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Grand River Transit
(04-05-2017, 06:33 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:  Who spits on a driver?!  Why don't these people end charged with assault?

Very angered and/or intoxicated individuals, who are told their fare is invalid or something else they disagree with, and feel the need to physically present their displeasure. And sometimes they are tracked down and charged with assault; but not every case can be prosecuted, and at any rate the driver gets traumatized by the act in the first place. Giving drivers the option to separate themselves from the possibility of the act is quite empowering and is a big boost to morale.
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(04-05-2017, 08:52 PM)KevinL Wrote:
(04-05-2017, 06:33 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:  Who spits on a driver?!  Why don't these people end charged with assault?

Very angered and/or intoxicated individuals, who are told their fare is invalid or something else they disagree with, and feel the need to physically present their displeasure. And sometimes they are tracked down and charged with assault; but not every case can be prosecuted, and at any rate the driver gets traumatized by the act in the first place. Giving drivers the option to separate themselves from the possibility of the act is quite empowering and is a big boost to morale.

Not to mention that some of these individuals may have a fluid-borne illness that may cause lasting health effects on the driver.
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Mods, can you please ban trainspotter139? There's no report option and their last two posts have been unnecessarily inflammatory and steeped in discrimination.
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What comments are you referring to? The one immediately before yours is hardly inflammatory.
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(04-06-2017, 11:30 AM)DKsan Wrote: Mods, can you please ban trainspotter139?
No.

Quote:There's no report option
The "report" button should be on the lower right of a post.
You also have the option to "rate" a post (lower left) which will add or subtract from the member's Reputation.

Quote:and their last two posts have been unnecessarily inflammatory and steeped in discrimination.

Trainspotter's opinion is certainly absurd or at least overstated, but they aren't being actively abusive or spreading hate.
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The "report" and "rate" buttons don't show up on the mobile interface.
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DKsan, there is a report option at the bottom right of every post, and a Rate option at the bottom left. I can say there is some less than ideal language, but I can also relate to the concerns being voiced: I have an experience from downtown where an individual was coughing very badly, but she would stop, pause and or follow anyone she crossed, so as to cough onto them a few times, in my case stepping in front to cough into my face. I don't bring it up to try to broadly label anyone with that behaviour, but I could understand a bus driver seeing that and worse and wanting to feel safer in the workplace, even as I prefer the more open, no-shield driver setup.
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(04-06-2017, 11:30 AM)DKsan Wrote: Mods, can you please ban trainspotter139? There's no report option and their last two posts have been unnecessarily inflammatory and steeped in discrimination.
That's ridiculous.
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GRT has a redesigned website!!
http://www.grt.ca/en/index.aspx#

An immediate complaint is that they've removed the route/schedule booklet for individual routes (PDF versions of the ones you can take on the bus, or from the schedule racks at Charles Terminal) from the website. Now you have to go through HASTINFO to produce a schedule.

I hope they don't intend on eliminating the actual printed schedules as well...
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(04-20-2017, 02:00 PM)yige_t Wrote: Now you have to go through HASTINFO to produce a schedule.
*cringe*
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The schedule generation is not that bad, albeit slow. Unfortunately it doesn't work on my mobile phone.
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(04-20-2017, 02:37 PM)D40LF Wrote:
(04-20-2017, 02:00 PM)yige_t Wrote: Now you have to go through HASTINFO to produce a schedule.
*cringe*

Oh this is incredibly frustrating.  So slow, and painful, and unnecessarily many clicks for things.  This is clearly worse than it was before.

As a bonus, I just went to generate an "Accessible Schedule", and it plain old doesn't work.

It makes me sad to see good money thrown at bad designs.
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Huh. I was just (maybe two hours ago) on grt.ca to look up the spring schedule changes for a couple of routes. I must have got there just in time- the PDF versions were so much better than how it works now..
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(04-05-2017, 06:33 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:
(04-05-2017, 05:45 PM)yige_t Wrote: Why should riders be consulted about this? This is about the safety of drivers. 

Verbal assaults and spitting on drivers is real. It does happen in this Region, and they should be treated as seriously as the more aggressive behaviours. And I can imagine drivers feeling especially vulnerable during the last bargaining process + constant strike threats... Anything to make their job comfortable. 

I don't see how passengers can be negatively affected by this at all. A driver's job is to drive a bus, not chatting with passengers. It's not like you can't ask drivers questions anymore (while bus is stopped) - they can still hear you over the plexiglass...

And besides, nobody should be talking while the bus is moving anyways, it's distracting.

Passengers (and even the region as a whole) are affected by the appearance of unfriendliness and of danger.

That being said, it disgusts me that such things could even be necessary.  Who spits on a driver?!  Why don't these people end charged with assault?

Sadly I have to work around with some of these ones that like to go around and assault/spit at any sort of city/regional/etc., worker. Usually charges are dropped because they are so high on drugs and have so many mental health issues that any sort of criminal prosecution doesn't fly in the courthouse. Some of my co-workers had been bitten several times by these people, one which infected with HIV, so onto a cocktail of super drugs and anti-viral meds to prevent infection. The idiot that bit him? Not criminally responsible so he was back on the streets within a short time. I had some guy threatened to kill me. He was picked up and released a few hours later.

It's sad that it's going to take a transit worker to be stabbed to death before a solution is in place. It does suck for the 99% of passengers that are decent, but safety should be number 1 priority.

Of course, they could start to outfit the drivers (and other government workers that have to work outside, unprotected) and pepper-spray. Spend a little bit of money for a weeks long course. And if some idiot is threatening, POP, pepper-spray in the face.

I have a staff meeting tonight, and I might actually be asking about this. Start outfitting us who have to work around the infestation of illicit drugs those with severe mental health issues. I shouldn't take a death for action to be taken.
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(04-20-2017, 02:49 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:
(04-20-2017, 02:37 PM)D40LF Wrote: *cringe*

Oh this is incredibly frustrating.  So slow, and painful, and unnecessarily many clicks for things.  This is clearly worse than it was before.

As a bonus, I just went to generate an "Accessible Schedule", and it plain old doesn't work.

Ugh, yeah, so many clicks.
Getting a schedule before was two clicks.  It was a pdf schedule, but it was a schedule.
Getting a schedule now is click-click-type-click-click.  Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
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