What would you have done?
What do you think I should do now?
On Tuesday, February 5 (today), I caught Bus 57 from Forest Grove towards Beaverton Transit Center. I got on the bus at 1:44 p.m. I do not know the bus number.
During the ride, as we were traveling, the bus driver said, in a loud voice, "You need to turn the audio off on your device! Turn it off, not just down." The passengers, most of whom were near the back of the bus, including myself, stared at each other. I didn't hear anything and it looked like no one else did either. There weren't even people talking.
After a few minutes, and another stop, the driver made the comment again. Again, the passengers looked at each other. Some double checked their phones and other devices to make sure they were off - I know I did.
The driver then pulled over, I believe at SW Tualatin Valley Hwy & 209th E, Hillsboro (Stop ID 5637), and said, "We'll continue when whoever it is decides to turn off his audio device." He shut down the bus, got off, walked down the sidewalk and began vaping.
The passengers all stared at each other. I didn't want to sit there forever, so I got up and walked nearer the front of the bus, up near two guys who were closest to the driver. One was, indeed, playing a video game on his device and it was making noise. Because he was in the front of all other passengers, we couldn't hear the sounds his phone was making - hence why we had all looked at each other in confusion when the driver was getting mad. I realized the guy probably didn't speak English and asked, in Spanish, if he spoke English. He said no. So I told him, in very poor Spanish, that the driver did not like the noises from his phone and he needed to turn the sound off. He was deeply apologetic. Then I went to the front of the bus, got off, and told the driver that the guy making the noise didn't speak English, he didn't know he was causing problems, he had turned his phone off now. The driver did immediately stop vaping and get back on the bus, and we continued on the way.
I was going to let this go, however, by the time we go to the stop I needed to get to, to take the bus to Aloha Community Library, I could not cross the four lanes of traffic in time to catch the bus I needed - it pulled away without me. The next bus wouldn't come for 30 minutes so, to make my meeting, I had to call a Lyft and pay $5.
I think Trimet should reimburse me $5. I should not have had to handle this problem on behalf of the driver so we could continue on our way, PLUS, I'm out $5. And, yes, I wrote them and complained.
So, what do YOU think?
No comments:
Post a Comment