Buses, Trains and the Media

10 Great Reasons to Work in Public Transit

In the June 17 issue of the Transit Intelligence newsletter, I asked readers to share the positives of working for a transit property. I received several thoughtful answers, which I'll share here. But I'd like to hear more, if you'd care to share them as a comment to this blog. Or if you wish to e-mail them to contact@TransitTalent.com.

1. We bring people of all different ages, backgrounds, religions, nationalities, political views, interests, and income levels together.

2. We help those who are unable to get around otherwise or cannot afford cars.

3. Job security. We have lost very few jobs here at my agency, and in my 23 years, all my paychecks have been on time and have never bounced. Also, we still have a retirement package, slowly becoming a thing of the past in other industries.

4. Variety. No two days are ever the same!

5. Free transit pass. Which, in turn, encourages you to reduce your carbon footprint, potentially saves you money and allows you to observe or be in touch with your customers and familiarizes you with your community's transit system so you can do your job better.

6. We work in an industry that values modern technology, e.g., GPS, intelligent transportation systems, the Internet, mobile phones and telecommunications to inform riders and communicate with them and serve them better.

7. I enjoyed working in transit as I am a people person. Yes, there are stinkers out there, but the vast majority of employees, passengers and governing body members are good people.  Many evenings I'd
arrive home, knowing that I made a positive impact on people's lives.

8. You learn to live with things taking WAY longer than you think they should.

9. We work in an industry that does not poison, pollute, exploit, or rely on manipulation and deception to sell product.

10. In public transit, we're part of a positive trend and a revolution in America.

Special thanks to the following people for their input: Cindy Dahlgren of the Central Contra Costa Transit Authority in Concord, Calif.; Kerry Doane of the Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake City; Denis Meyers of Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority in Allentown, Pa.; Ed Park of the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County in Reno, Nev.; Herb Pence; and Dennis Siewerd of Orange County Transportation Authority in Orange, Calif.

You don't like boxes!

Had a really horrible job interview lately? It probably didn't go as badly as the one in this video!
Hope you enjoy. Thanks to Eric Shannon at JustJobs.com.

Teaching teens to behave on the bus

LexTran, the transit property in Lexington, Ky., recently canceled a free weekend ride program for students (grades 1-12)  because rowdy kids were jamming the bus to congregate at a local mall, according to an article in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

This is a sad and ironic development because the point of the program, called LexTran Launch, was to educate young people about the benefits of using public transportation.

It’s certainly not uncommon for transit systems to field complaints about teenagers who treat the inside of a bus like it’s their back yard. Their misbehavior, often punctuated with obscenities, rough-housing and vandalism, annoys and frightens many passengers. Those who can avoid using the bus probably find less-traumatic modes of transportation.

Victoria Wake, marketing and communications manager at AC Transit in Oakland, Calif., is hoping to find some ideas from other transit systems on how to address this problem.

"We're looking to develop materials, presentations, signs, and other campaign elements to address some of the problems we have with youth -- including vandalism, loud music, rowdiness, violence, etc. We'd be interested in anything other transit agencies have done and how successful you've been."

If you have anything you could share with Victoria, please e-mail her at VWake@actransit.org.

If you'd like to share your campaign ideas with a wider audience, you can post them here as a response to this entry.

Thanks!

Steve

Transit Tweets - May 12, 2009

Combing the Twitterverse for enlightening or otherwise entertaining comments about transit. . .

transit_tales: Transit Haiku: My biggest pet peeve. While riding public transit. FINGERNAIL CLIPPING!!!!!!!

legalgeekery: I've almost got the transit system down well enough to read cases instead of paying attention. Almost.

snieuw: on nj transit. On time - always a pleasant surprise.

tadawes: NJ Transit needs MUCH better communication methods. Passengers need more than the driver shouting from the bus that Dinky isn't running ...

njudah: RT @meganallison: Not down w/ nat ford snarking; he's smart guy who knows transit systems wish he would stand up for riders over cars/mayor.

velodude: http://twitpic.com/52n20 - Jimmy Fallon rides Amtrak? My first mass transit celebrity sighting!

cmeister: You know, just flashin' the BP (bus pass) like a BA (bad ass). I'm kind of the king of all things public transit.

cmcanoy: I miss the 25 cent dash buses in LA, Toronto needs to get its transit issues sorted. Great but so much room for improvement

linds_b: Go transit is so helpful sometimes... And incredibly annoying others. Mostly during rush hour.

