Dear MBTA...

[gnomi]

This morning, I started my commute as usual: waiting for the 66 bus. After being passed by a number of buses that run along parts of the 66 route but are not the 66 (they're designated as buses to take students to Brighton High), at 7:02 AM a "real" 66 finally came barrelling down Harvard St. And I mean barrelling. The speed at which the bus was traveling meant that the driver almost didn't notice the two people (of which I was one) waiting at the Coolidge St. stop, and by the time he noticed us and stopped, he was almost half a block beyond the bus stop.

I boarded the bus (number 2265), and the driver (who, I was subsequently informed by the automated crawl, was operator #2594) apologized for almost missing us. He explained that he almost missed us because of his high rate of speed and that it took him a minute to realize there were people waiting for the bus. When I noted that, yes, he was going at a speed that exceeded the safe threshold for the particular street (Harvard St. is a very busy pedestrian area along with carrying significant amounts of traffic even at 7:00 AM), the driver pointed to the display to his left that indicated that he was already running 12.6 minutes late.

Are you truly training drivers that the way to compensate for running late is to drive unsafely along heavily populated areas? That goes beyond stupid to reckless. The 66 bus is notorious for not keeping to its schedule, but the answer is not to encourage drivers to endanger both those inside and outside the bus.

Endangeredly yours,
A concerned rider

Comments

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

ACK!! :;swaths you in bubble wrap::

[madfilkentist]

I often get the impression that bus drivers are the worst part of the MBTA.

[(Anonymous)]

I knew one who was lovely. The driver of the 86 I took in the mornings one summer many years ago was consistently friendly and very kind to me. My stop was around the corner, and one morning, as I was late and running towards the corner and seeing the bus go by up ahead, he saw me from afar, unexpectedly stopped the bus there at the corner (a few bus lengths before the official stop around the corner and up the other street), and waited for me. Then, when I boarded, completely surprised and grateful, he admonished me not to run in the heat.

[elul-3.livejournal.com]

It's brilliant, actually. Drive unsafely --> kill pedestrians (a/k/a potential bus-riders) --> fewer bus riders --> less stopping time for busses --> busses run on schedule.

Send it

[(Anonymous)]

You should email that to them. I have started doing that everytime there's a problem. I always get a response (although it takes them a week) in which they promise to do better and nothing more but sometimes that helps.

Mary
---
http://www.pantoum.org

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

So, an average weekday commute...

[tober.livejournal.com]

In general, I think that MBTA bus drivers do an exceptionally good job. They drive vehicles that handle awkwardly at best and don't always get much respect from other traffic (specifically, other drivers tend often to pass the buses in an unsafe manner) and I don't think they're particularly highly paid. Despite that, most of them manage to do their jobs correctly and also be courteous and friendly. I hope that any incentives the MBTA gives their bus drivers to perform in a timely manner don't implicitly encourage them to speed. I have almost never encountered a situation where the bus driver was operating the bus more slowly than necessary or otherwise dawdling... and I hope that in general the T does not discipline bus drivers for lateness... because the lateness of a bus is very seldom, I believe, the fault of the driver. I don't think there's any justification for a bus driver to exceed the posted speed limit... and I certainly hope that T official policy considers speeding unacceptable and that any driver who speeds will be disciplined fairly harshly (all the buses are equipped with recording GPS devices so it should be possible for the T to detect whether a driver speeds, although I do not know if they do).

[arib.livejournal.com]

Do send that in.