Squeaky Wheels
by
, 11-21-2014 at 09:19 PM (1957 Views)
Simply complaining well is not enough, especially if one is dealing with government bureaucrats. Continued application of gentle pressure will eventually wear down even the hardest and firmest bureaucrat. It appears that my attempts to get the regional transit authority to train and supervise bus drivers might be going somewhere; either that, or they’re legal action against me. I got a phone call from one of the higher ups who just wanted me to repeat what I had already put into writing. After a few minutes, she said that she would get back to me on Friday. I wonder why.
I’ve lost track of how many calls and emails I’ve sent, but it is in the range of a dozen, and I believe that I have mentioned inadequate training in all of them. I'll have to wait a little while before I find out, if that phone call even comes. But I think that y general method was appropriate. I avoided criticizing individuals except in regard to specific ways in which they may have been endangering the public. I also made it clear that I was truly upset, which I was, but I was careful to refrain from writing until I had stopped thinking of painful ways to kill the guilty parties.
This campaign is moving along; although I would rather that they just did their jobs. This morning a bus went off as I slapped on a door to get on. But my complaint elicited an apologetic comment from someone who was dismissive before, so another one is being ground down.
I find it completely appalling that bus drivers are allowed to get behind the wheels of those ten ton monsters without having learned that they have to be completely attentive to what is going on around them, but they seem to be blithely ignorant of passengers and other vehicles. Neglect to stop at stops even when signaled to stop, slamming doors in the faces of people trying to get on, ignoring traffic laws, these are what they seem to be best at. I hadn’t even imagined the possibility before, but sometimes they leave stops early, get ahead of schedule, so that there won’t be as many annoying passengers.
As a general matter, I would rather not complain. I wopuld prefer that everything ran smoothly, but I may improve the world to some small degree by complaining. We'll see. Maybe I should get on Obama's case some more.