I rarely ever post or even log in here, but I wanted to share what happened tonight to a TG/CD in hopes of sparing someone on here what they went through. If you are going to go out on the town, make sure you have a way to get back home. I am a city transit bus driver. Tonight at around 1230am I saw a TG/CD at a bus stop on the east side of town. I knew she was TG/CD right away; she was wearing a red business skirt suit, black hose, with polished black pumps. She was also wearing overly large sunglasses. I'm not knocking her appearance (you should have seen some of the outfits I wore when I first started going out). Her type of look would work during the day during business hours, but not late at night while standing on the side of the road. She would have been better off in jeans and sneakers for a middle of the night look. I stop and she gives me a shy smile and I thank her for paying her fare and she sat down. I get all the way to the end of the line on the west side and found it odd that she was still on board. I asked if she knew where she was going and she nodded yes. We are required to collect fares for someone round tripping, but I just let it go. I figured she missed her stop. I get back downtown at 2am and she is still on board. Problem is, I'm done for the night. Not just me, nor my route, but the whole transit system. As I pull into the hub, I stop and tell her I'm terminating and she needs to get off here. She is visually shaken. She tried at first talking like a female (nothing against her voice, I paid $700 in voice training lessons and I still can't sound like a female), but she quickly gave up and reverted to her guy voice. She wanted to know if I can take her back home; she didn't know the buses stopped running around 2am. I explained I have to take the bus back to the garage. She then started pleading with me. I explained to her I can't, it would cost me my job. I couldn't even sneak her back over there since we are tracked by satellite and they would know the second I went off route. Also they would know I was late pulling into the garage. I wasn't going to risk it. I advised her to take a taxi, but she only brought a single bus token. No money nor debit/ credit cards. I thought that was rather ridiculous. When I go out dressed, I always have cash AND a card just in case. I then advised her to call a friend or family member to pick her up, and she said she couldn't because she doesn't want anyone to know about her dressing. I felt bad because she then wanted to know if I could give her a ride home in my car, and as much as I felt for her, I wasn't going to risk anything happening to me. I've already had a nasty experience giving a stranger a ride before. Also, I don't live anywhere near where she got on at and it would have been way out of the way for me. So here she is, stuck downtown, dressed to the nines, without any money. The buses don't start running again until around 530am, but she doesn't even have money for bus fare. I would have given her a couple dollars, but I don't carry cash on me at work and I wasn't going to go to an ATM downtown and get robbed. She was understandably freaking out. She is now stranded in downtown Dayton for several hours all dressed up with no money and no way home. It is 30 degrees and her hose isn't going to keep her legs that warm.
Tip: We have all done the late night outing; that's how I started going out in public. Many can attest that going out late at night isn't the safest time to do it. I understand people have certain times to go out and some feel more comfortable in the dark. Ultimately, if you decide to go out on a bus late at night, make certain you have enough money to get back home and most importantly: Make certain the bus will get you back home! That's good advice if you go out dressed as a female or out as a male. Now I'm going to be up all night feeling bad for her; debating if I should have risked giving her a ride home. Then again, the last time I took someone home, I was robbed. I don't trust anyone anymore, sigh.