What I have is more of a suggestion than a complaint. I was on the bus tonight and witnessed a badly-handled incident that I think is symptomatic of what causes Metro Transit to have a bad reputation among the public of HRM: really bad people skills. This incident could have been prevented if the driver had any people skills whatsover.

A woman got on the bus and was upset because the driver passed by her. Even though it was between stops, she was waving frantically. Instead of giving her a nice, polite explanation, he was pretty short. This enflamed the passenger, and she called him an asshole. Immediately, the driver called the inspector and had her physically removed from the bus.

When I got off the bus, I basically told him the public would have a better opinion of him if he improved his people skills and tried talking to people before ejecting them. He was civil to me about it, but pretty much disagreed, citing his prerogative not to be sworn at. Sure, kicking someone off the bus for calling you an asshole is a judgement call, and I wouldn't complain about that.

However, is it really necessary when the woman is not causing a disruption or anything, and the situation could have been resolved easily with a little DIPLOMACY? If I didn't know that he had to get going, I would have told him I deal with people in my job, too, but no one has ever called me an asshole or told me to F off because I know how to deal with people, and do not enflame them so they get to that point. I really wanted to put it plainly too him, but didn't because I couldn't do so without calling him an asshole, too: "PEOPLE WOULDN'T THINK YOU WERE AN ASSHOLE IF YOU STOPPED ACTING LIKE ONE!"

That's why people have such a low opinion of Metro Transit. They need to train their drivers in "people skills." I don't think the driver in this incident is a bad guy or a bad driver, but it's badly-handled incidents like this that give Metro Transit as a whole a bad reputation. I have not included any details about which bus I was riding, since my problem is with how Metro Transit trains their drivers in general, not with one individual driver.

Signed,
Ranting Diplomat with a Bus Pass