I Read The News Today, Oh Boy...

I've been asked this by Senior Drivers and two emails from y'all.

I can't respond to the dorks in the News, not as an official RTD Driver.

But personally I can totally understand how the Driver went the wrong way on the HOV lane.

In the News they tell you that they had serious training and the signs are all clearly posted etc etc etc.

Those signs, all read, "Buses Excepted"

So a new Driver may see that and figure he's on the right path.

Let me start from the begining:

In training we get like one day, maybe an hour or two of driving through Union Station and the HOV lanes before we switch with other drivers. And that training is done during the day, with a bus load of other students.

In the real world setting, we're sitting in the room, waiting for our assignments and at the last second we're told, "Driver! You have 13 minutes to get your bus ready and learn this route and get on the road!"

So a new Driver panics and looks at his "Trailblazer" which is a confusing mess of directions.
He takes 10 minutes (but needs 30) to get his bus ready and heads out onto the road.
It's dark in the AM so he's trying to read his TrailBlazer's directions and the street signs and figure out his route. To make it more difficult, he's in an accordian bus so he's navigating downtown.
His Trailblazer reads to hit the HOV lane (but he doesn't see the hours - he's panicked) and he figures that it's rush hour so using the HOV lanes is right on.

He maneuvers the gate that is only closed on one side of the lane, heads into Union Station and onto the HOV lane. He may not know it's not two way traffic during Rush Hour. He may figure that the HOV is both ways since he's never driven the HOV lane except MAYBE the one time in training class.

I'm not making excuses, because he was obviously a dumb ass but still, I can understand the how and why.

And then we hear that he quit.
It's a Union, nobody quits - he wouldn't have gotten fired for this, he never even got a ticket.
Somebody had to have talked him into leaving with threats and what not.

Again, I understand what/why he did it - maybe - but still....not making excuses for the guy.

So that's my personal (NOT PROFESSIONAL) opinion.
RTD is not associated in any way with my personal opinions.