Complaint submitted to Metro tonight:

Returning home late on my commute today, I saw someone running toward a stop, across the field just north of 51st street in Redmond. I stood, walked to the front of the bus and politely pointed the runner out to the driver - with plenty of time to stop. He declined to stop at the stop the runner was going for (that closest to SR-520 in the eastbound direction on 51st), and continued driving, even watching the person approaching the stop wave frantically for his attention. He was also extremely rude in his response, although I don't remember his wording here.

At this point, I checked my cell phone for the time, and noted that it was 7:22. Had the driver not been early, this person would have caught the bus. The driver went on to the next stop (after turning onto 148th), out of sight of the runner (and assuredly out of running distance given the half-mile sprint the man had already completed), and stopped for a few minutes to get back on time - 7:25.

Upon reaching my destination in Seattle, I asked the operator (again politely) for his operator number before exiting. Rather than provide me with this information, he told me to (and I quote) "get off the damn bus". Now, I commonly call in commendations for my regular operators, and it takes quite a bit for me to file a complaint, but this was completely out of line. I have never, in 19 years of using this system, had an operator swear at me, and I hope Metro sees fit to either strongly reprimand this operator or remove him from the route. I'm glad that isn't my usual run.