A couple of days ago I posted a story about a bad experience a friend of mine had with a trolley driver.\u00a0 Yesterday another blog reader e-mailed me these comments:<\/p>\n
“Paul,
\nIn response to your post about the trolley drivers, I have had 3 confrontations with 3 different trolley drivers, which doesn’t count the couple that have passed me while standing at a stop.\u00a0 The first was on a very hot summer day or I wouldn’t have wanted to ride the short (2-3 blocks) distance I was going.\u00a0 The male driver asked me where I was going before I got on, as if that determined whether he would let me on.\u00a0 He told me it was only a few blocks away, and when I said “So?”\u00a0 he proceeded to yell at me.\u00a0 Ironically, he was huge, and I can’t imagine him walking half a block in that heat.<\/p>\n
The second was with another male driver, who is just generally rude and bitter all the time.\u00a0 I recently saw him at Calhoun’s and asked him why he’s so mean on the trolley.\u00a0 He told me the women in his life are bringing him down.<\/p>\n
The third was with a woman whom I bet is the same one your friend had a run-in with.\u00a0 She tried to pass me at a stop that I had been waiting at for a while.\u00a0 I had to yell for her to stop, and I asked her why she tried to pass me when I got on.\u00a0 She said it was because I had a drink, to which I replied that there was a trash can at the stop.\u00a0 The next time I got on her trolley within a few days, she shut the doors on me.\u00a0 I’m not kidding.<\/p>\n
The SMA had a meeting a few years ago, at which we addressed some issues, mostly timeliness and the fact that the drivers are ambassadors to the city, with a MATA spokesperson.\u00a0 She agreed to the need for improvement, while also stating that it’s difficult to fill the positions with the right people.\u00a0 Since then I have seen some gradual improvement.\u00a0 More of the drivers now shout out the stops and points of interest, but some of them are very rude.\u00a0 Personally, I called MATA and reported the behavior on every occasion, and one of those drivers is gone while the woman seems a little more polite.\u00a0 I recommend that everyone report such incidents, but it is important to note the time, have the trolley # and know if it was Main St., River Loop, etc., and at least a good description of the driver.”<\/p>\n
This is an issue I’ve wanted to bring up for a while – I too have witnessed some trolley drivers being VERY rude (although there are plenty of very nice ones too).\u00a0 My friend is right – the trolleys are a symbol of Downtown and of Memphis as a whole, and the drivers need to realize they are ambassadors for the city.\u00a0 If they can’t behave in a courteous manner, MATA should reassign them to a bus route.<\/p>\n
Back later today with recap of last night, beer report, and whatever else I can find to write about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple of days ago I posted a story about a bad experience a friend of mine had with a trolley driver.\u00a0 Yesterday another blog reader e-mailed me these comments: “Paul, In response to your post about the trolley drivers, I have had 3 confrontations with 3 different trolley drivers, which doesn’t count the couple … Continue reading “Followup: Rude trolley drivers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}