Uses | Paula Heinämäki stopped traveling by bus completely – The reason was the bad behavior of the bus drivers

Jerky driving, acceleration and skidding. Staring and rude treatment of passengers. This kind of behavior is annoyingly common among bus drivers, say many of the bus passengers who responded to HS’s survey.

Passengers are frustrated by drivers who talk on the phone and slouch so that it is difficult to stay upright in corners if you have to stand. Some also say that they have encountered direct dangerous situations.

The majority of respondents to the survey are women. This is also the group that uses public transport the most.

Among the passengers are elderly people, those traveling in wheelchairs or with baby strollers, who move a little slower than others. Drivers don’t seem to have time to wait to get on or off the bus safely.

There are also often shortcomings in customer service, the respondents say. The questioner is not answered or alternatively is annoyed.

In Suurpello a resident of Espoo Paula Heinämäki, 77, says that he stopped using buses completely for the reasons mentioned above.

Heinämäki, who has lived in the capital region for a long time, has used public transport for decades and has also used it in Espoo for 15 years, until a few serious incidents left him with fear, which is why he has not dared to use buses alone for over a year.

According to Heinämäki, the most serious incident happened when he was getting off the bus in Henttaanaukio.

“The driver was in a hurry and he slammed the door without even noticing that I was leaving,” he says.

Heinämäki says that as a result of the events, he fell, hit his head on the asphalt and had to be treated. Heinämäki said that he had been in contact with the operator about the incident, but did not receive an answer.

Another one once, a few years later, according to what Heinämäki said, he got on the bus with his bicycle bag from the Niity shopping center stop. The bus was full of schoolchildren, and there was not a single seat available. The driver was driving hard and jerky.

“I had to flail around recklessly in the corridor, desperately trying to hold on to a pole. It was a real trip of horrors,” he says.

At the end of the trip, one of the young people offered his seat to Heinämäki.

“I was afraid of that trip, and I haven’t used the bus that much,” he says.

Today, Heinämäki uses a rollator and does not dare to take it alone on the bus because of that.

Many other public transport users who have responded to HS’s survey are also familiar with similar experiences of towing drivers. Like Heinämäki, many others also tell about falls.

Transport operators they say they don’t allow improper behavior from its drivers. However, many respondents feel that their feedback has not been taken seriously even by customer service.

Lives in Järvenperä, Espoo Katja Johansson says that he has been in frequent contact with Nobina’s customer service.

Johansson uses a wheelchair due to her illness. He usually takes a taxi, but when he goes to see his good-legged friend in Olari, they usually go a short distance by bus.

“Several times I’ve almost been thrown out of my chair when the driver has braked suddenly for no apparent reason,” says Johansson.

To get out to and from the bus Johansson also needs a ramp. According to him, there are few friendly drivers who have come to help him on their own initiative. Rather, the bus has often stayed so far from the sidewalk that it has not been possible for Johansson to get off the bus.

A few times the driver has also demanded that he buy a ticket, even though he doesn’t have to do that as a wheelchair user.

When he has given feedback on the drivers’ actions, he has been told that the driver will be discussed and that the incidents are isolated cases, says Johansson.

“These are not isolated cases, but continuous and repeated, and nothing can be done about it,” says Johansson.

Passengers bad experiences with drivers are not limited to any particular line or even to a particular city or district.

Lives in Rajakylä, Vantaa Maija Hiiri says he uses trunk line 570 in commuting traffic. The bumpy driving style is also familiar to him, but according to him, the most confusing situation happened last week.

Hiiri says that he was traveling to work in the morning and was just at the end of the line to get on the bus through the middle doors of the main line, when suddenly the driver closed the doors in front of his nose. The mouse was confused and tried to press the button to open the door, when suddenly the bus just left.

“The bus was by no means full. I was about to get on the bus right on the heels of the previous person, when the door closed,” says Hiiri.

The mouse has flexible working hours and no urgent meeting that morning that he would have missed because of what happened, but the incident made him very confused.

“The driver must have seen that passengers are still coming, or if he didn’t look, it would be even more worrying,” says Hiiri.

Junior crying sometimes seems to strain the nerves of both drivers and fellow passengers, but a Helsinki native Lotta Vare was surprised when the driver also found the children’s laughter disturbing.

Väre says that he was traveling on Tuesday from Herttoniemi to Itäkeskus on trunk line 500. His one-year-old son was laughing and squealing in the stroller. After a while, the driver announced, according to Väree’s recollection: “Do you have a pacifier to keep the child quiet for the rest of the journey.”

Vare would understand if the child had screamed loudly or made a loud noise, but now his son was laughing.

“The other passengers smiled at us and it didn’t seem to bother them. The driver seemed to be really frustrated, because he actually sighed at the beginning of his announcement,” says Väre.

Väre says that they were getting off at the next stop anyway and he pressed the trolley button. The driver didn’t even make a move to lower the floor of the bus so that it would have been easier for the stroller to get out.

He wonders when even a child’s laughter has become a nuisance. He plans to file a complaint with the operator about the driver’s actions.

of HS the survey was also answered by many people who had good experiences with drivers who had waited for a passenger running to the bus stop in the pouring rain, helped with a stroller or greeted them kindly and advised on the ticket issue.

For example, Paula Heinämäk from Espooi recalls the driver who noticed when he tried to swerve well before the stop towards the front door.

“He said, madam, please sit until the stop, I’ll make sure you get out safely,” Heinämäki says.

From Espoo Jonna Hokkanen the child, on the other hand, just started school, and in the first week on the bus, there was a friendly driver who asked the child if school had just started and guided him in using the travel card.

“More often I pay attention to drivers who skid on small roads and brake suddenly,” says Hokkanen.

Correction: 19.9. 9:30 a.m.: It was written in the story that Paula Heinämäki has not dared to use buses alone for five years. He said that he has not used buses for a year.