Below are the 15 most recent journal entries recorded in luv_your_driver's LiveJournal:

Friday, August 25th, 2006
3:09 pm	Who is driving now? *sigh* I've been avoiding posting this here, but it has to be done I guess. I quit (a few seconds before being fired) a few weeks ago so I'm no longer working for Metro. It was fun while it lasted, but now it's time to move on. I have to say that Metro was a fantastic place to work. I never thought I could have such a positive experience with such a large bureaucracy! The overwhelming majority of supervisors and other admin people I encountered were genuinely helpful, caring, and wanting to do a good job. There was very little of the dull, plodding, government worker attitude that I expected to encounter. I hold no grudge against Metro for wanting to fire me. They gave me a lot of chances and I just ran out, that's all. I won't go in to detail, but it was just my personal life in vast turmoil that effected my work performance. They had much more patience with me than *I* would have had in their position. So, anyway, that's the end of this chapter. If you'd like to join me over at my personal journal you are very welcome. I am also pocketlama at flickr.com if you want some photographic evidence. Be well, ride safe, and have fun! Mac Support my businesses----------- Merchandise: Funny, Political, Dogs, Rats ---------- Mac's Critter Care. Caring for your Seattle animals. --------- (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 1st, 2006
12:38 am	A couple of public service announcements To be clear, I'm sure no one *here* does any of these things... PSA #1: Turn Signals I know many people seem to think these were installed in their cars just to keep them from talking on the phone, putting on make-up, or reading books, but you might be surprised to learn that they actually have a purpose! Read on while I tell you a secret they never taught you in drivers ed. If you actually use your signals before making a turn or lane change, you can avoid causing or being in accidents. It's amazing, I know, but it's true. Something so simple can have such profound effects. There is a whole other group of people who *do* use their signals to announce, "Hey, look at me! I'm in the middle of a lane change or turn! Aren't I doing a great job?" You may be surprised to learn how few people actually care what a "good job" you're doing. In fact, most people don't even notice because they are busy slamming on their brakes, and swerving to avoid you or the other cars you put in harms way by not signaling before you made the lane change or turn! So here's a really radical idea. I know it will take some getting used to, what with having never learned to do it in driver's ed and all. I'm suggesting that you actually anticipate your turn or lane change ahead of time so you can signal before you complete the action! I know it seems strange, but you can save lives with this one action. Just try it, and see. When you think, "I need to turn, or shift lanes," turn on your turn signal before you look over your shoulder, then look, and then complete the action. (Looking over your shoulder to check for upcoming or blocking traffic is an advanced technique and will be covered in a future lesson.) Look around you and what will you see? Nothing. No one swerving to avoid you, no one flipping you off because they had to put down their books to slam on the brakes, and no flaming death. I know it's boring, but it is more civilized and that's all we can hope for, isn't it? PSA #2: Merging Here's another radical concept for you to dig. Slamming on your brakes is not always the best reaction when faced with danger or when nervous (or when getting to a particularly interesting passage in your book). In fact there are occasions where it is actually preferable for you to step on the accelerator! (Contrary to what your driver's ed teacher told you, your car will not explode if you depress the accelerator too quickly.) Let's put this into practice, shall we? Let's say you're entering the freeway and you're far away from the city (or it's during the five minutes a day there isn't a back up) so the traffic is actually going faster than 10mph. You'll eventually want to be going somewhere close to the same speed as the rest of the traffic, right? This is why proper merging is important. Otherwise you'll be left sitting on the side of the road cursing because no one stopped to let you in. (Also, this is where the real exploding vehicles enter the picture...) I'm going to ask you to forget everything you were ever taught and go with me here. Next time you enter the freeway, try accelerating rather than riding your brakes. Look in the mirror (another advanced technique) and anticipate when there will be a gap available for you to fit in, speed up to match speed with the gap (don't forget your turn signal!!), look in your mirror, and make your move deliberately (squeeze, don't pull!) and confidently. Contrary to all the laws of nature, the world won't stop spinning, the poles won't reverse their polarity, and no one will explode. In fact nothing will happen, except that you will be going the proper speed and no one will die. (And for goodness sake, when you want to make a lane change on the freeway, don't come to a complete stop in moving traffic and wait for a chance to change lanes. It won't work, trust me.) Summary Using these two simple techniques you will have a positive effect on others that will ripple out into the world. Eventually there will be peace in the Middle East, and it will all be because of you! Knowing that, is it too much to ask for you to use your fucking turn signals?? (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 26th, 2006
10:06 am	Off route pocketlama posted this in his journal. I thought you'd enjoy it: _______________________________________________________________________ You see, if you're driving for Metro and call in to tell them you'vegotten off route, you'll get in trouble.  So many drivers just don'tlet them know and try to find their way back on their own.  It can leadto some troubling outcomes... (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 14th, 2006
