The Power of Authority

I am a great supporter of our transit drivers, but sometimes you have to wonder.

I was on a #20 earlier this afternoon heading south down Commercial. An elderly woman, obviously blind with a cane, stood up at the stop near Grant Street and asked the driver:  “Is this Graveley?”

“Yes,” he said, and she prepared to get off.  Three passengers including me shouted at her that we were actually at Grant not Graveley, so she sat down again.

“They are wrong,” called out the driver. “This is Graveley.”  Even as we continued protesting the truth, she accepted his word of authority and got off.

As we drove on, I challenged the driver and, as we pulled into the stop at Graveley, he finally admitted that he might have been wrong.

“Oh well, never mind” he said.