513hooligan

yesterday i was riding to the ault park crit. in cincinnati, and happened to get into it with a bus driver. we were not in heavy traffic, i was not being too dangerous, i signaled at turns and the like, and still managed to get the bird and a few good words thrown at me. so being the good natured person i am i smile, wave, and give the thumbs up each time i pass at the light. the last two or three, she waits for me to catch up and pulls the bus either up on the curb or into the next lane to force me to hit something. again with the finger and words. this is the first time from public transit system and im appalled. anyone else get hassled by the metro?


im thom by the way, long time lurker.

pirate golf

Did you call her boss?

manual_overide

Weird. I've never had a problem with the Metro. They are usually the best ones out there. As long as you show them some respect, they'll give it back. Usually...

huhenio

I had that problem in Philly

tromper

I had a similar issue with a Snohomish County Transit driver a couple of years back. He forced me off the road/marked bike lane after tailgating me heavily up the prior street I was on. I later learned he had tailgated my wife as well (who was riding in the bike lane, & was developing a flat.) I had the presence of mind to get the bus number, & emailed it in. I also had picked up a very basic look at the driver so included that.
By odd coincidence the next day I developed a wheel problem on my commuter, & had to take the bus into Seattle to nab a new cheapie front wheel at a LBS. I ended up on the same bus at roughly the same time for a large part of the trip, & was wondering why the driver was looking daggers at me the whole ride. I put two & two together before I got off the bus, noting that this driver bore a passing resemblance to the person I'd glimpsed/described, & that the bus was in the same timeframe. I never did get more then the generic "Thank you for your email we'll take care of it" reply, but I have a hunch this one was handled pretty quickly.

As Pirate noted..I'd call her in or something, most places who understand liabilty, & customer service won't put up with this kind of BS.

cyclezealot

I'd call her boss. Did you catch the bus number and time. I am sure Metro policy does not encourage this kind of behavior. They need to know. I'd personally not take out her actions on Metro. Mass Transit is too important in this polluted, energy short planet.

Az B

I'm always amazed at the stupidity of folks that perform these manuevers while driving commercial vehicles. Some of them have even had the company's 1-800 number on the back. How convenient!

Definitely call it in. Someone needs to educate this nutbag before he/she hurts someone.

Az

BigMacFU

No way does a town want to swallow a wrongful death suit, or ever deal with any kind of personal injury liar, I mean lawyer. They don't pay a bus driver enough, nor is a bus driver important enough to have any kind of incident. If you call up with the bus number, route number, etc... they should know exactly who was driving and be able to take care of the situation.

jeff-o

The drivers here are pretty nice. I suppose it helps that the traffic is light enough and the bus stops infrequent enough that I never have to play leapfrog for very long.

Tude 

I hate playing tag with the dam busses. And as even with cars, they take the THEIR right of way no matter what --- like pulling into the rightmost lane and cutting me off to the point where I had to take a quick right to avoid being a bloodspot on the side of the bus.

And I've had it out with the bus company several times --- as a bicyclist and as a rider. Non-existent customer service as far as I'm concerned --- and they even screwed the college I work at. I commute so I don't ride the bus --- but sometime last year they changed over all the bus passes, tokens to new passes and only accepted the old ones till a certain date.

This they advertised by putting an 8-1/2" X 11" small lettered flyer on one of the bus walls. I happened to see it when I had to ride the bus one day - and tried to use my old pass - which was no longer valid. A school here I keep a quantity of bus passes on hand for certain class projects. Passes are $12.50 each and I have 50 of them. And there were other departments and bookstore here that also kept a supply of them. You would have thought that this bus company would have notified it's continuous customers of this change - and that the old passes would not be valid after a certain date.

So we ate @$650. Just amazing how they screwed us.

So no, I really don't care for busses.

nelson249

I used to race transit buses on my commute in St John's and I would usually win too because of traffic and the occasional stop. I only had a short run home so I used to sprint most of the way. I recall having a conversation with a driver about the cyclist wearing a yellow jacket that would beat him to the university. We had a good chuckle when I told him it was me. Metrobus in St John's has a good reputation; it's the other drivers you have to watch for.

mjw16

Humidity is starting to creep and the heat's supposed to be brutal this afternoon, so I'm trying to make sure I'm well hydrated. The last few rides have been great, my knees have been 100% since adjusting my seat post and got a nice pull from a roadie. Not looking forward to the ride home today.

Tapeworm21

Maybe because after every light, the bus had to pass you again. And again. And again. Stay in line when there's not much traffic.

georgiaboy

In Fulton County (Atlanta) there is a 1% option tax for public transportation charged by the county and collected through the sales tax charge. So, whether in support of public transportation or not there is still a payment.

Elusor

camera phone plus picture take

show bus driver take picture

repot to super

chephy

I hate encountering the damn busses, they're annoying. But I've never had a confrontation with a bus driver. Although some stuff they do sure pisses me off: like passing only to pull up to the curb and immediately stop. Even worse than cagers who pass you to turn right in front of you, 'cause the cagers at least don't sit there for a minute spewing diesel fumes into your face...

lil brown bat

Yeah, that's annoying as all hell; OTOH, bus drivers (at least where I commute) really have no leeway. They get set a schedule that's pretty much impossible to actually stick to, and they have to take sh*t when they fail to be on time, so they're really not into dawdling, not even the five to ten seconds it would take to hang back and let you pass the bus stop before they ease in.

CB HI

If you pay taxes, Public transit gets your money.

skinnyj41004

Trying to get through the traffic full of busses in Cincinnati is scary enough in a car, worse on a bicycle. They will damn near run a car into the curb at times. I worked for a armored carrier for several years and thought I was being entered into a demolition derby with the busses at times. Metro does suck. They drive by my g/f all the time when she is waiting at the stops.

chephy

That might be true, but in many cases it's even less than five or ten seconds. Plus they should take into account that by passing me now they will slow me down (it takes time to change lanes to pass a stationary bus), which means after they start up I'll be in their way again, whereas if they just let me continue I would probably get far enough ahead that they won't catch up with me again (lots of stops 'round here...) So they are really slowing down and unnecessarily stressing out both of us.

Blue Jays

Let the bus stay in front so you can draft behind at an easy 35 m.p.h. for as long as the bus is heading in the same direction!

chephy

with stops every 300 yards... I think I'll pass... the offer and the bus.

cyclezealot

In my cycling, our area had lots of express buses that really expanded the scope of my riding. Got me home at a reasonable hour more than once. In the US, the federal budget for mass transit is not all that great, CBHI. Far below most nations. In the US, items like trains and buses. They must pay for themselves Not so for planes and airports. I'd say the reason, highway contractors offer the politicians big bucks to keep that asphalt rolling.

CB HI

Half the cost of the bus system in Honolulu is covered by the tax payer. I have heard the same for many other cities.

Our sales taxes have just been raised for a fixed rail system, not to mention the federal contribution.

cyclezealot

Some cities might support mass transit. Others have virtually none. My impressions cities that need invest in transit, but don't - LA and Phoenix. Rail in Hononulu, a surprise. As I recall, it' s needed. My reference, the US federal highway budget allots a far lower percentage of federal dollars for transit than other western countries.