RORWessels: I know that the enviro peeps love mass transit. But I wonder how many of them use it on a daily basis.

SeriousJobSeekR: Rode Regional Transit today...first time! Everyone was nice and helped me get where I had to go! Don't know when again, but wont hesitate!

SecondAveSagas: Do transit innovations in NYC suffer from a lack of will, a lack of imagination, a lack of political strength or some combo of all three?

chloeeloise: The guy behind me on the bus is rolling a joint. I hate Mississauga transit!

eastmanwolf: The people behind me are annoying but I'm playing eye tag with this cute guy. I can't decide if it's a good day for public transit or not.

omnivore: Los Angeles has the most confusing public transit system in the known universe.

elledeesee: Um the wierdest things on the public transit. This man in a trench coat. With a stuffed bear pokin out his pocket. No child in site. ahhh

lovingeyesbleed: First time taking public transit alone to get downtown Montreal I am scared

megashaun: People who read full-size newspapers on crowded public transit need a poke with a sharp stick.

Let me know if you find this interesting.

Steve

Should buses really compete against automobiles?

I received an e-mail recently from a public transit professional who is questioning the emphasis the industry puts on attracting choice riders. In light of funding shortfalls that have led to fare hikes and service cuts at many systems, wouldn't it make more sense for transit properties to focus their increasingly limited resources on serving the transit dependent?

Here's how this concerned transit professional framed his argument:

Promoting transit for discretionary riders seems to be a no-brainer, whether for commuting or environmental reasons. In fact, what is the point of promoting transit to the choir, the transit dependent? However, every additional rider is an additional expense. We are not a for-profit industry. We would basically save the community money by closing shop, but of course, we have a political mandate to provide transit to those who cannot drive. So putting more discretionary riders on transit does two things. First, it adds cost. With a 20% farebox recovery ratio, that means for every 1 discretionary ride, the rider pays 20% and the community must come up with 80% of the cost.  Second, discretionary riders have a higher standard of comfort and convenience. They demand cleaner buses and amenities. They want more amenities at bus stops and bus stations. They want more security. Basically, in order to get discretionary riders out of their cars, it means we have to provide competitive comfort and convenience with private cars, and in some cases those private cars are luxury BMWs and Cadillacs. Now, some may argue, improving comfort and convenience for all is not a bad idea, but would transit dependent riders truly pay higher fares for a spanking clean bus shelter versus one that is a bit dingy? When I’ve traveled the developing world, transit may not be the cleanest and most comfortable, but it’s affordable and plentiful. 

In America, a certain percentage of our population simply cannot drive. They are too young, too old, disabled, or simply too poor to afford a car. Imagine if a certain percentage of our population simply could not afford to eat. Certainly, we would subsidize their meals, let’s imagine by setting up cafeteria’s to feed them all. Would we then try to get everyone else to eat at these cafeterias? If the cost of each meal was subsidized 80%, that means for every meal, the community would have to come up with 80% of the cost. But in order to attract everyone to eat at these cafeteria’s, we would have to make them as competitive as private restaurants, add table clothes, improve the menu, use china instead of paper plates, add dishwashers, etc. Now imagine tax revenue falls, and not only would we have to increase the price of the meals, but we would start cutting back meals to the entire population. In other words, those who cannot afford to eat, eat less while those who can afford to eat, continue to get their meals subsidized. Does this make any sense?

