Once again I’ve had a miserable ride on the bus, thanks to a specific driver who seems to make every ride a misery for his passengers. This driver, who shall remain unnamed, has been driving the bus in Mastic Beach for years. He’s a veteran who obviously seen the area change dramatically since he began his tour there. What doesn’t make sense is why he’s so cranky. It’s possible that he’s so close to retirement that he’s fed up and wants to get out, but why hoist it upon his passengers?
Take for instance three separate rides, if you don’t believe me. Ride #1 was on a beautiful day, on the way to the beach and the mall. It was a perfect setting, but he refused to kneel the bus for anyone. A woman and her baby are forced to clamber into the bus with beach gear in tow, nearly falling as they stepped onto the ramp. To make matters worse, the bus driver started the bus before the mother and child had been properly seated. After she got off the bus the driver commented on all the sand that those “dumb people” leave on the seats.
Ride # 2, on the way home from food shopping at the mall, the driver failed to allow his passengers to put their bags down before jolting the bus over two speed bumps. Then he proceeded to take a turn at a light so sharply that everyone was nearly thrown out of his or her seats. Groceries went flying, of course. He then made another turn just as sharply and caused more groceries to go flying, and then screamed out “Hold onto those damned groceries before they fly through the window!” He continued to crankily curse out anyone who dared do a little food shopping before getting on his bus.
Ride # 3 on a very rainy day, with only three or fours passengers for the whole ride, he again failed to kneel the bus for a mother who had two babies in her stroller. During the ride, the mother fed her children something to keep them quiet, and another passenger quietly nibbled a rice cake because she had not eaten anything yet that morning. The woman missed her stop, and tried to make sure that she packed up and got her kids off the bus as quickly as she could. Again the driver failed to kneel the bus. As soon as he had dropped them off, he mentioned how “slow those people are, eating on the bus, and making it dirty,” and pointed out to the other passenger that they should stop nibbling as well. “Those are the rules. They blame me at the bus company, they write reports on me and complain if there’s a spot of soda on the floor! And this is a new bus!”
One look around the bus and anyone could tell that it hadn’t been cleaned since it went into service over 6 months ago. The metal foot rails were scuffed and had a layer of dust on them, the metal throughout the bus was smeared with fingerprints, the glass was only passably cleaned, and the floors needed mopping desperately. Why anyone would make a big deal about it, I don’t know. I’ve ridden many buses where the driver cleaned up properly, and never had a complaint.
The actual problem stems from SCBA’s lack of proper maintenance on their buses. No other bus company shows such apathy to cleaning and maintaining their fleet. Buses breakdown in both hot and cold weather, they are rarely clean, and if they have been cleaned it’s only been spot floor mopping. I have yet to see a completely clean floor. This doesn’t happen in Nassau County, or in New Jersey. In those areas where the NY and NJ Transit Authorities have taken over, bus cleanliness has improved dramatically. It’s till not great, but it’s a step up from the “just swab the deck and leave it” policy that SBCA has.
Someday, someone will take responsibility the way they do in Ireland, where the buses are so shiny that one almost dare not touch a pole for fear of smearing it. They also make change! All it would take would be one smart, bright gal to take over SCBA’s cleaning crew. The buses should be prepped before leaving and cleaned at night. All surfaced should be vacuumed, scrubbed and mopped down until the water is no longer dirty. The windows should be washed inside and out, and the bus should go through a motorized washer everyday. It wouldn’t take more money, just lots of hard work, but perhaps that’s above them.