The Root and The Fruit| Why Attendance Polices Don't Work

August 15th, 2010 — my very first day at the MTA. Many moons ago, back when I still had a full head of hair. My training? Some of the best I’ve ever had. The classroom sessions were thorough and engaging, but it was the behind-the-wheel training that truly stood out. I’ve gone on record saying that behind-the-wheel training at major transit agencies is among the best in the world — and honestly, that’s no exaggeration.

Since then, agencies nationwide have doubled down on this core training. Buses today are safer than ever. The data confirms it: accidents are not trending upward. Operators aren’t struggling behind the wheel. Instead, the challenge is everything else outside of driving — from managing difficult passengers to navigating an increasingly complex operational landscape.

I like to think I’m one of the best transit bus drivers in the country. But if I had to step behind the wheel today, the landscape would be completely different. Not because my driving skills have diminished, but because — borrowing from the Smith System — the picture in front of me has changed. The role demands so much more than driving ability now, and that’s why I believe transit training is not incorrect, but incomplete.

So, if the driving skills are solid and the buses are safer than ever, what’s missing? Why do so many operators and transit agencies still struggle to keep up with today’s demands?

The answer lies in the trainings that are often overlooked — the critical skills and knowledge beyond just driving. These are the areas where transit needs to evolve its training catalog to truly prepare operators for the realities of today’s job.

Here are 5 trainings transit operations need to add to their training catalogs — to better support operators and improve the overall transit experience.

1. Social Media Training: Protecting Your Reputation and the Agency’s Image

Social media is a powerful tool — but when used carelessly, it can become a double-edged sword, especially for transit operators. Some drivers have unfortunately used platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok to ridicule passengers or vent frustrations publicly. While social media is part of free enterprise and personal expression, this kind of behavior can stunt career growth and damage the reputation not only of the operator but of the entire transit agency.

The golden rule of people management is to set the culture before it sets itself. That means training operators to understand the lasting impact their online presence can have and empowering them to be ambassadors for professionalism, even in difficult moments.

A key part of this training should be teaching operators how to avoid emotional hijacking. It’s all too easy to get pulled into a passenger’s provocation, especially when the interaction is being filmed and could be spun into a negative narrative. Drivers need strategies to stay calm, disengage gracefully, and protect themselves from becoming unwilling participants in viral controversies.

By adding structured social media training, agencies can help operators navigate the digital world responsibly — safeguarding their careers, the agency’s reputation, and the public’s trust.

2. Government Affairs: Seeing the Other Side of the Coin

“Why can’t you just put a bus stop there?”

That was my sentiment early in my career. Like most rookie operators, I used to think the service development department, planning teams, and all the folks in suits and ties had no idea what they were doing. And let’s be honest — I’m sure most operators have shared this frustration at some point.

But the truth is, this disconnect is a two-party fault: operators are often too quick to judge, and agencies rarely take the time to explain why things work the way they do. Culturally, there’s always been an us vs. them dynamic in transit — a rift between frontline operators and administrative staff. Part of the reason is that transit agencies tend to silo their workforce, almost like a middle school lunchroom: the drivers sit here, the planners sit there, the maintenance folks over there, and so on. The result? Agencies drift away from a one band, one sound mentality that’s essential for a unified mission.

Imagine if, instead, operators had a Government Affairs class built into their training. A course that doesn’t just mention “service development” as a department, but explains how policy, zoning, funding, and local politics shape every route and bus stop decision. It would show operators the real complexity behind seemingly simple choices — from ADA compliance to community pushback to budget constraints.

Beyond just service planning, this class could also walk operators through how policy, stakeholders, and local elections influence transit. It could explain why a new route might need a city council vote, why neighborhood associations can challenge service changes, or how grant funding affects what the agency can and can’t do.

This knowledge does more than satisfy curiosity — it helps clarify myths and reduce the fear culture that sometimes spreads when people don’t know the full picture. When operators understand what’s really happening behind the scenes, they’re less vulnerable to fear-based messaging or rumor mills, and more empowered to engage constructively.