12:48 pm	Wanting contact... Many years ago, during one of my many attempts at college and university (6!), I was on a small team of students making a documentary of our choice. We were two outsider-liberals, and one communist, so naturally we decided on homelessness as a topic. We wandered the city, went to shelters, and even went to one of the "jungles" (those places along 1-5 where there are whole encampments of people deep in the bushes and trees, hidden from most people's gaze. One of the things I discovered on that journey was that the homeless and the street people are (surprise!) human beings. They've got kids and parents and siblings. They mostly didn't sign up for this, and we couldn't find one person who tried to shift the responsibility for their "plight" to some outside force. It was good for me to be able to stop seeing them as "other." One of the things several people talked about (and I've heard this from other since) is their feeling of being invisible. People won't look at them, they avoid contact, and some of these folks can go a whole day without meaningful interaction with another human being. So, I decided early on that I could do one thing at least. I could acknowledge the presence of everyone I encountered. I could look people in the eye, nod, or smile. Initially I was nervous, because I thought that this acknowledgment would be seen as an invitation to more interaction than I was comfortable with. The panhandlers would not let me go, or the crazies would latch on to me. I might even get assaulted because someone might see my gaze as a threat. I learned quickly, though, that it was very easy to give the look/nod/smile in a way that didn't invite interaction, but just said, "I see you, I acknowledge you, and I respect you." Only rarely does someone see that as an open door to come closer. If it's a panhandler, I smile, shake my head, and say, "I'm sorry, no," and I walk on. I have never had a problem with that. It's firm but not rude, and most everyone gets it. For me, I think it's a matter of showing respect, and not showing fear or nervousness. It's both nice and it's safe. (Three different times I have diffused potential muggings or beatings by that direct look with a smile, as if I didn't know what was going on, but also showing I wasn't afraid.) I firmly believe that I am safer because I don't move through the world in fear, and I also believe that I have been able to impact the lives of many people in at least a small way by showing that respect. Clearly this way isn't for everyone, but if you have the inclination, I urge you to give it a try. The freedom is wonderful! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 13th, 2006
11:28 pm	He drove her out of darkness (A comment by omg_teh_funnay reminded me to make this post.) This is a Seattle times article by Danny Westneat. It's from last year and requires free registration to read, so I'm including the entire thing. There is a nemorial plaque and picture at every bus base I've been to, for the driver mentioned in the article. ( Cut for size ) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 12th, 2006
6:56 pm	Snow Day (another memory) I'm not writing that much at the moment because I'm unavoidably absent from work... Make of that what you will. I so have a memory from a couple of years ago, though. ( Cut for length ) (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 7th, 2006
11:28 am	I found this at this page. (Warning: not all of the pictures elsewhere in his journal are as work safe as these are, so don't wander unless you're prepared!) ( Cut for work-safe pictures ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 4th, 2006
9:29 pm	It's got two humps So it's called a Camel. (From Havana) Picture found on this page, Camel originally seen on drugoi's journal. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
12:13 am	A memory When driving the 3/4 or the 7 and 9 or the 14, or some other such route, I love Friday evenings. On those routes, you see, I'm more likely to get the occasional couple out for a date. Sometimes, if I'm really lucky, it's a first date. You can tell by the hesitance, and deference, and the clothes so shiny and *just so*. Usually it's kids still in, or just out of, high school, but one time it was a black woman and man, in their 40s. She was dressed in a shiny, black dress, with sequins sweeping over one shoulder, and very high heels. He was in a long suit with a small, round, collar and pointed shoes. They must be going out dancing, I thought as they stepped onto the bus. I watched as the man waited for the woman to get on first, and reached out a hand to her side, near her elbow, in case she slipped. She stood there quietly as he paid, and then they moved tentatively off into the bus. I closed the door, and pulled out into the night traffic of Rainier Ave, heading toward downtown. As I merged into the traffic, I saw that he had just asked her where she would like to sit. She said something I didn't hear, and he responded, "If you don't mind, I prefer not to sit in the back of the bus. When I sit back there, I'm reminded that we were once *forced* to be back there, and it makes me sad." I looked in the mirror then, and tried to see her face as she replied again in a voice that was too quiet for me to hear. I wanted to see if she was pleased, or uncomfortable, or just shy. Then I entered a turn and had to pay full attention to the road, the parked cars on one side the speeding cars on the other, and the kids running along the sidewalk playing (in case they veered out into the street for some reason) so I didn't see her reaction. When I was able to look at them again, they were sitting in a middle seat. She was upright, with her hands in her lap, head tilted slightly toward him, as he said something into her ear. She smiled, he laughed, and I drove on, into the rainy night. Later, as they got off the bus, I said, "good evening... and best wishes." If she heard me I couldn't tell, but he paused briefly to turn his head and nod at me with a happy and satisfied expression. Occasionally I remember them, and wonder what their lives are like now. Are they together? When she gets on the bus alone, does she sit in the back or has she begun to move to the front? Is he really as kind, and she reserved, as they appeared? Sometimes I would like to know, but other times I am just as happy to have that one little discrete moment in time with them. (19 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 3rd, 2006
