I got on the #99 at Commercial heading back to my place and the bus driver opened all of the doors and at least two thirds of the people at the bus stop went in without paying or showing their bus passes. It seemed like it was routine – what gives?
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It happens if they’re behind schedule and there’s a whole lot of people waiting to get on. There is no incentive for bus drivers to take fares, really — it seems much more lax here than I remember in Toronto. Which is why it pisses me off when drivers are snarky or mean about letting homeless people on.
There’s a sign there somewhere explaining that at that stop, you can enter by any of the doors (even then it takes five minutes for everyone to get on) – and since there’s no way to check passes at the back doors, kinda hypcritical to check at the front. Basically they just can’t load the bus fast enough otherwise, so this is their solution.
I was on the number 6 today and that damn bus is always packed, standing room only – stop after stop of “please move all the way to the back” and really, there isn’t any place to go. And since it takes a lot of climbing over people to get to a door to exit, every stop someone doesn’t make it out and they yell at the driver. Dammit, the line needs a few more busses, why won’t they add them? They need someone to simulate the city and figure out a better way to use bus resources.
It’s still way better than Calgary though.
They started it last September when they created the special 99 express that starts at commercial and stops only at UBC … there was such a huge increase in the number of passengers that they couldn’t keep up with only front-door loading. Plus, all the UBC students have UPasses.
They often have transit staff by the rear doors checking, but I haven’t seen any all month.