If you use TriMet, you might have seen the new equipment on some of our buses. We now have barriers around some the drivers’ areas. If you ask a driver about these new additions, you might find that most drivers find them cumbersome and distracting. If you use a wheelchair or scooter to get around, the barriers present a clear impediment to allowing you to ride the bus.
I must say that the barriers rattle a lot. Now, a bus is already a noisy place to ride, but we work in these things up to 12 hours a day. So, in addition to having the usual noises of a bus, we now have a door latch that rattles every time we go over even the smallest bump. The plastic partition rattles with every change in air pressure or bump in the road and makes it nearly impossible for us to hear questions that passengers have or verbal requests for stops (some riders realize that we have just survived rush hour and ask us for the next stop to give us a break from the bell . . . it is a welcomed break and greatly appreciated) or just giving us updates on whatever events that just happened. There is a sense of community on most of the lines I drive, so putting a barrier between me and the passengers just seems wrong on so many different levels.
From a passenger’s perspective, I am told that people feel alienated from the TriMet driver, that they feel like they have done something wrong and that the driver is afraid of them. This is actually a big blow to some drivers’ sense of self. Not all of us drivers are afraid of passengers. We actually enjoy providing customer service, interacting with our regular riders, greeting people as they board and thanking them as they exit. Sometimes, it takes a few passengers just saying, “Thank you,” to pull me out of the funk that an earlier, challenging exchange with another passenger can put me in. We are all humans, yeah? Driving public transit can be challenging when one person decides that her/his bad day needs to ruin a driver’s day.
Other problems caused by the barriers are that they block the drivers’ view of the passenger area. If we don’t see harmful or risky behavior before it becomes a problem, everyone’s ride is adversely affected. I can’t tell you how many times I think everyone is seated only to have a person with mobility difficulties shout that s/he is not seated because I can’t see. When I take an extra few seconds to check over my shoulder, I hit my head on the plastic barrier and still cannot properly see the priority seating area. Remember, a few extra seconds to do this check can mean that I miss the next light which puts the bus behind schedule up to 3 minutes. This is part of the reason that we ask that people have their fare ready before they board . . . seconds mean minutes in a bus schedule.
Which brings me to another problem: barriers cause drivers to lose time from their schedules. No big deal, right? Well, management is now measuring our on-time performance (OTP). We are evaluated for how often we keep the bus on schedule. Too many missed time-points and we have to talk with station managers (another headache as management is now hiring non-drivers into these positions) to explain why we are not keeping on time . . . trying to explain that an extra 30 seconds at a stop to properly ensure the safety and order of the bus costs a driver approximately 4 minutes of time to someone who has no practical driving experience is a particularly frustrating experience.
Management’s answer to us drivers is to just knuckle under and stop complaining about all the problems with these new hardware additions. We raised the problems drivers have with the barriers and were told that they were necessary equipment for the less than one percent of the time when a driver needs additional protection. We raised concerns about the barriers causing problems for people in scooters and larger-than-normal wheelchairs and were told that those people should be encouraged to use Portland’s paratransit system, Lift. Management has now come up with a new solution to accommodate scooters and larger wheelchairs: they are moving the barriers closer to the drivers.
The barriers are now being moved about 1” closer to the driver to allow for larger mobility devices to fit more comfortably around the barriers. No great shakes, right? The only problem is that the plastic part of the barriers are now in the driver’s field of vision. Every light source is now caught and reflected back toward the driver. Instead of being able to discern a car on the left side, drivers now see a car on the left, two more on the right and a reflection of another two cars approaching from the front. There is now additional glare from the sun, headlights, streetlights, and other light sources always in the drivers’ peripheral vision.
Another problem with moving the barriers closer is that there is now less room for the driver to get away from a threatening passenger. The barriers are supposed to allow the driver the space s/he needs to “push buttons and call for help,” as one supervisor helpfully pointed out to me. Moving the barriers closer to the driver means that the threatening passenger now has more ability to reach around the barrier to harm the driver. It also means that the driver must now reach closer to the threat to “push buttons and call for help.” There is now less space between the driver and the threat and more ability for the threatening passenger to get at the driver, in addition to the vision problems explained earlier.
The physical barrier between a driver and the passengers feels alienating for all parties: barriers can discourage some. But, I have found that it emboldens bad behavior in others who usually do not cause problems. Yes, we get liquids and punches thrown at us and people spit on us with surprising regularity. Some drivers are brutally assaulted, stabbed and otherwise injured, maimed or killed. The barriers are ineffective to stopping anyone who has clear intent to cause harm to a driver.
This is a human problem that is not solved by adding an inanimate barrier between drivers and passengers. It would be better addressed with more public outreach, more human contact to remind everyone that riding public transit is a team effort. Drivers rely on passengers to not get violent, passengers rely on drivers to get them safely from one stop to another. We all rely on each other to maintain a schedule.
I did submit a solution for more uniformed people on buses when a driver feels less-than-confident or on lines that have experienced more violence against drivers. The way I figure it, with the population expansion here in Portland, why not provide more decent paying jobs to help more people? Management, of course, insists that the only solution is barriers on our buses.
If you are in the Portland area, I urge you to contact TriMet’s customer service, whether or not you agree with my arguments about the barriers. Please remember to be respectful and thank the customer service agent! Keep in mind that they often hear bad experiences, deal with difficult customers and that they handle each case with respect and professionalism. Please, thank them for all of their work and that you are merely weighing in on this issue of bus safety.