Post by Steven Dale
This is one of the most inspiring transit-related videos I’ve come across in a while. Mukhtar is a bus driver in Cophenhagen, Denmark. On May 5th, his riders decided to celebrate his birthday for him:
A few observations:
- The bus has free wi-fi (0:13).
- The trumpet player and his posse do not seem to pay any fare or show any identification (0:18). This suggests some kind of single-fare zone, free zone or transfer free system.
- No one appears concerned that the bus is going to be behind schedule due to this birthday celebration. (With the possible exception of the guy in the sunglasses at 1:39.)
- The bus seats look amazingly comfortable.
- The bus is clean. Notice how the seats even have those velcro fabric sheets to keep head grease (let’s pretend that’s the term for it) of the head rests.
- The bus is operating in its own lane (1:50).
- The “protest” at the end of the video is treated with a sort of calm understanding that this sort of thing happens all the time.
- There is no glass or plastic enclosure in the driver’s set to “protect” Mukhtar or any other bus drivers.
- Mukhtar’s uniform is clean.
- In order to execute this maneuver, the protestors (2:00) would have to be able to rely on Mukhtar adhering to a pretty strict schedule.
You can obsess about the big issues and miss all the little details. And the devil – as they say – is in the details. Get all the little details right, and public transit can be useful, enjoyable and uplifting.
But before we can get to that point, transit operators have to admit that little details matter.
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