10:30 pm	Human Behavior Experiments Tonight Sunday, at 11pm, on Court TV they are repeating Human Behavior Experiments, a show documenting a couple of famous experiments undertaken by researchers to see people's reactions to authority and to group and individual pressure. One is the The Stanford Prison experiment, where "24 college students from the U.S. and Canada who happened to be in the Stanford area and wanted to earn $15/day by participating in a study..." were divided randomly into prisoners and guards, and put into a "jail" in the basement of one of the Stanford buildings. The 24 students were screened to eliminate those with histories of mental instability, drug use, and other things that took them out of the mainstream. They had to stop the two week experiment in just six days, because the prisoners were having emotional breakdowns and the guards were becoming so sadistic that they were a danger to the prisoners. Another of the experiments covered in the documentary is the 'Milgram obedience experiments,' that tested the idea that people where much more susceptible to authority than previously realized. The experiments had subjects administering electric shocks to other "subjects" (actually people working with the researchers), who were in the next room and answering questions. The subjects were to increase the shocks with every "wrong" answer, until the people in the next room were screaming in pain, and even having convulsions. If there was someone in "authority" telling them to go on, they would continue to apply the shocks. If left alone they would stop and go for help. Then the documentary ties these experiments to some real life stories, the most recent of which is the Abu Gharib scandal. **** The reason I'm posting this, is because of real life things I see on the bus all the time. How, if an old, challenged, or blind, person comes on the bus I sometimes need to turn and point to a specific person to get them to move. Otherwise people just sit there staring at each other. Or when something goes wrong, like I go off route or miss someone standing at a stop, often no one will say anything, assuming that the person in authority knows what's going on. I think about how common it is to have a bus full of silent passengers while a person abuses someone else verbally or physically. It's easy to think that this is cowardice on the passenger's part, but these experiments show that it runs much deeper than that simple explanation. We, as humans, seem to have a deep need/desire/drive to be like the others, to fit in, to be a part of a hierarchy of some kind (even if it's a sub-hierarchy like the prisoners!). **** A real life story illustrating this is when I was riding the bus downtown, and another driver said, "Look, that man is getting the shit kicked out of him, and people are just walking right past!" (She then drove on to the next stop and completed her route without calling the police.) I got off on the next stop, ran back, and got there just as another man stepped in between the two. I also stepped in between, and the "shit-kicker" ran off, while the kickie got up and staggered to lean against the wall. I didn't feel particularly brave, I just felt "something should be done" and I did it without thinking. As I walked home that night, I thought about all the times in my life that I *didn't* do something, and wondered what had changed in me. Certainly I was just as fearful for my safety as previously. Seeing this show, I realize that I had over time just moved out of that automatic mind-set of looking to others for clues on how to behave, and I was growing into a real individual. Seeing this show helped me to frame these experiences differently, and to move from a moral/ethical viewpoint to a less judgmental one. Aw geez, the show is about to start now. Look on Court TV and see if it's on again, it's well worth your time! (I have it taped, by the way.) (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 1st, 2006
12:57 am	Why I don't care if you pay the fare When I went through driver training with Metro, they made it clear that fare-evaders are not our problem, as drivers. The vast majority of physical and verbal assaults evolve from fare disputes. Metro's policy for drivers is to, avoid fare-disputes completely. If the operator wishes, she *may* state the fare, one time, to the customer. That's pretty clear to me. As soon as they said that, I stopped paying attention to all the parts of training and to all the parts of the manual (also known as "The Book") that mentioned fares. The only things I know are because enough customers asked me and I had to look it up each time so I remembered. You must remember, though, that this is Metro's policy for *drivers*, not for customers. For customers, it's pay the fare or you may be arrested. If I state the fare to you, and you refuse to pay, and there's a cop there or I report you and a cop comes, you will be arrested. How often does that happen? Not very, but you should still know it. Some drivers get so bitter over this stuff, but I say, why sweat it? It's between you and your ethics (and the cop who may be there) to decide. It's really none of my business. That said, there *have* been a few times where I got bothered by fare-evaders. There was the business man, in a nice suit who, every day, shorted me by half. I would have rather he not paid at all. Then there are the people who blow past me without looking and then laugh about it in the back. That's disrespectful and it does bug me. There was one kid that I used to pick up that did that to me for a few weeks in a row. He was a little bastard, and he was reveling in getting over on me. One day I just shut the door in