On Monday afternoons, he's Uncle Mort, spinning old vinyl
on KBOO's classic rock show. Most of the time, however,
Jan Senten is working the No. 15 line up 23rd Avenue and
Salmon Street, his butt strapped to a seat for eight to
12 hours a shift.
Like other Tri-Met bus drivers, he must wrestle an oversized
22-inch steering wheel to navigate his unwieldy 14-ton,
40-foot-long craft through streets clogged with unpredictable
pedestrians and erratic drivers. In this world of potential
hazards, Senten's best friends are his reflexes, two sharp
eyes and a clear view out his
windshield.
So while other people rally around causes like late-stage
abortion and the ozone hole, Senten's three-year personal
crusade is one you haven't seen on a bumper sticker. He's
taking on a farebox.
When installed on some Tri-Met buses, the 42-inch machine
made by General Fareboxes Inc. creates a blind spot in
the lower right side of the bus driver's field of vision.
Senten still recalls the sinking feeling in his gut when
he first encountered the "farebox tower" three years ago:
"I was like, 'Oh my God, am I going to have to deal with
these?"
Senten's reaction was probably stronger than other drivers'.
That's because in 1984, a 6-year-old boy darted out beneath
the left wheel of Senten's bus. The accident was ruled
unavoidable--Senten never saw the child, only heard the
thump as he rode over it--but the boy's death haunted
him for months, causing him to break into sudden crying
jags in the middle of the day.
So when Senten saw the farebox, it meant war.
Tri-Met has different types of fareboxes, as well as
several bus models. The problem arises when the 42-inch
farebox is married to the low-seated 1997 Gillig coach.
This combination occurs in 65 buses, 10 percent of Tri-Met's
fleet.
Whenever Senten drew a bus with the tall fare box, he
requested a different vehicle. In May 1998 he complained
orally, and that September he sent a letter to Tri-Met
about the problem. Not until February 1999, after he confronted
general manager Fred Hansen with the issue, did he get
a response; Senten calls it the "smoking farebox" letter.
"Operators short in stature may have difficult seeing
out the right front windshield," Tri-met Safety Manager
Harry Saporta wrote in his letter to Senten, adding that
drivers can solve the problem by moving around in their
seat as they drive. The agency tried installing shorter
fareboxes with smaller capacities, Saporta explained,
but they filled up and jammed, so "the decision was made
to reinstall the taller fareboxes, recognizing this may
be an issue for some operators."
The "issue" affects some drivers more than others. Five-foot-2-inch
Anita Wicks says she transferred to one of the few bus
lines that does not employ any of the problem buses. "I
have to work nights, but it's worth it because I can sleep
well knowing that I haven't run over anybody," she says.
But taller drivers have problems, too. Senten is about
average height, 5 feet 8 inches, and even 6-footer Pat
Patterson says he constantly has to shift around in his
seat when he draws a tall farebox. "Driving takes all
your concentration at all times," he says. "I think somewhere
down the road it's going to come back and haunt someone."
In Seattle the farebox has been implicated in accidents,
says Glen Travis, vice president of Local 587 of the Amalgamated
Transit Union. Last year the Seattle transit agency tried
to fire a driver for hitting a pedestrian, but backed
off after a union consultant detailed the bus's blind
spots, most notably
the farebox.
Last September, Senten filed a complaint with the Oregon
Occupational Safety and Health Division. Tri-Met told
the state it would consider adding new mirrors to address
the blind spot, but has not done so.
Senten thinks the agency can do more. He says the farebox
should be covered in defensive-driving workshops. He wonders
whether Tri-Met could sink the farebox into the floor
of the Gillig, as has been tried in other cities. Lastly,
he thinks the agency could do more to switch around fareboxes,
using Gilligs with short fareboxes on the least-used lines.
But Saporta, who chairs the safety committee of the American
Public Transportation Association, says fixing the problem
"is not as easy as it might appear." Lowering the floor
does not work well, and the agency's money is better spent
on other issues, says Saporta, adding, "There are safety
issues and there are safety issues--they vary in degree
of severity."
After years of raising the issue, Senten may have finally
found a champion in Wally Feist, a 24-year bus driver
who was narrowly elected president of Portland's ATU local
last month.
"I don't have a lot of compassion for Tri-Met on this
issue," says Feist. "Harry Saporta is very conscientious
when it comes to safety, but this has been an issue for
two years. When are they going to do something about it?"
