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November 9th, 2006
11:23 am
Erica C. Barnett, urbanist champion of transit... felt a little pissed after two wheelchairs and an inept driver held up her commute on the 7X and made her nearly half an hour late for work. She now suggests that maybe wheelchairs should be banned from Express buses.
I'm sure she's just a little pissed right now about having been held up, and eventually reason will return and she'll back track.
But still. Discuss.
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(No, I do not believe we should ban wheelchairs from express buses. I DO believe that that driver needs to be cited for not efficiently getting said wheelchairs on and off the bus. She mentions him trying for like 10 minutes to line the bus up with the curb. That's an inexcusable inability that should have been erased in training.)
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Comments:
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | November 9th, 2006 08:48 pm (UTC) |
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| | um. | (Link) |
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I can see her point. But what if you're in a wheelchair and need to get somewhere fast?
I can see her point too. I think the problem is focusing her frustration on the wheelchair person, instead of on the poor timing of the buses, the overlong route (the 7 is a long, shitty route) and the inefficiency of the driver in boarding and unboarding said wheelchair. As a Metro rider myself, I attest the process shouldn't take 2 minutes per stop.
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | November 9th, 2006 11:57 pm (UTC) |
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| | Re: um. | (Link) |
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Nice, you were right--she totally tried to backpedal around comment #94.
| From: | ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dr4b |
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| Date: | November 10th, 2006 12:11 am (UTC) |
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| | | (Link) |
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I actually wouldn't mind seeing wheelchairs banned from express buses, but it's for a different reason -- those buses are usually freaking packed, and the wheelchairs also take up several seats and people-spaces.
In general I've been trying to learn to never rely on the buses to actually be accurate in the times they get to/from anywhere. Which sucks, but sucks less than parking downtown.
Before you condemn the driver, try the job. Seriously. Drive the busses those drivers are forced to daily operate, Erica, or (in the abbreviated parlance of the interweb) STFU.
The 7 (mostly) uses electric trolleys. If you do not line up the trolley properly to the curb on approach -- say, for example, you didn't know there was a wheelchair needing boarding -- you may be screwed.
Furthermore, many routes, the 7 in particular, are considered shitty routes by drivers as well as passengers. Meaning the lowest seniority people are stuck with it, often after not much practical experience driving the trolleys. One cannot train enough to drive a bus; often the only way to gain experience is to do the job one shitty day after another until something clicks in your head and you can later do it right. That can take many months, sometimes years.
Furthermore, this writer should be banned herself to a wheelchair for a month before openning her festering yap again.
Then this is where I'd say it's a Metro allocation and training issue.
And yes, she runs her mouth a lot and is reluctant to adapt her philosophies. Did I mention she's from a suburb in Houston? |
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