In What Segment of the Public Transportation Industry Will You Make a Career and Why?

“In what segment of the public transportation industry will you make a career and why?”

A Chicago Transit Authority bus loses control and slams into a house, injuring four people. In Texas, a VIA Paratransit driver was text messaging while driving his bus at 65mph; he rear ended a stopped SUV on the interstate, causing a four car pile up. Both accidents could have been prevented.

Public transportation in the United States is a crucial part of the solution to the nation’s economic, energy, and environmental challenges — helping to bring a better quality of life. In increasing numbers, people are using public transportation and local communities are expanding public transit services. Every segment of American society — individuals, families, communities, and businesses — benefit from public transportation (APTA Public Transportation Fact Book). The mission of the American Public Transportation Foundation (APTF) is to increase and retain the number of young professionals entering the public transportation field as a career. I choose to pursue a career in transit management to sustain growth and improvement throughout the industry. I inspire to become a future leader in public transportation because of the emphasis on safety, the interaction with people, and to combat the many challenges operations may present.

Overcrowding buses can lead to serious and preventable accidents. It is common for a driver to overcrowd a bus, accepting passengers at every stop. Buses crowded with excess bodies, noise and luggage can distract an already hyper-viligant driver who is often navigating rough terrain through varying conditions, sometimes in inclement weather and at night. Many transit buses used for distant travel are larger coaches, carry more people and the weight of a heavy bus load can cause braking system failures and ultimately be fatal to passengers, civilians and the driver. Another avoidable circumstance on a transit bus is that the elderly, women and children are made to stand on these overcrowded buses for 15-20 minutes, maybe an hour, depending on heavy metropolitan traffic. This creates a hazard because crammed space in the aisles, limits a passenger’s ability to securely grasp the railing and to plant his feet firmly in order to bear the rough roads.

It is clear that a major issue in public transportation is safety. Pursuing a career in public transportation management puts me in a position to assess and investigate safety concerns and why drivers overcrowd buses. As the Operations Manager, I need to know what resources are not being used to make transit operations safer and more efficient. In transit management, I will be able to observe and evaluate which external factors greatly affect the driver’s behaviors, reactions and changes in technique. In the end, I hope to find solutions to these problems and will introduce advanced training for our bus operators which emphasizes safety as their number one priority.

As an employee in transit now, my motivation to be at work is the daily interaction with people. As a transit manager, I understand the importance to instill in my staff the knowledge I have gained over the years on how to approach and handle certain situations within operations. Dealing with a variety of problems can cause distress on the job. Those problems yield peaks and valleys that have to be addressed when they happen. Some of the peaks I will encounter are training and managing staff needed to support daily issues without having to micro-manage them. Also, cross-training staff leads to more support and backup to help handle day-to-day challenges. It is in the transit manager’s best interest to enlarge and enrich employee’s jobs to give them more responsibility and meaningfulness to their job. Lastly, the manager is one who sets the example and shows how to treat others the way they want to be treated. It is essential to be empathetic to reach self-transcendence as a leader in the organization. To be able to visualize a situation from someone else’s point of view is more respectable than a one-sided, biased point of view.

Contrastly, valleys can decrease company culture. The responsibility of the transit manager is to reduce the number of setbacks that may occur within the organization. Namely, personnel issues dominate the valleys that transit managers resolve daily. Once a staff member is comfortable with the manager’s management style, then that employee is likely to take advantage and manipulate such style, which takes away the trust in the manager/staff member relationship. Unfortunately, a manager has to deal with such situations; however, he can use them as teachable moments for other staff members. Secondly, when managers do not communicate in a professional manner that sets a negative precedent for middle-level supervisors to follow, which does not disseminate well throughout the organization. Lastly, a manager has to support staff and encourage teamwork, to prevent supervisors from working against each other.

Today, community relations are of utmost importance in public transportation. My Spanish knowledge, combined with my three years driving experience with Blacksburg Transit, and work as an Operations Supervisor Assistant, have enhanced my background and prepared me to advance in the industry. Having been abroad in Xalapa, Mexico, state capital of Veracruz, my experience there gave me knowledge and skills to connect our Spanish-speaking populations in the United States, to public transportation as a safe and affordable means of travel. While abroad, I examined how transit works in the Latin American providences. My goals for learning included: modifying transit operations in the United States in various systems, limiting the language barrier between mass transit and native Spanish-speakers, and increasing the ridership of Hispanic Americans. As an emerging leader in transit management, my active leadership role will provide better public service, improve communication and overall enrich the quality of life for our Hispanic customer base.

In essence, I want to pursue a career in public transit management because it is a pinnacle time of change, growth and expansion both for transportation and me and it is critical that transit managers evolve congruently with the demands of the industry. Safety, courtesy and reliability are factors in the equation to produce and operate a well organized and efficient transit system. I am confident that as my career develops, that I will have the knowledge, skills and abilities to advance public transit to the next level, with a strong, passionate and dedicated team of staff members who want to make everyday a great day to ride a bus!