CONFRONTATIONS * USA - City Bus Drivers Say That Fare Beaters Have the Upper Hand in
New York,NY,USA -The New York Times, by MARTIN ESPINOZA & WILLIAM NEUMAN -December 2, 2008: -- A young man waited for about a dozen other people to board the B46 bus on Tuesday morning before he got on and slowly approached the driver... The man, who appeared to be in his late teens, mumbled something, and the driver, Alvin Jones, acting on his 15 years of experience, simply nodded and let him on. As the man walked by, Mr. Jones pressed a button that triggered a beep and recorded the fact that the fare had not been paid... After one run from Williamsburg to Marine Park and back, all of Mr. Jones’s hundreds of passengers — about 30 of whom had boarded without paying — had made it to their destinations safely, as had the driver... 
A day earlier, a rider on the same bus line stabbed the driver, Edwin Thomas, to death after an argument about paying the fare. The police arrested a suspect on Tuesday night... Earlier in the day, bus drivers around the city said that the attack, while rare, was not surprising, given their overlapping roles as farebox sentinels, hall monitors and the flesh-and-blood embodiment of a transportation agency, all while maneuvering a large machine through packed streets, without benefit of protection from police officers or plexiglass partitions... Almost all the confrontations drivers have with passenger are over fares, Mr. Jones said. “This.” he said, pointing to the fare box, “is an obstacle to people who don’t want to be honest.”... (Photo, above, by Robert Stolarik/The New York Times - A B46 bus made its regular run across Brooklyn on Tuesday. A driver on that route was stabbed to death on Monday after an argument about paying the fare.... Photo, below, by Rob Bennett/The New York Times - Bus drivers and other transit workers held a vigil on Tuesday at the Brooklyn intersection where a bus driver was killed. )
A day earlier, a rider on the same bus line stabbed the driver, Edwin Thomas, to death after an argument about paying the fare. The police arrested a suspect on Tuesday night... Earlier in the day, bus drivers around the city said that the attack, while rare, was not surprising, given their overlapping roles as farebox sentinels, hall monitors and the flesh-and-blood embodiment of a transportation agency, all while maneuvering a large machine through packed streets, without benefit of protection from police officers or plexiglass partitions... Almost all the confrontations drivers have with passenger are over fares, Mr. Jones said. “This.” he said, pointing to the fare box, “is an obstacle to people who don’t want to be honest.”... (Photo, above, by Robert Stolarik/The New York Times - A B46 bus made its regular run across Brooklyn on Tuesday. A driver on that route was stabbed to death on Monday after an argument about paying the fare.... Photo, below, by Rob Bennett/The New York Times - Bus drivers and other transit workers held a vigil on Tuesday at the Brooklyn intersection where a bus driver was killed. ) Labels: drivers vs passengers
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