Sonnetoptics.net

So wow, here we are at the end of the year.

Everyone is gearing up for the holidays and heading to the mall.

That’s ok for me I get paid by the hour so mall traffic converts to bus driver pay in my book.

Its all money in theory, then it happens… You make a mistake.. for me it was something I did last week.

            Before I get on with the story I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all the great bus driver at Trimet. To all those who have helped me out over the last three years. I would be suffering greatly were it not for the help of these wonderful people. Nothing is better then walking into work and feeling at home, surrounded by friends and supported by your co-workers. In my years on this earth I have to tell you of all the places I have worked nothing beats walking into Powell Garage.

            A transit garage is only as good as it’s station agents and Powell has some of the best. They have always helped me when they could, like getting me off work a little early the day before my operation. Moving my start time when someone crashed into me on the road. The men and women station agents at Powell are second to none and they deserve high praise.

            The Mechanic live in their own world, I seldom see them and deal with them even less. All the mechanics at Trimet do a great job to be sure. That so many busses and so many old busses even run at all is a tribute to their diligent and constant efforts. Some busses are out for twenty hours in a day, almost every day. Think of how long a car would last driven like that.

            Another unsung hero is the people who clean our busses fill the fluids and wash the outside. Rain, shine or snow this crew is hard at work. Every day when I get in my bus for work I know it’s going to be clean. They do a thankless job that starts when most people are going to sleep and ends in the wee hours of the morning. These men and woman are half machine and half Vampire bat and are nothing but helpful.  The yard crew of any transit system is a measure of how dedicated a transit company is to doing a good job. Cut corners here and it shows.

            Ok the thanks are done

            Now My Confession

            I screwed up.

            Not just little screwed up, I screwed up big time.

            Not “don’t turn on the blender before you put the top on
 or “don’t forget to wipe your feet before romping across the across your newly cleaned carpet”. I’m talking about slap your forehead screwed up. The kind of screw up that makes you think. Should I even be doing this job?

            When it is heavy traffic time the worse place to be driving is a mall. Now Trimet has this belief system of integrating transit centers with malls. This idea works great 98% of the years but in the weeks leading up to charismas this idea is a bust. On this particular day I was driving two buses we will call the first one the long run #72, and the second one the short Roundy-round #79.

            One of the strange artifacts of Trimet thinking is the split shift. For me it was the long run first for a four hour shift, going in and out of the mall on one end then driving all the way across Portland.  The problem is driving through the mall makes you so late that you start in a great big time hole. Now it’s raining and traffic is heavy because of all the shoppers and you cant make up any time so you fall further and further behind. Each time I reach my end of a run break I’m already late to leave. So I run to the bathroom, buy some water and dive back into it. The longer break I take at one end, steals from the other end so you have to move to stay even remotely on time. By remotely I mean not on time at all.

            The problem started with my relief point. You see I have a half hour from when the new driver takes over the long run at 82^nd and Powell and the time I have to pick up my new run at Clackamas Town Center. Usually no problem but around Christmas. big problem! It means I have to stand in the same bus I just turned over to another driver and hold on. Jumping in and out of the bus to let people get on and get off because it’s crowded. By the time we get to the short round-round run.. yup, I’m late.

            Same problem with the short little Roundy round run except it’s more so because I have to hit the mall way more often then the long run. I arrive at each break late to leave for my next run. This goes on for almost five more hours until I snap.            

            We have a great communication system that is not always fast but it seldom goes down. For me it had to go down this night. I was unable to contact my dispatch and I was at my wits end. For most people regular beaks and lunch times are covered by law but not for bus drivers. You have to make it happen some days and that some day was now.

            When I was at my whit’s I was grumpy, pissed off and mean. I pulled in to the turn around and said “Big Dan you get 15 minutes out of your day to stretch the knots out of your leg, eat something, drink something and rest up.” This combined with the time I was already late eat up almost one entire round trip.

            Then, At the last moment it hit me.

            I checked my schedule… half a trip left..

            Then I checked the schedule book. Usually two busses do this run but a quick check of the schedule showed me that I was the only bus on the rout this late at night effectively doubling how long people had to wait out there.

            I was the only bus.

            I felt so bad.

             I started my last run, supposedly a one way trip without a return to the mall by apologizing to everyone I picked up. When I saw people across the street waiting for a returning bus that would never come. I stopped picked them up and told them I would make a trip back to the mall even if I was supposed to go back to the garage. My intention had not been to get out of work, it was to take a break to remained human not a nasty grumpy bus driver. I promised them all I would get them to the end of the line and back.

            I heard everyone’s storey, how many were going to work, how many were picking up kids, how many had family waiting for them, how many had connections. The more I heard the worse I felt. I had not considered the human impact my decision would have. If had it to do all over I would have sucked up the courage to take my break earlier to minimize the impact.

            I did a late return trip, picked up a few more people and got them to their connections except one guy who needed a max train that would not go where he needed it to go for forty minutes because we missed the early train. I could not bare it. His work was ten minutes from my garage and after hearing the worry in his voice and seeing the tears in his eyes about how much he needed this part time job, I promised him I would get him there.

            Tried to call dispatch again but nothing was working so I headed back to the garage with a brief side trip to the hospital where this guy was the night fire watch and strangely, was named Dan as well. When he got off he told me he was going to say a prayer for me.

            I asked him to say a prayer for all bus drivers. He laughed and said he would.

            He made it on time but I was forty minutes late getting back to the garage.

            I didn’t feel bad about taking a break but I felt awful about the impact it could have had on others if I had not made that extra trip. I didn’t write it up for over time because I felt that it was half my fault and didn’t want to deal with it.

            I was done.

            The Christmas rush puts pressure on us all.

            Pressures can cloud your thinking as it clouded mine. Sometime under pressure we do things or say things that are the opposite of what the Christmas season is all about. Sometime you have to go that extra mile to make up for the mistakes you make or the people you impact.

I did the best I could, I fixed it the best I could. Nothing more to say except Merry Christmas!

Roll Easy Friends, Roll Easy.

Update on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 11:40PM by [Dan Christensen]

Ok so today I had the same run, The same situation and this time it all ended differently. This time our location/communication system was running and before I reached the breaking point our wonderful dispatch called and sent out a bus to cover a run while I had a break... That's the way it's done. No guilt and I got a break. YES!