I am sure there are many transit agencies out there that have commuter routes, and at the same time, instead of eliminating these commuter routes when revenue falls, they simply cut back service on all the routes.  Instead of simply telling discretionary riders, sorry, you have to get back into your cars, they’re telling everyone, mostly transit-dependent riders, to pay more and get less service. Is this right?

Of course, in dense cities like New York and San Francisco, transit not only serves the purpose of transporting those who cannot drive, but it also serves the purpose of mitigating what would otherwise be impossible traffic and extraordinary parking fees and lost productivity. However, in most U.S. cities downtown parking is affordable and traffic is acceptable.

Perhaps we have to shift our thinking from competing with private cars to being primarily if not exclusively the service provider for the transit dependent, guaranteeing them affordable and plentiful transportation in an automobile-designed society.

Photo: Otterman56 via Flickr

Bus drivers gone wild

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.” That’s how I used to justify incredibly flawed behavior when I was in middle school. Actually, now that I think about it, many times I knew it was a bad idea at the time – and did it anyway. That’s sorta goes with the territory when you’re 13 or 14. 

But when you’re an adult, you should not still be clinging to your seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time mantra, especially when you’re a front-line employee for a public agency. Specifically, I’m referring to two bus operators who threw good judgment out the window while they were behind the wheel.

On Feb. 28, 38-year-old Shawn Brim, a bus operator for Metro in Washington, D.C., exited his bus and allegedly punched an off-duty police officer who was dressed in a McGruff the Crime Dog costume. Brim said he did it to be funny, but probably found it less funny when police officers stopped his bus and arrested him a few minutes later. And even less funny, if that’s possible, when his employer fired him.

Not to be outdone by the hilarious Brim, a 54-year-old bus operator in Halifax, Nova Scotia, jumped out of his bus last Saturday and clubbed a fake baby seal that was part of an anti-sealing demonstration. He was not charged by police, but could face disciplinary measures by his employer, Metro Transit. My prediction: He’ll meet the same unfunny fate as the McGruff basher.

I have to admit, there is a certain zaniness to the actions of these bus operators. If Brim’s antics were part of a “Saturday Night Live” skit, you might be tempted to laugh out loud or at least chuckle appreciatively. McGruff the Crime Dog being assaulted in the middle of a lecture to young people? It’s definitely ironic. Now, clubbing a baby seal is not ever funny, but it was a fake baby seal. OK, that’s still not funny.

In any case, these weren’t skits. The bus operators took these disrespectful actions while they were on the job in front of customers and the general public.Their impulsiveness damaged the reputation of their peers and the public transportation industry as a whole.

Until next time.

Steve

Update: On March 16, Metro Transit suspended the bus operator who allegedly clubbed the fake baby seal pending an investigation.

Where to draw the line on bad judgment

We all exercise poor judgment, some more often than others. But most of us are not in the public spotlight, where misbehavior and lawlessness have become fodder for the local newspaper, blogs and, most embarrassingly, YouTube.

If the average citizen has one too many beers after a round of golf and is later arrested for drunk driving, no one except friends and relatives would know or care about it. But what about, say, the general manager of a transit system? Or one of the department heads?

It's likely that the local newspaper and/or TV station would take notice if a public administrator showed up on the police blotter. The question is, where do you draw the line between personal and professional behavior?

You don't have to look very far for examples of public officials who've gotten whipsawed in the media for personal indiscretions. Consider Eliot Spitzer or, more distantly, Bill Clinton. Or how about Sam Adams, the mayor of Portland, Ore., who denied having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old intern during his recent campaign, only to recant after winning the election.

Where do you think the line should be drawn? That is, at one point should a transit GM's off-work behavior become an issue of job performance and possible disciplinary action?    

Click here to provide your response. Or you can post your response here on this blog.

Thanks.

Steve

Not many fake jobs in the transit business

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal warns job seekers about fake online job postings. These ads are used by career-marketing firms to sell their services to people who think they're applying for real jobs. Or, worse, they're used by identity thieves to phish for Social Security numbers or other personal information.

