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Coming a few days after a report showed that victims of robberies and assaults on CTA buses and trains are on the rise, Tribune transportation columnist Jon Hilkevitch points out that riders aren't the only ones dealing with crime. CTA union officials say that nearly a dozen bus drivers are assaulted each month, and to try and increase the safety of their employees the CTA is considering adding Lexan shields to all 2,000 city buses. Lexan is stronger and more impact resistant than Plexiglass, but it's also more expensive -- $400,000 has already been spent to equip 500 buses with the shields, and an additional $1.2 million would be needed to put them in the rest of the fleet. Not everybody is a fan -- Carlos J. Acevedo from Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241 said that he estimates 80 percent of drivers aren't happy with the shields:
Among the complaints are that the shields interfere with air circulation and create glare that interferes with the drivers using mirrors. Some beefy drivers also say the shields make the operator quarters too tight. Other drivers are worried the shields would pin them in during a collision.
Chicagoist Matt popped his head into our cubicle to remind us that the shields would totally backfire if someone threw a cobra in the driver's lap, but the real question is, will the shields protect the passengers from the drivers? [Trib]
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These are on all the S State St buses. Most drivers don't use them. I probably wouldn't either, but you might as well give them the choice.
Drivers on the buses in London are encased in their own little compartment. I think it makes sense, although it does kind of end the solidarity with the driver that I've always enjoyed as a sort of security blanket on the bus. With the option to lock themselves in a drivers-only panic room, I'm left to face the owl-run sexual harassment and volume-non-regulating probably crazy bus riders on my own. Although, I suppose I could always ask to sit on the drivers' lap in event of hostile takeover.
Bus drivers are the only controllers that are in the same open space as the passengers.
$800 per bus...that's about the cheapest expenditure I've seen for the CTA. And the cost to potential savings ratio is something no one can argue with. But:
"Some beefy drivers also say the shields make the operator quarters too tight."
Lose some fargin weight. "Beefy" in this context is not only an insult to the word "beefy", but an insult to the drivers that are in fact beefy, and not fat. I've seen some drivers that could carry the load on their shoulders while I've seen others us the wheel to scratch their stomachs. You're being accommodated with something that will save your life. Do you complain that there aren't enough glass shards in your doughnuts?
And another thing, 60 passengers sitting and standing without restraints and a driver is worried about being pinned? Come on. That's like a sky diver complaining their parachute slows them down too much.
Unions are for the birds. The reps will always find something to complain about. Grievances are their best friends.