Deadline Detroit photo
Deadline Detroit photo
The sparkling new QLINE launched in May.
But the lion's share of Detroiters still rely on the bus system for public transportation.
The downside of that is folks like Christopher Sampson who ride the bus do so in fear.
“There’s no order on the bus,” he tells George Hunter of the Detroit News. “I’ve seen fights, and I even saw a shootout. I was going past Van Dyke and the bus got stopped because ... the guy on the bus was shooting from the bus at (police) officers. I try not to ride the bus as much as possible, but I got to.”
Sampson said he's saving up for a car, but in the meantime, he has no choice but to ride the bus.
Hunter reports:
Transit police chief Ricky Brown said crime on buses is down. He said 16 assaults on drivers and passengers had been reported this year as of Nov. 20, compared with 23 during the same period last year.
Fred Westbrook, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26, which represents more than 400 DDOT drivers, said by his count there have been more than 20 reported assaults on drivers alone this year — and many more that went unreported — although he agreed the number of attacks has dipped.
“Crime is one of the hazards of the job,” Westbrook said. “When you have to deal with the public, and the public is not receiving effective, on-time service, they take it out on the first people they see, and who is that? The bus driver.