For a real-world parallel, think about working in a restaurant: it’s easy for servers to get frustrated when the kitchen slows down, but once they spend a day in the back of house, they understand the pressures, ticket flow, and supply issues chefs face. That behind-the-scenes insight builds empathy, patience, and teamwork.

Teaching operators the why behind the what doesn’t just make them more informed — it makes them better ambassadors for the agency, and it helps tear down the invisible walls that separate the frontline from the front office.

3. Money Management: Teaching Operators to Keep What They Earn

When most people enter operations, they’re taught — and I’d even go so far as to say officially trained — to get as much overtime as possible. It’s a badge of honor: grab that extra work, stack your paycheck, hustle, hustle, hustle.

On the surface, that seems like a great deal. But underneath, it quietly teaches a mindset that it’s all about making money, not managing it. And that single cultural lesson comes at a huge cost: operators who live for overtime often find themselves deeper in debt, burning out faster, and becoming more likely to call out or use FMLA, which hits both them and the agency hard.

I know this firsthand. When I came into transit, I went from being statistically and generationally impoverished on a Saturday, to, by that Monday, holding a state job that let me practically write my own checks through overtime. That’s a powerful, even overwhelming transition — especially for people who’ve never been taught how to handle money responsibly.

And that’s the key: money management isn’t instinct — it’s a skill. It’s built from techniques, formulas, and strategies learned over time.

Without it, operators can get trapped by golden handcuffs: the lifestyle built on massive overtime that becomes impossible to step away from. In addition to my own challenges, I saw this constantly when I worked in recruitment. I met dozens, even hundreds, of operators who dreamed of moving up the ladder — maybe into dispatch, training, planning, or even completely new fields — but simply couldn’t afford to because their lifestyle was built around an income level that only existed thanks to 20, 30, or even 40 hours of overtime per week.

And this isn’t just anecdotal. According to a CareerBuilder survey, 78% of U.S. workers live paycheck to paycheck. Other data shows nearly 40% of Americans couldn’t cover a $400 emergency expense without borrowing or selling something. In transit, where many new hires could potentially come from lower-income backgrounds, that financial vulnerability can be even higher.

Imagine instead if operator training included a Money Management module — not to tell people how to spend, but to equip them with skills to keep what they earn: budgeting, saving, investing, debt management, and even planning for retirement. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about how many hours you can work — it’s about how many hours you can afford not to.

Teaching this wouldn’t just protect individual operators from burnout and financial stress. It would unlock career mobility, reduce absenteeism, and help agencies build a healthier, more resilient workforce.

4. Health & Wellness: Understanding What’s Really Happening Inside the Body

A few years back, I was reading this report published by the Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C. (now called the National Academies of Sciences). They had partnered with a few transit agencies to dig into something we all know anecdotally: bus operators often struggle with health issues more than most.

I remember vividly coming across this section about cortisol — sometimes called the “stress hormone.” Cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands and plays a crucial role in your body’s “fight or flight” response. It helps keep you alert in stressful situations, raises your blood sugar to give you quick energy, and even affects metabolism and immune function.

But here’s the kicker: when stress is chronic, like it often is for bus operators — navigating traffic, dealing with difficult passengers, tight schedules, and split shifts — cortisol can stay elevated longer than it should. And that can wreak havoc: it makes it hard to wind down after work, makes falling asleep or staying asleep a struggle, and even contributes to weight gain, especially around the midsection.

Reading that, something clicked. Suddenly, I had — maybe not a full picture — but at least a clearer picture of why myself and so many other operators seem to struggle with fatigue, weight, and sleep compared to other professions. And it’s not just the cortisol. Think about what else goes with the job: operators often snack during shifts to fight boredom or fatigue, not realizing how fast those “small” calories add up.

For example, even something that seems harmless — like adding one 300-calorie soda a day — can sneakily cause steady weight gain if nothing else in the diet changes. Since the average person needs about 2,000 calories daily to maintain weight, that’s a 15% bump. Over a week, that’s about 2,100 extra calories — roughly half a pound of body weight. Do that every day, and over a year you could be up 20–25 pounds — all from a single bottle of soda.