his face, then I opened it and said, "you can't come on board again until you pay your fare." I left him standing there with a sour expression on his face. A few days later he came with his fare, and I was nice to him like all the other kids. He started riding again, but he always paid, and he even started saying, "thank you." (You know, I'd forgotten about this, but the *other* kids on the bus started being more respectful after I did that to him. I didn't embarass him in front of his friends or the rest of the bus, I waited until I could get him alone and I think they saw that and saw that I gave and asked for respect. They showed it to me by quieting down a bit, and saying thank you more when they left.) I'll admit, it's sometimes a bit embarrassing to me when someone askes what the fare is to Tacoma and I can't answer. I just shrug it off, though. *smile* (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
10:30 am	Why I do the things I do I find myself with a few minutes of my own, this morning, so I thought I would give you my perspective on two things that may have pissed you off in the past. ( Part I Pedestrians ) ******** ( Part II Cars entering the roadway ) Be safe out there! (26 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 29th, 2006
11:56 pm	One more before bed... I was just sitting here remembering all my trips through the Intl. District and all the times I missed lights because The World's Slowest Little Old Chinese Man was "running" across the street and didn't make it before the light turned red. I used to sit there looking at him running in such a determined way, each foot moving forward very quickly... one inch... He took *forever* but he tried so hard! It was actually quite a while before I realized there wasn't just one "World's Slowest Little Old Chinese Man," but several who all ran the same way and all took just as long to get across the street. What's up with that? It's like that Little Old Lady With The Walker. Boy does *she* get around! (8 Comments |Comment on this)
5:45 pm	What a response! I know this is important stuff to me, but I didn't realize my post would get this kind of a response. Very cool! I'm too busy at the moment, but I'm wondering if we should have a community, because I'd like to hear your stories as well! Can I just switch this to community, or do I have to make a whole new one? Nah... I should keep this one to keep track of my stuff.... What do you think? seattle_transit? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
1:29 pm	A thought on riding the bus... I'm a bus driver for Metro, and I thought I'd introduce myself, and say a couple of things, for those of you that might care about this stuff. I'm going to try to write semi-regularly about this stuff, and I welcome questions and honest discussion. Recently I've been thinking about the difference in perceptions between drivers and passengers, and between passengers and *other* passengers. Personally I have a very high tolerance for varying personalities and sanity in my passengers. I work with the philosophy that most people who ride the bus are there because they need to be there, rather than because they want to make anyone else's lives more difficult and this is the way they choose to do it. I realize that many drivers, and many more members of the general public find this attitude difficult to understand, but there you go... I'm a rebel. Seriously, I mostly drive city routes, and the majority of those passengers ride the bus because they can't afford a car, can't drive because they are too young/old/poor/drugged/or not drugged enough, or for any number of other reasons most often out of their control. I'll be honest, it's not always easy to maintain my calm, and pleasant, mental state. Frankly, until you've driven a bus, you can have no idea the sheer magnitude of crap we deal with on a moment to moment basis. It can build up and take me over, but I really fight it... For instance, I work very hard to remember that this may be the very first time you've ever asked that particular question in your entire life, while I've probably heard it (in the 5 years I've been driving), well over a thousand times, and perhaps you're the 10th person in a row to ask it on that particular trip. You can see there's a disconnect there between your experience and my experience. I try to remember that. Also with those of you who come on with mental and physical challenges, I make a special effort to be accommodating, because I see the shit you have to deal with from some other drivers, as well as some of the other passengers. People who use wheelchairs have spoken eloquently to me about their daily mental struggle (in addition to all the physical hardships they deal with) to maintain positive mental state in the face of the obvious exasperation of some drivers and passengers. They talk about seeing drivers and passengers both reacting to their presence on the sidewalk as the bus pulls into the zone (we can forget that the windows work both ways and people see us in there). If you pay attention when people in wheelchairs get on the bus, you'll hear a fair number of them apologizing as they get on, for this very reason. However they have learned to deal with it, they *know* they are inconveniencing us and it wears on them. I try to remember this... The same thing goes for many of the people with mental challenges. It's easy to forget that many people causing a ruckus or making us uncomfortable, are fully aware of what a scene they are making, but are powerless to stop it for whatever reason. Another driver told me about talking to a group of people, with mental challenges, learning to ride the bus, and hearing one of them speak of how terrifying it was for him to go to that bus stop, knowing that the he would probably "act out" in some way, but also knowing it was his only way to get to the doctor or store or whatever. I had never realized that, and it changed my perception. Anyway, I'll stop here. Perhaps I'll learn to write more sparingly eventually, but I've got a lot in my head, and many stories... Be safe out there! (26 Comments |Comment on this)