The Say Hi! Campaign has been integral to the rationale of our project: to relieve the stigma of interaction on public transport. It has taken numerous forms: on Instagram, we have provided anecdotes and quotes from the everyday commute; on SoundCloud, we have collected voice notes discussing public perception of bus drivers. Now, we have physically implemented our intervention with exclusive access to bus drivers from Battersea Bus Garage to get an insight into the everyday life of the bus driver. We discussed the importance of interaction between drivers and passengers, and the important of the bus on a wider consideration of public transport. More importantly for our rationale, we got to know drivers for who they are, like the rest of us, outside of the cab thus outside of the negative perception that surrounds their job.
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| Say Hi! Campaign short film coming soon. |
Most importantly, while there is a negative-leaning perception of bus drivers, our visit reinforced the fact that outside the spatial confinements of the driver's cab from which perceptions of the bus driver are visualised, they are just one of us. Working people, providing a service. In one of our interviews, bus driver and administrator Ezeta Coleman argues that bus drivers are not acknowledged. This is realised when lost property customers fail to provide descriptions of the bus driver who was driving the bus on which the customer's item was lost. Additionally, commuter attitudes towards bus drivers such as "I'm paying your wages" because they are paying for travel, despite the fact that bus drivers represent the same socio-economic background as most of their commuters, reinforces the political implications of the often negative anecdotes of interactions between commuters and driving staff.
We also explore the spatial politics between bus drivers and other road users. For example, what I have observed is the scenario whereby a bus is trying to pull out of a bus stop onto the main lane but other road users are not giving way; another bus behind at the bus stop might then pull out to form a momentary blockade to let the bus in front out. A good metaphor for this is that bus drivers are trying to join an onrush which is the everyday life struggle of any working citizen towards progress, but the onrush is inconsiderate of their fellow proletarian, to give it Marxist undertones. Sometimes, though, one person might stick out their hand to stop the onrush to let their fellow proletarian through. Spatial politics of the road, therefore, reinforce suggestions of this negative-leaning perception of bus drivers that Anton, along with many others like ourselves, feel is inherent within the public transport network.
The Say Hi! Campaign does not intend to instil some sort of victim mentality concerning bus drivers and depict the public as the enemy. Indeed, as you shall see in the short film I am currently editing, bus drivers too can make interaction on public transport less appealing between themselves and their passengers. Dennis and Marlon highlight that bus drivers have a duty to keep their passengers safe and well-informed. When a passenger comes on and asks a driver a question, but the driver is unwilling to talk, dismisses them or confronts them, that is a sign of the stigma of interaction on public transport that creates the divisions our rationale aims to tackle.
We gained an exclusive insight to the everyday life of bus drivers from visiting Battersea Bus Garage and I can't wait to complete this intervention with this short film that aims to create an interactive aura concerning commuters and bus drivers. Thank you to Abellio London for helping us with our project.
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