These fake job listings are most often found on the big job boards like Monster or Careerbuilder, but I'm sure they occasionally are posted on niche boards like mine, TransitTalent.com. If you ever use my job board and discover that a job ad is bogus, please let me know right away. The transit industry is small enough that I know who most of the employers are, but I never want to underestimate the ingenuity of scam artists, especially since the recession is probably taking a toll on them too.

Until next time.

Steve

It's even tough to get a job as a transit bus operator!

How do you know when the unemployment situation is getting really dire? When transit agencies stop accepting applications for bus driver positions.

As folks who work in the transit industry know, recruiting bus operators can be a tough proposition during normal times. Although bus drivers who have several years of tenure can earn a decent income, the job can be incredibly demanding -- not only because you have to pilot a 40-foot bus through heavy traffic, but also because you occasionally have to deal with customers who are unruly, drunk, stupid or just plain mean.

With so many people out of work, however, a job behind the wheel of a transit bus doesn't seem like such a bad thing, as the folks at Coast Mountain Bus Co. in greater Vancouver, British Vancouver, have discovered. At a three-day job fair, they collected 1,500 applications, about three times more than normal and have temporarily stopped accepting more applications.

Here in the U.S., things are not much different.

Julia Best, an HR specialist at Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority in Cincinnati, said she's seen a nearly 300% increase in applications for bus operator positions, which offer a starting pay of $13.19 an hour. They are still accepting applications, however.

In Tampa, Fla., Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) has not been accepting applications for bus drivers for a few months now. Earlier this month, it did post a listing for bus operators on its website. In one week, it generated 92 applications. "All for four openings," said Walt Blichasz, HART's HR coordinator. "Overall, our application intake has been extreme, for any job posted."

And in California, the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District has seen three times as many applications during bus operator recruitments in the past several months and is not listing the opening on its website. 

Unfortunately, this silver lining has a dark cloud attached to it. Blichasz said he's concerned that some newly hired bus operators will quit their jobs once the economy recovers and more suitable positions become available. In the meantime, he said, HART will focus on hiring the best qualified candidates, especially those with exceptional customer service skills.

"We can and will train anyone to drive our vehicles," he said. "Without outstanding customer service skills, they could be the best driver in the world, but we will take a second look at them in lieu of someone who brings more customer service skills to the job."

What Walt's really saying is that they're looking for people who can handle customers who are unruly, drunk, stupid or just plain mean -- with a smile.

Until next time.

Steve

10 Great Transit Systems to Work For

OK. I said that I was done with the blog thing, but I'm coming out of retirement to post a list of 10 transit systems that have persuaded me that they are great places to work.

For the record, more than 200 transit systems in the U.S. and Canada were contacted to participate in this competition, which was sponsored by Metro Magazine and my company, TransitTalent.com. Of those, 37 actually submitted an application. Of those, 20 were selected as finalists. And, of those, 10 were chosen to be profiled based on their application form and an employee survey.

So, without further preamble, here's the list of "10 Great Transit Systems to Work For" (in alphabetical order):

1. Alexandria Transit Co. - Alexandria, Va.

2. Capital Area Transportation Authority - Lansing, Mich.

3. Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District - Urbana, Ill.

4. Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority - Dayton, Ohio

5. Greater Hartford Transit District - Hartford, Conn.

6. GRTC Transit System - Richmond, Va.

7. Orange County Transportation Authority - Orange, Calif.

8. Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada - Las Vegas

9. Riverside Transit Agency - Riverside, Calif.

10. Sunline Transit Agency - Thousand Palms, Calif.

I invite you to provide any feedback on my choices. As in most of these types of competition (e.g., Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For), there are usually dissenting opinions on the selections, especially from former employees.

Until next time.

Steve

PS: Looking for a career in transit? Check out the current job listings on my website.