Stranded

Yesterday, at about 4:15 p.m. at the East Campus bus stop, I witnessed something absolutely disgraceful on the part of Duke Parking and Transportation.

A C-1 bus, Bus 672, had stopped and let on two passengers. Four more girls were standing at the bus stop, and they started moving toward the bus. Yet, as they approached the bus, the bus driver started to pull away. The girls gesticulated wildly and appeared to be in the driver’s line of sight, but still he or she drove away, with only two passengers onboard and four left waiting in the cold.

What makes it worse is that this was not the only time. Just ten minutes later, another C-1, Bus 669, approached the bus stop. By this time, the bus stop was full of students, since no bus had picked up students in a while. This driver dropped off all of the passengers but then drove straight past all the students waiting at the bus stop!

This is absolutely reprehensible. Why should these bus drivers, sitting high in their air-conditioned coaches, be driving straight through our bus stops and leaving students stranded in the cold? Is it that these drivers are especially callous and cruel, or that they were instructed to do so by their superiors?

Either way, somebody needs to be held accountable.

Gaurav Sen

Trinity ’12