Uh-oh! The transportation is on strike! What to expect during the unforeseen events.

–Tuesday evening, October 25, 2016 

While we ate a vegetarian dinner, my father told us that SEPTA will have a strike on November 1st if negotiations are not deemed to reach the full potential. He told my mother in Cantonese, and I could translate readily to English. I could not believe that it will not be likely to happen if SEPTA will continue to come to an agreement by November 1st.

Uh-Oh, is it liable to occur?

Yes, the probability of having a SEPTA strike is around 60%.

In the risk management class, 60% is likely to have a SEPTA strike, which means 6 out of 10 says that SEPTA will have a strike. The other 4 out of 10 says that SEPTA won’t have a strike.

Just after supper with my family, I looked up on the phone about 6abc news about the potential SEPTA strike that will happen on November 1st if the SEPTA’s agreement had not reached by the midnight. Then I googled “SEPTA strike” and were lots of news updates about upcoming alternative plans.

Oh-no, SEPTA Strike?

Possibly yes.

Not again! It happened on June 14, 2014, on all Regional Rail Lines but ended on June 15, 2014.

(Sad face)

Between dinner and study time, I was reading the news about upcoming unfortunate events while I planned to brainstorm my topic about what to do during transportation strike. I was nervous about the situations will likely to happen, but some of my classmates from Cost Accounting Class took SEPTA and didn’t have a driver’s license yet, so they had the same feelings of nerves. Some of my friends had a car, so they also picked me up from my house to Temple.

On November 1st, 2016 just after midnight, SEPTA’s potential negotiation had not reached in time, so it temporarily ceased on all city buses, trolleys, and subways in Philadelphia.

Here are some important guidelines about transportation strike:

Here is a deal:

I know that SEPTA strike (transportation strikes) cannot be prevented, but there are alternative ways to get there: SEPTA CCT (paratransit)*, friend’s/family car, or taxis**

*For SEPTA CCT or paratransit, you must call Customer Service before registering for a Program. The policies may differ depending which programs may be used. (Some programs have minimum age and have required documents to be considered.)

**For taxis, do not use services without driver’s background and qualifications. It is best to stick to official taxi services. Try www.yelp.com and look for the best taxi in the city. The good news was that SEPTA Suburban buses (90 to 310s), Trolleys 101/102, Norristown High Speedline, and SEPTA Regional Rail were running.

What to expect during the Transit Strike:

• Do you live 1 mile from any regional rail stations or a nearby bus stop that is not affected by the strike (e.g. Temple University Station)? Yes?
  • Walk there instead of taking the bus because they are not running.
  • It is best to leave an hour or two early to avoid lateness.
• Are you living with your friends, families, or relatives who have a car? Yes?
  • Have your family/friends to pick you up and drop you there.
• Do you usually take public transportation to school/work but you have a valid driver’s license? Yes?
  • Drive a car to work or to school.

How to get there other than the public transportation:

• Have your family/friends to take you there whenever you need it.
• Drive a car if you have valid driver’s license.
• Take an alternative public transportation (if the services won’t affect on strike).
• Take a taxi* or Lyft** but use it discretely.

*Only take an official taxis and give them correct change after you leave the taxi car.

**Only use Lyft or other shared-ride services when something urgent happens for a particular period of time such as no available transportation (friends, families) when the strike occurs. Do not use Uber (riskier) because you are putting yourself at risk of drunk driving, car accident, etc.

Tip: When transit strike ends, it is highly recommended to stop using Lyft.

Tips:

• Try to be patient during the strike. 
• If a person worried so much, the stress level increase and anxiety would suffer. If anxiety persists, they are most likely to lie to your friends, family, or other co-workers and contribute to unhealthy body responses.
• Calm down and enjoy your hobbies.
• Worried about transportation strike? If so, here are some activities you recommend:
  • Take a walk, read a book, watch a movie, spend some time with your family, and social time with your friends are all excellent choices to overcome worrisome.
  • Write a journal about your feeling of uneasiness is a good idea to overcome anxiety.
  • Or you can play with a fidget cube or toys to ease some stress.
  • Another idea is to color in your coloring book to ease worries.

Warnings:

• Don’t criticize about transportation’s fault on social media because they don’t even know what their reaction was intendable. People may not be able to look at your post as they opposed to reporting them who post them such as “SEPTA’s so f*******. They don’t reach an agreement. What the #$%$&! (expletive).” Delete them and don’t criticize about something you don’t like. Use filters in your head.
• You should deal with the difficult situations no matter what.
• Transportation strikes cannot be prevented but you can manage your stress-related by cause. 
• The worry you get, the more anxiety you have will affect on social, emotional, physical, and mental health. Don’t worry about this; it will soon go away.

We remind my SEPTA friends that if they stop worrying about SEPTA Strike, things will go away pretty soon. At 4:15 am, I woke up to finish my homework for other classes and to study for my upcoming exam for Risk Management. I was not worried about unforeseen events because they can incapacitate my concentration and can sabotage my enjoyable daily routine. Surprisingly, the strike ended early in the morning (November 7th) when we heard the news about SEPTA’s latest update. We rejoiced that SEPTA’s Strike was over, and it took 24 hours to get back to regular service. A day before my election, my father drove me to Temple’s Center City Campus for an evening class because I have nowhere to go but to plan to work on students about risk management upcoming exams.

Whew! That wasn’t too bad!