New safety measures are on the way for some of New Zealand’s bus drivers. Staff writer Lyric Waiwiri-Smith speaks to one driver about the recent rise in aggression from commuters.

It’s difficult to think of a vehicle – or shall we say, chariot – more symbolic of the working class man than the humble and perpetually underfunded bus. And the drivers themselves, the backbone of one of modern society’s essential services.

According to a 2019 Stats NZ report, bus drivers are “among the most loyal employees,” and had the highest average age of any key industry group at 54 years old. Despite the long hours and routes, Wellington bus driver Luke swears his job “is not dull by any means”, if you treat it like a simulator game: dodge parked cars, swerve through traffic, collect customers and coins, and do it all again on the next round. 

With unpredictable shift times and some 12 hour work days, he jokes the career is a perfect choice for “involuntary celibates, or men whose wives don’t want them at home.” In the 2018 Census, 8,874 New Zealanders listed their occupation as “bus driver.”

The best time to be inside a bus is the morning, he says, because on a good day when there’s enough staff around, the sticky floors and scents of bodies are sterilised with cleaning products. And the best season to be driving a bus is in the summer, when sunny days feel endless and hopeful, unlike in the winter, when the cold and condensation turn buses into wet and smelly mechanical tubes.

Luke, whose real name needed to be changed as his employer’s contract with Metlink includes an employment clause that requires prior approval for bus drivers to speak to the media, has been driving buses in the capital since 2017. It’s a job he treasures and takes seriously, but over the last few years, he feels that passengers have been less on-board with empathy.

Buses are the most common form of public transport in Aotearoa, with 70,000 trips occurring in Wellington daily, per the city council. According to a 2020-2023 household travel survey by the Ministry of Transport, the modal share of total travel time for public transport was at 4.6%, putting our patronage far below those of other OECD nations (such as the UK, where the figure is at 8%, or 10.1% in Canada).

The same survey found 70% of New Zealanders hadn’t used public transport in the last 12 months. Yet, Auckland Transport is on a mission to increase public transport patronage by 50% by 2031, with the dream of every Aucklander being only a short walk away from a bus on a 15-minute schedule.

Though it’s been around for centuries, public transport is still touted as a cornerstone of future commuting – it’s more climate-friendly and cost and space effective than owning a private vehicle, and the growing model of 15-minute cities to reimagine our urban areas sees a world in which cars are a thing of the past, and walking, cycling and public transport becomes our main method of travel.

MetLink says the number of verbal incidents reported on their buses has already halved between February 19 to April 19 2024, from 40 reported incidents to 19. “On Metlink buses, panic buttons are installed in the driver’s cab for passenger and driver safety, which when pressed, alerts the bus company that someone on that bus requires assistance,” a spokesperson for the transport network said. “CCTV cameras are also trained on the cab and seating areas of all buses as a deterrent.”

In Auckland, attacks on bus drivers have more than doubled in the last two years, according to data from Auckland Transport. In 2023, the organisation recorded 51 assaults on drivers – about one attack per week – and 120 verbal abuse cases.

A spokesperson for Auckland Transport says they’ve seen a “recent rise in antisocial behaviour” on buses despite incidents trending downwards last year. However, attacks are “still a rare occurrence across the busy transport network.”

These assaults include the stabbing of Alapita Wilson, stabbed in the side of his ribs under his heart by a drunk passenger in 2023; a punchup on a New Lynn route after a passenger was denied onboard due to his lit cigarette in 2022; an elderly driver hit 100 times to the face in one go in 2023; and a four-peat whack to the face from a passenger unimpressed with how long their ride was taking in 2022, just to name a few.

Luke says bus driving was “a breeze” when he started seven years ago, but a rise in intimidating and aggressive behaviour from passengers – a shift he pinpoints to pandemic isolation and desperation – means safety is now the biggest concern among his fellow drivers. 

There was one memorable incident for Luke during the pandemic years, when a customer attempted to tag onto the bus without funds on his Snapper card. Thus ensued a back and forth, but just as the man walked out and turned to see the bus door about to shutter, he got a final word in: “I hope you catch Covid, and I hope you fucking die from it.”

Luke laughs as he recalls this threat, and another incident which involved a Mongrel Mob member barking at him for an entire bus ride. There’s the stories from other colleagues, too: a mass brawl on an Eastbourne bus between adults and children, and a group of young teens who had waved a replica gun at another driver. 

“You can’t teach empathy, you can’t make people have it,” he says. “A lot of bus drivers in Wellington are absolutely fed up with it. There’s a lot of discontent.”

The image of a school boy’s bloodied face, beaten by a fellow bus passenger with a metal pole in a race-related attack, has only worsened fears of bus safety. But the teen is also far from being the first school-aged New Zealander to be brutally attacked on their commute this year. In 2023 a 13-year-old was left concussed at a stop in Rotorua, and a 16-year-old was killed by a younger teen at a bus hub in Dunedin in 2024. 

Over the next four years, $15m of the government’s $2.68b allocated to roads, rail and public transport from Budget 2024 will be used to fund improvements to bus driver safety, with one immediate fix being security screens for new and existing buses.

By 2026, 80% of AT’s bus fleet will have installed security screens from funding allocated by mayor Wayne Brown, whose relationship with the transport network in New Zealand’s biggest city has been, in his words, a “shut up and listen” affair. Screens are an “effective option to help mitigate risk associated with antisocial behaviour towards bus drivers,” according to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, who from July 2024 will require all new and existing nominated buses to have security screens installed.

The AT spokesperson says the company is already working to retrofit 33 buses in central and south Auckland, and will continue to work with bus operators to confirm designs for different bus fleets. In Wellington, MetLink says they are working with operators to meet Waka Kotahi’s new requirements.

There’s some safety protocols Luke’s still unsure of – Wellington drivers have a no child left behind policy, meaning children are to be let on the bus even if they don’t have the correct fare. But when it comes to adults who should be able to take care of their own concessions, drivers have to discern whether the person would pose a threat if denied boarding.

“You have some difficult customers, but in saying that, 90% of the people you deal with are just fine,” Luke says. “Sometimes the people you see as you pull into the bus stop who [you think] could be a problem, turn out to be the nicest, politest people of all.”

If Luke never took a job as a bus driver, he probably wouldn’t have ever had to hear someone wish death upon him via Covid. But he also wouldn’t have witnessed his co-workers say “I do” at the altar of two separate weddings, nor would he have been able to spend time perfecting his wave (you know the one, that bus drivers give each other in passing on the roads).

That’s why, after several years and moments of abuse, Luke and other bus drivers across the motu still put their bums in seats for some 10-hour days and hope to hear a “thank you driver” at the end of the trip.