Unruly bus passengers concern Juneau Assembly

The Juneau Assembly is considering several ideas, including placing security personnel on city buses. Another idea is to install on-board security cameras. That has been tried in some cities in the Lower 48.

John Kern, superintendent of Capital Transit, said most full-time bus drivers will probably have 300 to 500 separate interactions with the public on any given day. And, he says, there is always a group of problem individuals drivers have to deal with.

It was a sucker punch from an unruly passenger that ended Deborah Munsell's job as a Capital Transit bus driver — a job she enjoyed for 7½ years.

"I liked my job as a Capital Transit driver. I learned, a lot of times the hard way, how to deal with people," she said. "I found the driving part was the easiest part."

Munsell said people were boarding the bus at the corner stop at Main Street and Egan Drive on July 27, 2008, including a regular who was swearing and cursing.

She said she asked him to get off the bus and speak with her, and "the last thing I saw was him coming at me with a fist. I just wasn't expecting that."

After healing, she returned to driving a bus for just one day. She kept thinking about her attacker, even though she knew he had been arrested. She decided her career as a bus driver was over.

"I didn't think it would affect me like it did because driving a city bus is what I wanted to do," she said. "I never feared the people before."

The Juneau bus system put in place a code of conduct about six years ago to address behavioral problems on the city buses. The code calls for no swearing, eating, drinking, tobacco use and playing music loudly, and requires people to maintain an appropriate level of hygiene.

The code of conduct has helped, but there are still going to be incidents, Kern said.

Bus drivers will remove the riders that get too unruly and ban them for a month to a year or more, he said. Earlier this month, the banned list had three people on it.

Capital Transit also works with the Juneau Police Department, which issues criminal trespassing citations to enforce the bans, he said.