are full of scammers taking up more than one seat. The odds are she was the “jerk” — but there is no way to know that with the information we have here. Sometimes the compassionate thing to do is to allow the possibility, even when common sense is telling us otherwise.
Sep 8th, 2008 at 8:17 am
accessforaii - are you seriously kidding?
If everyone thought like you, we’d all be riding in the bus alone, since sometimes I feel a but stiff or because I have an allergy to a perfume, or better yet, I was really tired and wanted a quiet bus to sleep in. Since I have kids and I was being super dad all weekend, I was tired - so you all wait for the next bus so I can get a nap.
Disabilities are one thing, but being a bitch on the bus is entirely different. Get off your soap box and get real!
Sep 8th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
The American with Disabilities Act calls for a “Reasonable Accomodation”. That is all. Sounds like to me the “jerk” is the woman who takes up the seats. If her back is bad, she should take Metro Mobility. Of course, those verhicles are not as nice, but that is what Metro Mo is there for people with “disablities”.
Also, I bet it is not a “few minutes” in from the southwest metro.
Sep 11th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I definitely want to hear the bus company’s response.
I work full time at a non-profit organization which serves people with disabilities. There are all kinds of resources available for that population; assuming you’ve presented the whole story, there is no excuse for the behavior this lady exhibited.
Sep 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
As someone who suffers from excruciating back pain because of a lower disc that refuses to behave, I can understand that irrational behavior can be a result of the pain. That being said……
The last ambulance ride I took to the hospital because of my back cost me $1200 (perhaps it was the expensive morphine?). A bit more than the bus. Society is better off letting her pay $2 for a busride rather than $1200, no?
I am amazed at the amount of pissing and moaning I read on the internet. Dude, choose your battles. Even if she is scamming you, why go sit next to her AGAIN? Stand up if you need to. Jesus Christ. Cant we just let the little things slide for once?
Sep 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Agreed. If she was such a jerk, why go back for more? When she was aggravated, get up and go stand in the front. While I’m not seeing rude and harassing behavior is OK, you subjected yourself by staying put. I suspect transit will say ‘you should have talked to the driver.’. It shouldn’t be hard for them to look in the mirror and see this woman laying across the the back of the bus every day like it’s her personal gurney.
Oct 14th, 2008 at 3:21 am
What happened?? You were not out of line. I have seen the same type of thing (well not really the same) but people sleeping on buses, taking up two seats when there is standing room only. It takes all kinds…
Oct 26th, 2008 at 1:20 am
First off every passenger on a bus has the right to sit in a free seat regardless of who pisses and moans about it. as far as the limited mobility passengers - even the passengers in wheelchairs - we have the right to refuse to give up our seat we paid for the ride to and technically even if we are sitting in the ‘wheelchair seats’ we can refuse to move for a passenger in a wheelchair. We just look like complete a**es if we do I don’t think technically if you asked a dr that putting your feet on the seat might temporarily relieve pain but because of the motion of the buses -the bouncing and stuff- it doesn’t really help it
For the driver he could tell her it’s a safety issue if he turns or makes a sudden stop or something she could slip or something
And if we all put our feet on the seats imagine how gross it would be to sit on. between foot fungus and crap that gets on your shoes eeew!
Nov 5th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
The bad back lady is a crazy old crank - she has verbally and physcially assaulted other passengers. After one of her outbursts, I told her that she was out of line. She then hit me with her bag when she left the bus.
Anyway, I filed a report and so did the bus driver, The next day, crazy lady was stopped in line by the police who prevented her from riding. She’s been banned from SW Transit for 6 months.
Nov 6th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
AccessForAllMN:
Bus riders are not allowed to lay down in seats because it is dangerous. Buses often must slam on the brakes because of crazy drivers cutting them off, and having someone lying down is a lawsuit waiting to happen. She would fall to the floor and then sue SW Transit for all she could get.