By Rob Gannon, Metro Transit General Manager
In this moment of change and transition, County Executive Constantine has reaffirmed our values and principles. King County is a place that values women, people of color, people with disabilities, people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, immigrants and refugees, and people of every religion, or of no religion.
In the delivery of our service to the public, Metro Transit does not tolerate harassment of any kind. The vehicles we operate will remain safe places for our passengers. Acts of harassment on our buses or at our shelters violate Metro Transit’s commitment to inclusion for all in our community and our rider Code of Conduct. Should they occur, we ask people to report them to our employees or call 911 if law enforcement is needed immediately.
We will take enforcement actions against violators of this code. And we are reminding operators of our procedures for addressing violations of the code of conduct aboard their coaches.
King County is a growing community rich in diversity and is one of the world’s great metropolitan areas. Metro demonstrates our contribution by providing the best service possible, safely and with respect given to all our customers. We ask all our riders to join in that commitment.
Ride safe, and help us keep our system safe for everyone.
Jeff, Thanks for your kind note. We appreciate your quick reply and attention to the incident. AH
AH,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We were alarmed to learn about this incident and are sorry for what you and your husband experienced. We worked with the customer information office and operations department to identify this employee. This incident is currently under review by the operator’s supervisor and appropriate Metro management. Please be assured that behavior like that is not tolerated at Metro and we take reports like this seriously. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.
Jeff
You don’t tolerate harassment of any kind, what a joke. Try educating your employees on this fact.
My husband and I were threatened by a King County Metro employee on the way to work after they drove recklessly and nearly sideswiped us.
A car sped up behind us and broke the law to drive on the shoulder of an I-5 off ramp to pass us while we had our turn indicator on and were half way into the new lane. He had to cut off other drivers to make his maneuver. When my husband honked to avoid the collision, driver rushed in front of us, then slammed on his brakes, got out of his car (wearing a King County Metro Uniform and badge flipped over), came to the window of our car, stared in, and asked ‘do you have a problem with me.’ When we said he nearly sideswiped us he said we were ‘too slow for him.’ Um, how do you have time to stand in the street and threaten us then??? The several minute long stare down backed cars up onto I-5 on this busy off ramp at rush hour.
He finally got back in his car and continued on, a few blocks later he slammed on his brakes and repeated the routine. We told him we had the police on the phone and asked him not to leave he said he didn’t care, got back in his car and and drove straight to the King County Metro facility on 6th avenue in Sodo, presumably to start his 3pm shift on 6/5/2018.
We were terrified. The kind of person who stops their car to block traffic and threaten another driver, not once, but twice, is a person who is likely comfortable physically fighting or injuring another person, and is likely a person who routinely engages in this behavior. We didn’t know if he had a gun or some other weapon and we immediately called 911.
He was about six feet tall, medium build, late 20’s, african american, had dread locks that were chin length and died blondish orange on the tips. He was driving a new-ish Toyota Avalon, plates BIF2792.
King County Metro, if you truly cared about a safe environment you wouldn’t have people like this working for you and you will use this information to identify this dangerous individual and remove him from your workforce.
Thank you so much for saying this. I interrupted a couple of passengers writing swastikas on the side of a bus on the 14th and so this feels extremely timely.
Want to keep people safe? Tell your downtown drivers to stop running red lights and blocking crosswalks. This puts far more people in peril than harassment.
Hey Rob, you could have just made it simple and say,
King County is a place that values our Rider’s. In the delivery of our service to the public, Metro Transit does not tolerate harassment of any kind.
In your original statement you left out a couple of “groups” I guess as far as you and King County are concerned it’s ok harass them….
Thank you!!!
Seeing this in my inbox this afternoon made me happy. Thank you much!
Stop letting everybody on board with no fare.Theyre usually the ones that start trouble. The Rapid Ride is the biggest problem.I go for weeks never seeing any enforcement.
Thank you. It may behoove you to add security. We could fund it by having those officers also watching, filming traffic violations (on those routes with well behaved riders so the Security officers don’t get board). Tickets could be sent to the vehicles registered owner. This might slow down violators of Bus ONLY lanes and those who feel they simply HAVE to get in a lane before a bus cutting your poor drivers off, having the side effect of smoother commutes. Thanks for asking & for your commitment(s).
How adding security to the buses and requiring ALL riders to pay a fare.