Supervisor Spotlight: Highlighting those behind the scenes who keep us moving

It takes a lot of people to keep a transit system running smoothly across 150 routes and over 300,000 boardings a day.

Bus drivers are the most visible part of any transit system, but there are people behind the scenes who are just as vital in the day-to-day operation of King County Metro.

Their responsibilities include training operators, planning the routes that run throughout the region, and literally being the “traffic controllers” who keep track of the buses on their daily runs.

They’re also the former bus drivers who use their knowledge to guide current drivers. Some were interested in transit from a young age and who put their backgrounds from other fields into good use.

And sometimes, they’re invisible co-pilots that help you get where you need to go when you ride with Metro.

We’d like to introduce you to the staff that help keep the wheels on the bus going “round and round” every day.

Kevin Friend, Instructor
Kevin has lived in Seattle his whole life. He grew up in the Lake City area and attended Nathan Hale High School (with a fellow first-line supervisor). He started at Metro when he got laid off as a limo driver/manager and a friend encouraged him to apply to Metro. He was hired in 1992 and has made a career out of it since then.

As an operator, Kevin did most of his driving out of North Base and preferred to drive at night. The retired Route 41 was his favorite to drive. After driving part-time for a few years, he decided to go full-time in 1997 and then became a first-line supervisor in 2008.

Kevin was in Service Quality most of his career as a first-line supervisor. While there, he worked the north end. He considered himself a night owl at the time, so he preferred working overnight. He later worked downtown when working all night was no longer feasible. One of the highlights of his career while he was in Service Quality was responding to a call about an accident on the 520 bridge. When he arrived on scene, a steel piling and large freeway sign had slammed into a Metro bus. Coordinating with first responders, the Transit Control Center (TCC), Vehicle Maintenance and other participants was quite the feat. Ultimately, he is grateful that despite the severity of the accident, there were no fatalities

Kevin moved to Training about a year and a half ago for the opportunity to train new drivers. He finds it very fulfilling helping people grow and build good careers at Metro. He always feels a sense of pride when new drivers successfully graduate. One of his motivations in his role as a trainer is to help foster positive interactions between operators and supervisors. His belief is that operators are a valuable source of information when troubleshooting issues on the road. Working collaboratively can help resolve issues quickly and also provide an avenue for discussing ways to avoid similar situations in future. One motto Kevin tries to live by is to “not let ego get in the way of doing a good job.”

Kevin has two adult children and is married to a retired bus driver. In his free time, he enjoys sports and working on projects around his new house. He also likes to write poetry and has quite a collection.

Reflecting on Bus Operation’s vision, he shares that, “in solving problems together, we should include everyone’s voice and listen to those closest to the work.”

 

Titus Robinson, Instructor
Titus joined Metro in 1998 and became a First-line Supervisor in 2009. As a supervisor, he started off in Base Operations and went to Service Quality where he spent 10 years covering downtown Seattle. Over the past six years, Titus has been a classroom instructor in the Training section.

In his role, Titus interacts with students from diverse backgrounds and cultures, many of whom are English-language learners. Over the years, he has learned how to connect with students inside and outside the classroom, even though he may not speak their respective language. One of his favorite traditions as an instructor is encouraging students and their families to attend their graduation in their traditional attires. Another of his favorite moments is seeing all the pins students put on a world map (displayed in the hallway at Training) to represent where they are from.

As a classroom instructor, he strives to foster a sense of discipline among his students. He often tells his students that while he can motivate them day-to-day, it will take a sense of discipline to do things the way it has to be done consistently. Titus shares that he emulates that himself. He is very diligent about balancing health and work. He wakes up at a consistent time every day to work out and has done so for many years. One other thing he tells his student is that “Customer service is about treating others the way they want to be treated, and not always about how you would like to be treated.”

Titus grew up in the Central District, one block away from Garfield High School. However, he was bused to Nathan Hale High School and he still recalls his first day when he arrived at school. He ended up taking classes with Kevin Friend, the Training Supervisor that is part of this Supervisor Spotlight!

Prior to Metro, Titus used to work for Jorgensen and Forge in the steel industry, making shaft and other precision-made parts for aircraft carriers and submarines. When business started slowing down with the company, his brother encouraged him to join Metro. When he joined Metro in 1998, he was still in part-time class when news of Mark McLaughlin’s passing broke. According to him, the news was an eye-opener for him about the risks of the job even as he was training to become an operator.

When he graduated, he drove Routes 249 and 250 out of Bellevue Base. His longest tenure was at Central Base as a board operator. He loved driving the 2300 series coaches because you could shift the gears and he enjoyed going through Downtown in lower gears. After several years of driving, he was encouraged by chiefs to become a supervisor, which he did.

Outside of work, he loves spending time with his wife. He also enjoys playing billiards and used to compete in tournaments, winning second place multiple times. Titus also takes his health seriously and puts in the work to ensure he stays healthy. He has four children and five grandchildren.

Fun Facts About Titus
During his childhood, a neighborhood friend bet Titus he couldn’t say the ABCs backwards! Titus met the challenge then, and he can still do it today!

 

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