As anyone who actually rides the bus can tell you, riding Metro
Transit can seriously suck.
Just last week, a woman reeking of week-old sweat, going from
nowhere to nowhere, smashed me into the window seat, bottle in hand.
And since my bus had arrived 15 minutes late, crowding two buses’ worth
of passengers onto a single vehicle, there was no way to escape. I’m
relaying this story to give you a sense, if you don’t know, of what
it’s like to ride the bus every day. It’s dirty, smelly, hot, and
slow, and the only people who do it are the people, like me, who
have to. The overwhelming majority of us, I believe, would rather ride
in peace—not in a gold-plated private jet, not on a flying
carpet. All we want is a regular bus. We just don’t want to be
harassed, offered drugs, crushed against people who smell like booze
and piss, or sucked into confrontations we didn’t ask for.
I can think of a lot of things that could improve the
system—get rid of the ride-free zone; add kiosks where riders can
buy tickets; beef up security; take broken-down buses out of
commission—but most of these ideas cost money, and many
would be opposed by Metro’s transit union, which has tremendous power
to determine when and if changes happen.
What could change all that? A transit riders’ union, like
those in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Portland, Vancouver, and New York. As it
is, Metro has a monopoly on information—about where the worst
drivers and buses go, where the money is being spent, and how the
complaints are dealt with. As a result, they also have all the power. A
transit riders’ union could shift the balance in riders’
direction by allowing us to share information with each other
through user-created online forums and organize to lobby elected
officials for better service and more funding.
That last point is key, because it’s why transit riders’ unions
and transit agencies are natural allies. We have a common
interest—improving bus service. Metro doesn’t want to
suck—it sucks because of a lack of funding, poor enforcement of
existing rules (which should be done by security, not
drivers—again, a matter of funding), and the fact that its
technology is at least a decade behind the national standard.
Government wants us to think of it as a business? Great—then
treat us like consumers. Let’s join together and tell Metro what we
need—and, in turn, we’ll promise to lobby state and local
officials on Metro’s behalf. Seems like a good deal to me.
