Metro Transit is having trouble hiring and retaining enough bus drivers for their fleet, which has led to service cuts. In this episode, we hear what Metro Transit and the bus drivers union think needs to be done to address the shortage. We're joined in the studio by transit justice advocate Adri Jereb to discuss their takes.

Episode summary 00:00:00 | Intro 00:01:37 | Why drivers are leaving 00:05:38 | Driver safety concerns 00:14:01 | Transit ambassadors 00:21:26 | Shift schedules 00:31:12 | Employment requirements 00:41:41 | New hire conditions 00:47:03 | Wages 00:52:45 | Metro Transit's most powerful recruitment tool 00:57:24 | A more robust system is more resilient 01:01:17 | Outro Further reading

• Metro Transit ridership up this year, but continues to lag behind pre-pandemic numbers
• Four Factors Driving the Bus Operator Shortage (And What to Do About Them)
• America's Bus Driver Shortage Has Left Transit Systems in Crisis

Connect with us!

• Adri on Twitter
• Ian on Twitter
• Car-free MSP

Attributions

Our theme song is Tanz den Dobberstein, and our interstitial song is Puck's Blues. Both tracks used by permission of their creator, Erik Brandt. Find out more about his band The Urban Hillbilly Quartet on their website.

This episode was hosted and edited by Ian R Buck, with transcript by the indominable Mike Allen. Christy Marsden is our awesome guest booker, and technical assistance is provided by the super professional Brian Mitchell. If you're able to help make sure this team gets paid for the hard work they do, please consider donating. We really appreciate it!

Copyright

The Streets.mn Podcast is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. Feel free to republish the episode as long as you don't alter it and you aren't profiting from it.