There were two bus drivers that pioneered the bus driving experience via social media in Portland

Dan Christensen

Story by Joe Rose July 22, 2010

Dan Christensen just might be Portland's most beloved bus driver. Hundreds of riders check in daily to his humorous TriMet Confidential blog. He has more than 18,000 Twitter followers. This week, Willamette Week named him one of the city's "Best People." So why has TriMet taken Christensen off the road? On Thursday, he posted a commentary on his blog with a picture of a man riding a bike and this headline: "Portland! Kill this bicyclist." When TriMet saw the post, it put Christensen on paid administrative and forwarded the case to the district attorney's office for investigation.

Al Margulies

It was the second time in a month that a TriMet bus driver has skidded into trouble because of something posted on a personal website. And Oregon's largest transit agency is once again trying to balance the free-speech rights of its employees while keeping its public image polished in the digital age. Given Portland's dynamic tech and social media communities, it's no surprise that its public-transit operators are among the first in the nation to use blogs, Facebook and Twitter to tell the world about their jobs. But officials didn't anticipate some of the challenges that have arisen. "We've had to create the policy as things like this have emerged," said TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch. In late June, the agency prohibited operators from recording videos while on the job after receiving complaints about Al Margulies, who runs the Rantings of a TriMet Driver blog. Last year, a post on the same blog led the agency to restrict employees from recording other employees and riders without consent. TriMet allows employees to run blogs, as long as they don't try to represent themselves as an agency spokesperson or divulge proprietary information. "This is a free speech right that we support," Fetsch said. "But you can't cross the line." Fetsch said Christensen's Thursday post, in which he called the cyclist "fool" and said he hoped someone "takes me up on my plea," appeared to "threaten physical harm." Christensen said he was simply reacting with dark humor to a heart-stopping encounter with a bicycle rider. "He was as close to going under my wheels as anyone has ever been," he said. "It made me think hard about whether I wanted to be a bus driver." A better headline, Christensen said, would have been "Portland is going to kill this bicyclist." Christensen said the photo, shot through his windshield, was taken by a passenger who couldn't believe the cyclist's recklessness. The encounter happened on a narrow stretch of Portland's Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard last month. Christensen wrote that "just thinking of that day makes my heart race and my face flush with rage." Without saying exactly what the man riding the bicycle did, Christensen wrote that he was forced to take evasive action that threw his passengers around to avoid hitting the man. To the bicyclist, he wrote, "However, as a holder of your life I wish to exercise that option now that I'm not behind the wheel. Thank you for putting your faith and trust in my skill, perception and reaction time however I think I'm going to now exercise your life in my hands options and have you killed." As "a holder of your life," he wrote, "I think now after long hours of contemplation I shall exercise the death option." Christensen has removed the post. Several bicycle riders, he said, have e-mailed to say they understand that he was simply venting. At the BikePortland blog, editor Jonathan Maus defended Christensen. "This is an unfortunate situation all around," Maus wrote, "and should serve as a reminder that our behavior out on the roads – from both sides of the windshield – can have a huge impact on others." -- Joseph Rose; Twitter, pdxcommute