CTA Testing Safety Shields for Bus Drivers
By Prescott Carlson in News on Apr 27, 2009 9:45PM
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]