Evan Dodds – Non-work-related blog

Last week I blogged about a bad experience I had with a bus/bus-driver at the Overlake Transit Center. Well, I also sent email to the SoundTransit and MetroTransit folks (It was a SoundTransit route, but they actually all use MetroTransit drivers).

Here’s what I sent:

As suggested at: http://transit.metrokc.gov/am/ooy/operator_ofyear.html I’d like to suggest that you recognize a particular bus driver for excellent service. It’s probably too late for 2005, but please consider this email as you plan for 2006.

I don’t know his name, as I was not actually able to get onto the bus he was driving. Therefore, all I can do is reference what little info I have. He was driving the SoundTransit 545 bus on Thursday February 9, 2006. The scheduling that stopped at Overlake Transit Center around 6:16pm. I believe the bus inventory # was 9565.

What makes him a great bus driver is that he follows the rules. At least I assume he does. I honestly don’t know if there’s a rule about this, but if there is he sure follows it. What rule, you ask? Well, the rule about how once the bus has left the transit bay, it cannot stop for any reason until the next scheduled stop, of course!

No hopping-start followed by a quick stop when he realizes that someone is sprinting for the bus. No stopping at a later transit bay (still within the transit center) to pick up someone who had been stuck at the 156th street cross-walk traffic light and didn’t make it before he started around the back side of the transit center loop. No opening the door to let someone on while the bus is stopped at the red-light prior to exiting the transit center. No siree.

Like I said, if there is a rule for such things, this driver deserves top prize. He certainly can’t be accused of prizing customer satisfaction (ala – not making a daily-rider have to wait 20 minutes for the next bus to arrive) over such things as what I can only presume is the protocol. Perhaps it’s not a rule at all, and he just thought it would slow down his route if he picked up one extra passenger at any one of these potential stops (all perfectly safe, I might point out… since they’re within the confines of the transit center protected right-of-way). But I think that is probably not it, since he ended up stuck for 3 or more minutes, carefully avoiding my stare, at the red-light while exiting the transit center. The very same insanely-long red-light that causes pedestrians to be stuck on the wrong side of 156th and have to sprint for the bus.

In any event, I’m sure I’ll still be taking the bus. I’m a loyal customer, and — to their credit — most of your other drivers aren’t nearly as “good” as this fine fellow.

Sincerely,
Evan Dodds

And here’s what I got back in reply last night:

Dear Evan,

Thank you for sharing our comments regarding the actions of the ST Express Route 545 bus driver on Thursday, February 9.  It was unfortunate that you missed the bus.  However, policy does require operations to stop only at designated bus zones where customers are waiting to board.   Once a bus has left the curb, the driver does not stop because of safety concerns for passengers.  

King County Metro operates ST Express Route #545 and handles comments on behalf of Sound Transit.  Your comment will be forwarded to Metro to review.

Please contact me should you require any further assistance.

Sincerely,

Doug Zack
Sound Transit

So, I suppose that’s a perfectly pleasant reply. Indeed it WAS unfortunate that I missed the bus.

I’m a little pleased to have actually gotten any reply at all, so even though this is pure boilerplate “suck it up” language, I suppose it’s still a good thing. I also had a brief look around the metro website and cound find nothing specific about their “for the love of god don’t stop for any passengers once you’ve tapped the gas pedal to move away from the curb” policy. I wonder if I’ll hear anything from Metro transit also…