Richmond, Virginia's transit agency has done a beautiful set of portraits and testimonials about a number its bus drivers, designed to capture the diversity, humanity, and basic goodness of people who do some of the hardest jobs in the transit industry. Browse it here.
Below each beautiful portrait is a small narrative about how this person came to be there, and what their values are.
My favorite bit, by Sheronda Hill (pictured):
I’ve had people get on the bus and say, ‘you don’t look like a bus driver.’ I ask them, ‘What does a bus driver look like?’
More on the project from Eric Jaffe at Atlantic Cities.
That sort of reminds me of Nathan Vass, who sometimes gets asked if he’s old enough to drive the bus.
What a surprise. I thought bus drivers looked like sperm whales…
I only see the difference between happy bus drivers, and sad bus drivers…