It’s a little after 11:00 and the sidewalks are crowded. The 780 pulls up and the driver hurries everyone on board. Usually when they do this they put a hand on the meter signaling that you don’t have to pay.  This one doesn’t.

Two ladies are ahead of me, one older, one younger. The younger one looks to be about my sons age, 17-18. The older lady walks by saying, “ Just a second,” without taping her card. She is loaded with shopping bags and does not have a free hand. The younger lady taps her card on the meter, then I tap mine. 

The driver starts immediately, “Excuse me, excuse me!”  She is insistent. 

The older lady says, “I said just a second,” as she puts her bags down. Traffic has stopped entering the bus, then started again, making the space near the driver a traffic jam of people. 

“Not you,” the driver says. ” The young lady, the young lady. Miss you need to pay. There’s no money on your card.”

The young lady turns around and walks back pulling some coins out of a clutch. She drops them in the machine after the older lady has paid, She turns around to her seat. 

The driver speaks again, “Hey! Fare’s a dollar seventy-five.“ The girls turns around a second time. As she digs into her wallet, the driver adds, “It’s been a dollar seventy-five for two years. You should know that.” And then because the girl is not moving fast enough she adds, “There’s two cops right outside.” 

I don’t know if the threat was necessary or not, but the girl pays, and then takes her seat. I worry that the driver has been too harsh on her, but there is no sign of embarrassment or anger on her face. 

What you need to understand is that a lot of riders try to freeload. Almost every day I see someone try to sneak a ride. I’ve had people tell me there’s a “secret fund” for broke riders, and all you have to do is tell the driver and they’ll press the proper button. Others are more brazen. Just the other day I saw a guy casually tell the driver, “I don’t have any money.” The driver replied, “Then you don’t get a ride,” but the rider had already zoomed down the aisle, and taken a seat. At that point the driver is stuck. Does he stop the bus for everyone, so one bad rider can be thrown off? That’s not good a calculus, especially for someone who wants to keep their job.

This is why drivers shrug their shoulders at freeloaders. I don’t know if this is official policy or not, I just know they treat penniless riders like they treat the weather: Maybe they turn on the windshield wipers, but otherwise they ignore it. There’s no strong reason to get involved, and a lot of potential for harm. Every year drivers are assaulted while doing their job. They all know, down in their bones, how dangerous the general public can be, especially the poor and the crazy. Take a late night bus ride and you’ll start to appreciate their lack of concern.

Only today, this time, the driver is insistent. Its notable because I can’t recall ever seeing a driver act this way. More than once I’ve seen fights break out on busses, I’ve seen crazy people fly into a rage on busses, I’ve seen all kinds of behavior on busses, but I’ve never seen a driver threaten to call the cops on a rider. I’ve often seen drivers be awesome, and occasionally I’ve seen drivers be jerks, but I’ve never seen one so insistent about getting her fare.

Now it’s possible the girl knew she had no money on her card, but it’s also just as possible she didn’t. I live with a teen. This is the kind of mistake they make. They’re not very good at details, so forgetting their card balance, or forgetting to check their card balance falls well within what I would call “normal.”. Then again I’ve seen kids this age act very wise when it comes to gaming the system. 

Later, the girl gets off at the local high school, and the bus moves on. I watch her cross the street in her teen oblivion, and have no idea if she was trying to cheat the system or simply a forgetful girl.

But there’s one other thing you should know. The young girl was Latina, and the driver was older, female, and also white.  You decide if money was really at play here, or something else. I’ve seen this kind of thing often enough to have a pretty good guess.