In December 1975, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published what it jokingly referred to as a “report on the anthropology and sociology of bus riders.” The research was based on an interview with four-year Metro employee Curtis Robinson, driver of the 19th Avenue trolley bus. Robinson reported on the different communication styles of passengers: the talkers, who sit in front directly across from the driver, and the much more challenging non-talkers. He mentioned the habit of riders to sit in the same seat every time, and passengers he called “watchers,” who sit in the middle of the bus and are attuned to everything going on inside the coach. Curtis Robinson eventually transitioned from operating trolley buses to serving as Manager of Operations for King County Metro, becoming a well-known leader who regularly represented the agency to the public.

Here Curtis Robinson resets a trolley pole that has become disconnected from the overhead electrical lines, causing a loss of power to his bus.

Caption information source: “It’s a People-watching job” by Paul O’Connor, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 8, 1975, pp. A1, A16.