When those in my city began noticing, in early-March, New York City Transportation Authority employees had already experienced 41 deaths from Covid-19, and literally 6,000 workers were out on sick-leave. One suspects a significant percentage of them were infected with the virus. Otherwise, those ill with something else were likely more worried about it then they would have been during the Old Abnormal. The high percentage of bus and motorcoach drivers infected or killed by the virus does not sim- ply reflect their early exposure to a broad cross-section of largely (if not mostly) economically-deprived passengers packed, without masks, into
Archives for transportation safety
Tight Schedules, Part 3: Fixed Route Transit Service
For reasons different than those of other modes, transit schedules are often tight. In many urban systems, all or most schedules are tight. When schedules are tight, drivers compromise passenger, pedestrian and motorist safety to comply with them. A number of common safety compromises are summarized below. A deeper treatment of those compromises typical of fixed route transit service may be found on safetycompromises.com., and in the 12 National Bus Trader articles published on this subject in September through December, 2017 and April through December, 2018 issues. That series was organized by type of safety compromise. This series, organized mode