Now stack that with the stress, the weird hours, and a diet built around convenience rather than nutrition. It all works together — fatigue, poor sleep, weight gain, even burnout. And these problems don’t just hit the operators; they ripple out to agencies too: higher FMLA use, more absenteeism, lower morale, and even higher healthcare costs.

That’s why I believe transit agencies should add Health & Wellness training focused not just on telling people to “eat better and sleep more,” but on actually explaining how stress hormones work, how fatigue creeps in, and why habits like stress snacking or late-night caffeine can spiral into long-term issues. And importantly, show operators how to manage it without stress — small, sustainable changes instead of crash diets that backfire.

Because at the end of the day, understanding what’s happening inside your own body isn’t just trivia — it can literally be a life saver.

5. Professional Development: Showing Operators the Rest of the Mountain

As operators, most of us only ever hear about a handful of career “verticals” within operations: maybe moving up to supervisor, dispatcher, working in the training department, or transferring to drive different equipment. For decades, these have been sold to us as the top of the mountain. But the truth is, they’re really just as far as many of us can see.

I have a saying I use often:

Where you sit determines what you see. What you see determines what you think is possible. And what you think is possible determines what you’ll do.

When I started my career, I was incredibly blessed and privileged: the CEO of the MTA at that time was a former bus operator. I’ve gone on record saying that was probably the single most defining moment in my entire career — because it showed me firsthand what was possible. That there really was more beyond the seat.

As the years went on, I’d meet other operators who had gone places few of us even imagined. My good friend Tavon Hawkins, for example, who worked at Clever Devices — a major intelligent transit systems company. Who would’ve thought a bus driver could end up in transit tech? But it’s possible. And there are dozens of other niches: scheduling, planning, safety analytics, HR, government affairs, marketing, customer experience, and vendor-side roles at tech and consulting firms.

One big reason operator culture can get so negative is because we rarely see these possibilities. Thanks to collective bargaining agreements and the structure of seniority systems, there isn’t always a real, performance reward. Whether I’m an exceptional operator or an average one, as long as I don’t hit anything or break major rules, I’m generally treated the same.

But showing operators career verticals beyond just moving from seat to seat? That changes the picture in front of us. It gives people something to look forward to, something to build toward — and research shows that matters more than we realize.

Neuroscience tells us that when humans see a pathway to progress, it triggers dopamine — the brain’s reward chemical. Dopamine doesn’t just spike when we get the reward itself; it spikes when we see that reward might be achievable. This anticipation boosts focus, motivation, and even makes us more resilient in hard times. For operators, just knowing there is something beyond driving the bus for 30 years can literally shift morale, energy, and daily engagement.

And I always tell drivers this: It still starts with driving the bus well. That’s your foundation. But when agencies teach operators about the broader ecosystem — planning, scheduling, policy, technology, consulting, even entrepreneurship — they’re not helping drivers find a “way out.” They’re building better, more motivated drivers today and growing their own developmental pipeline for tomorrow.

Because so many operators are out there trying to survive behind the seatbelt for 20 or 30 years — simply because nobody showed them what else was possible. Agencies that step up and tackle this proactively won’t just have better morale; they’ll have future supervisors, planners, analysts, and executives who truly understand transit from the ground up.

Closing Thoughts

On the outside, all of this might sound like a big sales pitch for my new platform, Transit University — because yes, we do offer all of these trainings, and you should subscribe (lol).

But the truth is, this isn’t really about selling a LMS. It’s about building a healthier transit industry. One where operators aren’t just taught to chase overtime, but learn to manage money. One where we’re shown how policy and government affairs actually work, so we don’t live in the dark. One where health and wellness isn’t a one-pager in orientation, but something we genuinely understand and can act on. One where professional development means more than just climbing a narrow ladder — but seeing the whole mountain.

Because at the end of the day, better-trained, healthier, more informed operators don’t just make their own lives better. They make agencies stronger, more resilient, and better able to serve the public — which is what transit was always supposed to be about.

That’s the mission. That’s the pitch. And that’s the future I think transit deserve