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But you probably already knew that if you’re a bus rider in the District. And the Examiner’s Kytja Weir notes that while complaints about metro are down, they’re actually up for bus riders:
In the first eight months of 2011, Metrobus logged an average of 1,368 complaints per month, up from 1,299 the year before.
That means Metrobus is now the agency’s least popular service as measured by complaints, topping MetroAccess for the first time in years. The buses carry far fewer riders than the rail system, meaning those riders are complaining disproportionately even more.
Metro cannot point to any single reason why the complaints about buses have risen. “It doesn’t seem to be any one particular thing,” Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said. “Maybe people are more comfortable in reaching out to provide feedback, which would be great.”
While Metrobus complains are up 5 percent, Metrorail complaints are down nearly 20 percent. Is it that train rides are getting better? Or are riders just becoming inured to the hellishness that is riding a train?
It should also be noted that most bus complaints are about a newish policy in which buses skip stops if they’re full or there’s a bus right behind them. Even though it makes sense—-since drivers can’t seem to keep time—-I’ve seen the reactions of people who’ve been left at a stop. It ain’t pretty.
Photo by cuttlefish via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License