HEY EVERYONE, MY NAME IS MARIA GINN. I CREATED A PETITION FOR THE BUSES, IN JULY TO GET THE BUSES TO RUN LONGER HOURS, TO MORE DESTINATIONS, AND SHORTER WAIT INCREMENTS.
Hello Maria. Having a petition is all well and good, but what good will it really do? In order to obtain what you outlined, there needs to be MORE RIDERS WITH MORE PEOPLE WANTING TO GO TO THESE MORE DESTINATIONS WHO ARE INTERESTED IN LEAVING THEIR POV's AT HOME. Fat chance that's going to happen. The individual cities fund HRT routes through our taxes and the fares (among the cheapest in the nation, btw); the cities' representatives on the HRT board decide what routes run where. A major loss of revenue comes from riders scamming the system. The fare cards are NON TRANFERRABLE, meaning once a card is issued to someone it cannot be given to anyone else. A common scam is a rider buying a fare card, using it then after exiting the bus giving the card to someone who is about to enter THE SAME BUS. Many drivers don't care; my wife, a driver herself, won't allow that on her bus. Another scam is a rider paying student or senior rate when neither applies. Again, most drivers don't care my wife won't let you get away with it.
I HAVE ALSO COME ACROSS A FEW OTHER ISSUES THAT ABSOLUTELY TWIST MY ANGER BUTTON, FOR INSTANCE HOW THE BUS DRIVERS ARE RUDE FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE TIME, AND ESPECIALLY HOW RUDE THEY ARE TO THE HANDICAPP.
Have you considered that much of the rudeness drivers is a result of all the rudeness, cursing, etc that drivers have to put up with from dumb passengers? Why don't you try sitting in the driver's seat; see how many times you get verbally abused each day? My wife is very professional and considerate to all passengers, (including the handicapped) until someone gets in her face or shouts obsenities to her from the back of the bus.
If passengers knew and understood the rules they would be more understanding. Unfortunately, that's not the case as many of the drivers, especially the old timers frequently bend the rules, such as picking up/discharging passengers at places other than designated stops. This practice was supposed to have stopped years ago.
Some schedules are loose, others are very tight. Try to get on the driver's good side by:
- Being at the stop on time; know the schedules, weekday, Saturday, Sunday AND holiday. That alone could diminish some of your frustration.
- have your fare card or cash ready.
- Don't have so much crap with you that it takes time to get on. Be considerate of the other passengers who are needing to make connections.
There's more but that's all I have in my head at this time.
Maria, don't have a tunnel vision mentality on this. Clear your mind and look at both sides of these issues. You'll see that things aren't so black and white as they may seem to you.
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