Wednesday, March 18 is Transit Operators Appreciation Day.

This is an open thread.

16 Replies to “Sunday Open Thread: The Complainers”

  1. This is an example of how some people can take an unpleasant experience, in this case, a bus ride with a screaming passenger, and turn it into a positive.

    There used to be a punk rock band called X. They have a song called Back 2 The Base. It’s sung so fast, I never understood the lyrics. And even after I looked up the lyrics, I still didn’t understand what the song was about. Until I read an explanation from the writer of the song, John Doe.

    “‘Back 2 the Base’ was inspired by the Ramones,” says John [Doe], “and the lyrics are entirely based on things I heard a guy on a bus screaming as he was cracking up. He was holding a picture of Stevie Wonder above his head, as if to show everyone else on the bus how wrong rock ‘n’ roll had become, and he was screaming ‘Gotta get me back to the base, Elvis sucked on doggy dicks.’ They stopped the bus because the guy wouldn’t get off, and the last thing he said as he was being loaded into the police car was ‘I’m the king of rock and roll. If you don’t like it, you can lump it.” I didn’t write the song until a few weeks later when I was riding the bus to work at the Beverly Wilshire and was having comparably murderous thoughts.”

  2. Watching only three minutes of the post video gave me two quotes I like. “There are people that sail through life with no issues or no stress … but they don’t call here.” And, ” … but there’s a new breed of supercomplainers.”

    If anyone’s wondering where the two Eastside Coronavirus-related isolation facilities are. One is a few blocks west of the Eastgate P&R, on the route 240 bus route. And the other is near the PCC in Issaquah, on the route 271 bus route.

    Sam. Supercommenter.

  3. Hours-long virtual silence shows how accurate your aim has been in hitting a nerve this particular morning, Brent. But lot of value too.

    I know STB has at least one regular commenter from the British Commonwealth. It’s been 64 years since the musical “My Fair Lady” showed US audiences how many different ways there were to speak English in London.

    And the significance speakers and hearers attached to them. Common grounds for blackmail. Would be great to get a rundown as to the variety of this morning’s diction. I swear one voice was Boris Johnson. And likely ethnic extraction of speakers and paid responders.

    But for me, best lesson of all, and far from positive, is the conduct of the main character who’s acting like he thinks he’s performing positive public service by confronting and insulting people whose driving irritates him. No credit to us how many exchanges would have ended in violence in this country.

    Not a betting man, but strongly suspect that very large percentage of militant hand-gun carriers have exactly this kind of confrontation in mind. However mistakenly optimistic as to outcome in their own case.

    On one of my own favorite shoreline routes just north of Dupont, self-deputized enforcer got himself killed by another one month or two back. Thanks both of you. I used to like that stretch of road.

    In every wheeled society, years before driving school all the way back to first tricycle, ingrained understanding needs to be that dealing with wheeled machinery is a team effort with everybody on wheels on the same team.

    Only competition being active skill in avoiding conflict. Should be pride-driven websites for video of really masterful near-misses. Including, from pre-kindergarten, the information every bus-driver is trained to use in reporting violated safety, like location, direction of travel, time, and vehicle description.

    Thank you also for mention of Driver Appreciation Day three days early so we can prepare to celebrate. Can an actual transit driver tell us whether the holiday is still officially observed?

    Mark Dublin

  5. Shocking! Disconnect2020i s not done yet!no hint of how much longer it will last of course. The operational incompetence of sound transit rolls on unabated through the pandemic…

  6. In the months ahead, look for local governments, under the guise of having to make up for lost tax revenue, to raise taxes and fees. You thought that guy who bought 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer was exploiting a crisis? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

    1. Why do local governments raise taxes? To fund things local governments are supposed to do. There’s no evil headmaster thinking, “It looks like people are ready to tolerate more taxes now; I’d better extract as much as I can so I’ll be rich, rich, rich!”

      1. you’re right, but I need to add that there are plenty of people out there who are convinced that everything is one giant conspiracy & you cant convince them otherwise.

        As an example, the covid virus was made in a Chinese lab & was released as a result of losing the recent trade deal with the US. Also the democrats were also in on this scam just so it would make president Trump look bad.

        I kid you not on any of this as some commenters on http://www.trofire.com‘s YouTube page & it’s sad.

      2. Yes, but T1 (troll number 1) is just trolling. If he really believed it he would be consistent. In any case, it’s theoretically possible for a local government to be like King Henry VIII, but not in the Pacific Northwest.

    2. Yes the evil Seattle City gubernment want to take your babies and sacrifice them on the altar of light rail socialism! Yawn… Must be nice and dry under that bridge.

  7. All hail the supercomplainers, the only people willing to make the status quo uncomfortable enough to achieve actual change.

    2. The Droid guy, OMG he was so annoying! I ride daily but dang dude. You ride in the middle of the street then scream at the bus driver?

  8. Guess one’s outlook depends a huge amount on the company one chooses to keep. And work alongside. Or conversely, neglect or actively get in the way of.

    Seriously doubt majority of any homeowner’s neighbors object to their municipality posting an “Owner Will Maintain” sign where reminder is needed. And having broken more than one tire on the sharp crater-edge of a city-owned pothole, I’ve somehow got no complaint about using public money, including mine, to fix it. Cheaper than a new front end.

    Recalling how an unmarked underground river (“Spring” Street got its name for a reason) slowed our Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel ’til dealt with (what engineers had to do was create their own fast-moving flow of water alongside the natural one, thereby drying up the deluge to the point they had to moisten the soil)…

    Let’s just say if it was completely my tunnel instead of only partly, my voluntary choice still would’ve been not leaving a muddy hole blocked by a huge boring machine for thirty years.

    Since my specialty has always involved different machines, over the years I’ve been constantly trying to get somebody else to do some postings about the actual mechanics of tunneling. “Section drawings” don’t mean watercolors of oranges. For both West Seattle-Ballard and Ballard-University District, I want a view through an imaginary underground shop-window.

    Could boil down to this: Call it whatever you want, but in the end, Government I’d work, and fight, for is neither a benefactor nor a tyrant, but my own, and my fellow citizens’ personal machinery to create a good life for ourselves.

    Criminalized prepaid ST “wrong tap” leaves me open right now to change of “Governance”. Based on a couple weeks in Israel, would like to see it become a worker-owned cooperative. But guarantee the very attempt would put to rest anybody’s fear of socialism. If you are personally the owner, you’ve got no union protection.

    See a screw-up in the system you own right now? Not just your right to indite, but your duty. Having personally witnessed a young couple ordered to remove their bikes from an empty train at Pioneer Square should’ve been my night’s crowning injustice.

    Announcement that next four stations northbound would all be Sea-Tac Airport -horrible thing was complete absence of proof it wasn’t true. So don’t give up. There’s room for your input yet.

    Great posting, Brent.

    Mark Dublin

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