Do you as a passenger believe you have an advantage...

[Turbo19]

Do you as a passenger believe you have an advantage at a transit related job than some random applicant? I ask this because lately my local TA has been recruting operators and you can tell the differences between someone who has been a passenger and someone who hasn't.

 

Point in case, many applicants are middle aged, and have likely never been regular transit riders. Usually they provide slower and/or rougher rides, and are unfamiliar with equipment. But there is this young guy that attends school locally and applied. He claims he rode the bus all the time in LA, and from what I notice he posesses superior driving ability, as well as being comfortable on the job.

 

So is this an isolated example, or do you feel this is straight across the board? Would you, as a passenger, be capable in your opinion to preform better in a TA job as a non-passenger?

 

I should add that I didn't place this in the Transit Career forum, as I wanted to solicit feedback from everyday riders moreso than current and operators.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

lol... You know it's funny you mention this... Last Wednesday I was chatting with a B/O who I usually get going home and she was talking about passengers and how the morning passengers are quite different from the evening passengers since the folks in the morning get quite irritated if you're late on the express runs. I think it really depends on the driver and their personality more so than if they use the system or not. I have a guy I get sometimes in the morning and I had him this morning in fact and boy was I pissed the last time I had him because he just drove too damn slow and took forever so this morning I'm sure when he saw me and I saw him I was thinking to myself this guy had better drive this morning. No dragging the line... I noticed he moved when he had open space. IMO I don't mind B/Os that are late if they make the effort to drive, but some of these guys just drag the line and I'm not one of those folks that get late buses either. I give myself an extra 30 minutes or so for traffic so when I get on if my commute is taking more than double the time and it isn't traffic related then that means the B/O is dragging the line. There is getting to a destination safely but let's not take that to the extreme and drive like 5 mph when there are absolutely no cars in sight.

 

Edit: I meant to return back to the conversation I mentioned with the female B/O. She mentioned how she waits for certain folks and such and clearly pays attention to riders' habits. She also had been a New Yorker all of her life and I'm sure she uses the system at least sometimes, but like I said I think it depends more so on the personality. I mean some of them do care while some could care less.

 

My uncle used to use the system too when he lived in New York but he was one of those types that would say you should've taken the early bus, so I used to get a kick out of him b*tching when his bus didn't show up to get him to work. You know the whole brotherhood thing that goes on so one B/O complaining about another is a rarity.

[B35 via Church]

Absolutely, Positively not.

 

I would think my knowledge of the system (in this case, of the bus routes) would be a detriment, regarding my job performance as a potential b/o, for example.......

[QM1to6Ave]

In New York, pretty much everybody has experience with at least 1 of the MTA's transit services, so everyone is sort of on an equal footing in that regard (and the super rich people that have really never use mas transit wouldn't apply to be transit workers anyway). I think the issue is that so many New Yorkers are total dumbasses that separates the good B/O's, T/O's, etc from the rest of the crop, as they say.

 

I think it is pretty amazing that everyone outside of New York thinks you need to be slick and smart to survive in New York, when so many people here are actually oblivious morons.

[Turbo19]

All good answers though...

Absolutely, Positively not.

 

I would think my knowledge of the system (in this case, of the bus routes) would be a detriment, regarding my job performance as a potential b/o, for example.......

 

...any specific reason for feeling like that?

[B35 via Church]

...any specific reason for feeling like that?

 

I was waiting for someone to ask.

 

Reason I say that is (in the example I brought up earlier) because knowing where the next route goes, or when a route was created, or ridership habits & all that means nothing if I have to be behind the wheel driving along a different bus route, having to worry about transporting all of my passengers in the safest manner possible....

 

With me, I try to answer people's questions as best as I can (you can see evidence of that of my posts on this forum alone).... If someone asks me for directions while I'm operating the bus, and I don't have an exact answer for them at that moment & get stumped, that is gonna bug me until I get home to check out one of the online maps or w/e.... That uneasiness behind the wheel can negatively affect my judgment (b/c my mind wouldn't be 100% on what I'm paid to do), which can cost lives.....

[Turbo19]

Never thought of it in that manner. I think that if I were to enter in any job in a TA, I would strive for perfection, which like you said could adversly affect my career.