The Bus Situation

The Scene at Northland Mall on Friday morning. Trust me it's not normally like that.

Yeah Friday I took the bus to Youmacon the same day the bus drivers walked out. It wasn't so bad for me because the SMART buses took me where I wanted to go. Okay for those that don't know, in Detroit there are two bus systems SMART and DDOT. The DDOT busses are run by the city of Detroit and the SMART buses are run by... okay it's complicated. They go through three counties, and I would have to do more research than I want to figure it out when they aren't even the point of this post.

Anyway for the past month or so the DDOT busses have been having problems. Mostly meaning, for people on the ground incredibly long delays. To be fair, or unfair depending on how you look at it, most of the problems aren't new. I don't even check the DDOT bus schedule anymore because it serves no point and hasn't for a while. You go and hope the bus comes in the next hour. But the delays have gotten longer.

Although most of the people I talk to agree the SMART Buses are more reliable, they also have problems. They're trying to cut service. Again I can mostly get to where I need, but you guys needed some context.

Late Thursday night a bus driver was attacked in the Rosa Parks Transit center. On Early Friday morning the DDOT drivers decided not drive. According to the papers the drivers felt that they're jobs are too dangerous, and based on my experiences I have to agree. A while back uninformed officers would ride the buses, but prior to the attack that wasn't the case anymore. The paper stated that the money to do it was there at some point but nobody knows what happened to it.

Regardless the drivers' decision not to drive left a lot of people in the lurch Friday. A lot of folks couldn't get to work or school, or were just stranded all together.