By Neala Barton
Imagine working a job where you know, once a week, a customer will spit on you or one of your co-workers. Or, in some cases, verbally abuse you. Or physically attack you.
If the situation doesn’t sound appealing, you might not want to work as a bus driver for OC Transpo. Because, according to the head of the local union representing them, bus drivers take this type of behaviour from riders all the time.
Not surprisingly, they’re sick of it.
So, they’re making a request: they want surveillance cameras on buses, and they want partitions or screens to separate them from passengers. They want what most people take for granted: to feel safe doing their job.
“There is no more respect. People don’t respect their bus drivers,” says André Cornellier, president of the local chapter of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
He says drivers face constant confrontation from passengers, in ways that most nine-to-fivers rarely have to deal with.
“They wouldn’t stand people coming up to them and spitting on them,” he says.
Drivers don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing who they’re going to take for a ride.
Passengers come from all walks of life, all levels of sobriety, and all states of mind.
“The [driver], he’s behind the wheel, he’s tense,” says Fernand Leroux, who’s been driving an OC Transpo bus for nearly 39 years.
In his time on the road, he’s seen a lot change in this city, particularly passengers’ attitudes.
“We’re driving behind the wheel and some of the people think we’re a bunch of nobodies. I don’t want to be treated that way,” he says.
Leroux says if passengers aren’t going to shape up, he wants his job made safer.
The problem? As with most decisions that require government approval, gratification is rarely instant.
The ones with the power to make safer transit happen sit on city council, not behind the wheel of a bus. It’s easy for council to tell drivers everything is peachy keen, that there’s no need to worry.
But “they’re not behind the wheel 14 or 15 hours a day. They don’t know,” says Leroux.
Thankfully, there are some changes coming. OC Transpo has requested roughly $4 million from Transport Canada to equip one third of its fleet with surveillance cameras, though there’s still no word on when, or whether, the feds will write a cheque. In the meantime, OC Transpo is working with police to train 37 special constables to patrol buses and ensure passengers stay in line.
But legal enforcement isn’t enough. Passengers have to change their attitudes too, and show drivers some appreciation. Getting uppity about late buses, traffic jams, or unannounced stops isn’t constructive or respectful.
Drivers aren’t the only ones responsible for the city’s transit system, or its flaws. When it comes down to it, they’re merely the unlucky front line forced to deal with slighted riders who, once in a while, turn their quiet griping into violent confrontations.
So, as a city, Ottawa needs to cut drivers some slack or be willing to pay extra to keep them safe.
Yes, putting cameras and protective screens on buses won’t be cheap. But without a change in passengers’ aggressive attitudes, the cost of not buying them could be higher because, as Leroux stresses, when it comes to confrontations on buses, “anything can happen, and anything can explode.”