And Now I REALLY Wish That I Was Better at Driving My Truck

Oh HAI, it’s me. The girl who never posts. I’m taking time out of my busy schedule of not posting to bring you this angry rant about why the MBTA truly sucks and how sick I am of taking the bus to work. It makes me want to go out and buy a Hummer to drive everywhere with the windows down and the A/C blasting. Maybe stop on my way to chop down some old growth trees and club a few baby seals.

And I’m a damn dirty hippie. You know that I’m mad when I start to threaten the baby seals.

This is the letter that I just sent to the MBTA:

“Dear Ms. Dubose,

I am writing to you about the general quality of service on the 101 from Malden Center and about a particular incident that I witnessed this week. Twice, in the past week, the 101 has been 30-45 minutes late. On Thursday, August 28th I waited from 8:10 until about 9:00am. There should have been buses at 8:18, 8:30 and 8:45. On Tuesday, September 2nd, I once again waited from about 8:30 until 9:15am. There should have been buses at 8:30, 8:45 and 9:00. This is an unacceptable level of service. Twice in the past week I have been late for work because I waited for buses that never came. It has gotten to the point where I have considered alternative means of transportation. I work in academia, I cannot afford to be late for work this time of year.

Even worse is the appalling behavior that I witnessed by the driver of bus 0346 on Tuesday morning. There were many disgruntled passengers (we had, after all, been waiting entirely too long for the bus). When one of them mentioned that the bus was late and asked why, she went ballistic on him. This man never raised his voice or said anything inappropriate. He simply asked why the bus was so late. Instead of answering his question or ignoring him, she began shouting at him at the top of her lungs, threatening to kick him off of the bus if he mentioned us being late again. She also yelled at all of the bus passengers, telling us that we were all in danger of being kicked off if any of us dared to mention the bus being late. Quite frankly, it was frightening. I know that I was not the only passenger to be disturbed by her threats. She was loudly screaming, red in the face, completely out of control. She didn’t even limit her remarks and anger to the one passenger who angered her. Her ire was directed at all of the passengers on the bus, none of whom had said so much as a word about the bus being late.

When the man who had angered her told her that he was going to call the customer service line, she went berserk. Finally, she turned the bus off and told us that none of us would be going anywhere until the man got off of the bus. Luckily, there was another bus behind us (her bus was, after all, very late). Every single passenger chose to get off the bus and get on the other one in order to avoid having to ride with a driver who had completely lost in. The driver left, at this point, to get the transit police. I stayed back, along with several other passengers, to defend her target and to let the police know that she had gone ballistic without any real provocation.

Quite frankly, I am fed up with the MBTA at this point. I try to take public transportation as much as possible, but when I show up to work 45 minutes late, shaking and upset from being screamed at and berated by one of your drivers, it makes me want to drive to work every single day. I should be able to take the bus to work without worrying that I won’t make it in time and I should be able to enjoy the ride without being terrorized by MBTA employees. I would like to know what the MBTA plans to do to address the service issues with the 101 bus in the mornings and to ensure that the driver of bus 0346 is not allowed to further bully and scream at innocent passengers.

Thank you for your time,
Hope Roth”

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I try to take public transportation. I really do. The majority of day I take the bus to work, even though it adds a good 20 minutes to my commute (each way). But the MBTA is starting to feel like that boyfriend that you know is really bad for you and is maybe a little emotionally abusive. You know he’s no good for you. You know that he does you wrong. But you just don’t know anything different. 

I could drive, but it’s more expensive and I would spend the entire commute feeling guilty about greenhouse gases and hoping that Al Gore won’t show up at our house to bore me to death with a powerpoint about global warming. Or put a cap in my ass. Because, you know, once you have an Emmy, an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize, you’ve got a certain level of street cred to maintain.

I could bike, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I would get flattened like a pancake. Malden is about as friendly to bikers as the Sahara Desert is to polar bears. Which is to say, not very friendly at all. Unless you’re J. J. Abrams. 

So, the bus and I are probably stuck together for now. Hopefully my letter will do something. Otherwise, I will probably find myself driving a little more often. Sigh.