CTA Tattler

Let's put the blame where it belongs. The carbon-auto lobby needs public transportation to suck. Taxpayers and the public are paying for their oil wars, road construction, road maintenance, traffic congestion, drainage problems, parking costs, etc., while they make billions in profit.

http://frepubtra.blogspot.com

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I had the rudest damn bus driver in the world last night. He wasn't rude to me, but I'm thinking of reporting him anyway.

NB 146 about 3:15 Sunday afternoon. At the Chestnust stop, a guy puts his bike on the rack and the driver almost leaves him at the stop. Obviously, this upsets the guy (in his 20s) so he bangs on the door. The driver stops, opens the door, Bike Guy gets on, the driver *screams* at him and calls him stupid. Bike Guy (again, obviously) gets really pissed and screams back at him. This went on for about a minute, we get about half a block, the driver stops the bus and tells BG to get off after BG had already paid. At least he let him get his bike off the rack before proceeding. Bike Guy got the number on the bus, but not the run number or the drivers' badge number. I did. I think I'll report him--it was completely his fault, he should have been apologizing profusely instead of yelling at the guy as soon as he got on the bus.

Wow,

Even Daley is agreeing with me....Never thought that would happen...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-daley-cta-web-apr22,0,561210.story

KevinB

I heard from a friend who was on that train that he did not call the passengers stupid but said what they were doing was stupid. She's a reader of the Tattler so I can let her tell the story if she wants.

I was on a train once and the driver called the passengers idiots for crowding the doors. 10 minutes had gone by with no Brown Line at Clark/Lake so when it finally showed up everyone was trying to get aboard. The driver tried unsuccessfully to shut the doors, said "there is another train directly behind this one" about ten times, sighed, and said, "idiots." Everyone laughed.

And you wonder why people would rather drive than ride transit? By the way, most of the transit ridership is on the buses, so I wouldn't be arguing for less investment in road construction. That's cutting off your nose to spite your face.

From the footage a passenger took, I believe you can hear Mr. Motorman say, "What you're doing is stupid. You think you're so intelligent." There was a distinct tone to his voice, however, that was not friendly...or on time or safe. Not so sure about clean.

"By the way, most of the transit ridership is on the buses, so I wouldn't be arguing for less investment in road construction."

Exactly. I get so completely annoyed when people, from both ends, try to make things out to be a transit vs. roads argument. The investment in each helps the other as well. When people can get around better by car it makes the area more dense and vibrant, meaning more jobs and parking fees that will likely increase. This encourages public transportation. Not to mention that better roads means more cars which makes other roads more congested (so the argument that road construction hurts public transportation already fails at that point). Of course, road and transit improvement projects compete for funding. And, in many cases, the transit improvement projects should be given priority. But, in the long run, an investment in an effective infrastructure project of one or the other will end up helping both.

From the way it sounded the situation would have been fixed a lot sooner had the people stayed on the train for just a few minutes longer (talk about bad timing in leaving the train)

And in general walking out into an enclosed space with massive electrical current just feet away is kinda stupid... not saying I wouldn't have done the same thing... but it still isn't the smartest idea

I totally agree with Nick. I heard the audio also and the guy (even through the heavy accent) said that what the passengers was doing was stupid. People are so in a hurry to get where they are going without thinking. I see it everyday downtown. Walking across the street, talking on the phone while the light is green for the cars to go. Then when a car almost hits them, they want to scream at the driver. Let me tell you people, it is ok to think about what your doing before you do it. Now I am not saying what the motorman did was right, but can you imagine what would have happened if someone was hurt or even killed because they didn't wait for instructions? Also think about this, if you were on an airplane and one of the engines started to malfunction, would you jump out of the plane or wait for instuctions from the captain?

I recently disciplined someone for calling a co-worker a bitch within earshot of some customers. It didn't really matter if he was right about her being a bitch. You don't do that in front of the customers. So I fully understand that you don't (normally) call customers stupid, nor do you call what they're doing stupid, either.

But there is one big exception: If they're doing something life threatening, if calling them stupid could wake them up, then do it! What if someone *had* gotten hurt or killed? In the lawsuit they'd be alleging that no one bothered to alert them that what they were doing was stupid.

When it gets to the point that someone is doing something that might get them or someone else killed, anything you can say that might help is fair game. And anything that'll keep more people from following the lemmings is fair game as well.

Cheryl: You should report the driver. Otherwise no one will (sounds like BG might not have all the necessary info) and the situation will inevitably repeat itself.

As for fixing the roads. They should be fixed, but half of them should be given over exclusively to buses and bikes. Think how much faster the buses would run and how much safer it would be to commute by bike. I was on a street once which, by chance, was taken over by the monthly critical mass ride. It was amazing - you could just bike home without constantly worrying some idiot driving 2 tons of steel would kill you because his cell phone rang or because he wanted to beat a light.

Swoon, I did report the driver. I had more information than Bike Guy (he just took down the bus number) and if he complained, well, he's got a witness.

I've got to disagree with MK. i was on the train with the conductor that called the exiting passengers "stupid". I was in the second car of the train. we sat underground between Grand and Clark/Lake for over 90 minutes - at least 30 minutes of which there was no information from the conductor.
i was in no great hurry to get to work, but over 90 minutes underground, in the dark, on a very crowded train was just too much for me, as it was for hundreds of other passengers.
now, each day when the subway travels from Grand to Clark/Lake, i hold my breath.