[nagdu] Dirty Busses

[Elizabeth Rene]

Has anyone encountered this situation?:

You board the bus and sit on the isle-facing, pull-down bench designated for 
passengers with wheelchairs, guide dogs, strollers, etc.  Your guide dog 
kennels under the bench per your direction, keeping his paws and tail out of 
the path of passengers' feet.

Then you hear him chomping away at some trashy goody tossed there by the 
last passenger.  Or he dives under the seat, rump to the world, with his 
nose wildly sniffing unknown substances under the bench, with his collar and 
leash at an angle   no leash correction can counteract without drama.  Or 
your nicely groomed dog emerges from the bus with something gross stuck to 
his haunch.  Or someone at work asks you if your dog has cut himself, and 
you discover a wad of stickiness the shape of a slash along his leg that 
cleans off with no underlying wound.  Or your dog's jaws are working eagerly 
when you check on him under that bus bench and you correct him, reach in, 
and pull out something ghastly.  Or you rise from that bus bench to 
disembark only to realize that the back thigh of one   of your pant legs 
where you've sat has become, er, moist!

All of this has happened to Alvin and me during the past few months, on a 
busline that originates in my very nice neighborhood, then goes across town 
and back.

Never before in Seattle or in other cities have I encountered such dirty 
busses.  Never have I had to worry about my dog getting into trouble, or my 
being grossed out, because passengers threw their garbage under the seats or 
the busses weren't cleaned .

I keep Alvin under the bus seat because Seattle's  electrified busses lurch 
all the time, go up and down steep hills, and are hazardous for a sitting 
guide not clamped firmly between his handler's knees (hard to do in a pencil 
skirt!).  Alvin's too big to squeeze into the space between the front-facing 
seats, or I'd have him sit there with me, next to the window.

I shudder to think about having to sweep the bus seat with my hand before 
sitting to make sure it's dry!

I'm about to write to Metro Transit about this situation, but don't expect 
much more than sympathy, owing to budget cuts county-wide that have probably 
caused Metro to cut corners on cleaning.

Anyone have the same beef?

Taxi, please,

Elizabeth