“I don’t feel safe on RTC Ride. I don’t feel safe at or near the bus station,” David Friedman recently wrote to Michelle Kraus the Finance and Legal Admin Coordinator and Board Clerk of RTC of Washoe County, who wrote that his communication had been forwarded to the Director of Public Transportation and Operations.
Friedman says he feels the quality of service has gone down since the pandemic, from bad to worse, with buses often late, causing missed connections and long wait times, while animosity riders feel from security guards at the 4th street downtown station has increased.
Friedman says people are always being asked if they have a bus pass, from when trying to use restrooms to just waiting on benches. He alleges the guards often act and speak in an aggressive way, making the entire area feel on edge. Messages from Our Town Reno to Allied Universal which is contracted to provide security services for the RTC 4th Street Station have repeatedly gone unanswered.
"They are unpleasant and unhelpful. And I don't feel safe there with them there," he told Our Town Reno during a recent interview. "Why don't you just put a fence around the entire bus station and charge admission?"
He is not alone in his criticism of our area's bus system, which extends to the conduct of many drivers as well. "The most unprofessional bus system I ever rode on," McCaine F wrote this month on Trip Advisor. "The bus drivers are the meanest people on there… they’re always late consistently…no consideration."
"I was running to one bus and it wouldn't wait.. I was about 15 steps away to be honest.. but the second bus just drove by me... Make it make sense.. the system sucks..." JR T wrote in February.
"Women and children aren’t off limits for mistreatment at the RTC bus transit company. It is February 20, 2026 and I only have been in Nevada for about 2 weeks from Texas," another wrote recounting her own difficult experience.
"I never been so utterly disrespected before in Nevada because It took me about 3 hours to get on the correct bus to head home with my infant,” she alleged. “At Bus 105 around 3:45 at stop 1662 or 1663 the bus driver got mad at me for my transfer pass not working and not able to pay with my other bus pass. Teenagers laughing at me in the background because of how RTC workers handled us. He told me to take my baby out and I said okay and mention I’d fold the stroller. He was getting aggravated with me because of a bus TRANSFER? He didn’t allow me to use another pass and told me to step back and get off the bus."
Friedman himself has been using local buses to get from where he lives on Washington street to doctor appointments, Renown, the Community Health Alliance and pharmacies to get his needed medication.
He has written he’s had several incidents at the main 4th street bus station, and tried to get in touch unsuccessfully with customer care.
In one instance, on February 4th, he says he was trying to connect between two buses and asked that the driver of the bus he was on make the other bus he was hoping to connect with wait just a few moments, but to no avail. "I have mobility issues and I am an old man with a bad spine," he explained.
"I ran out of the back of the bus, running toward the 16 bus, which was behind us and about to leave. And I fell because I have a really hard time and my legs don't work right. So I get up and I'm calloused," but he says because the bus wasn’t at the curb anymore it left without him, even though he says he was right by trying to get on.
"I bloodied both my knees and my right elbow. I am 65 years old and no one assisted me, however, the three armed Allied Security guards that patrol the station offered to arrest me. I called the RTC customer service line to report on what transpired and complained. I was made to feel like the problem, not the drivers or the guards. I called Jim Gee, RTC Director of Public Transportation and Operations, and received a voice message from him on February 6th. Later that day I explained what happened and how badly RTC Ride, RTC Access, Keolis, etc... are run and how I've faced many incidents about drivers that are never addressed. I never heard back," he alleges, saying he did not get arrested that time after arguing, as that would come about a month later.
"On the morning of March 3rd, while sitting quietly waiting for the Virginia Line, two of the three guards I'd encountered in February were asking those seated if they had proof of fare. We're in a public accommodation waiting to ride, not having ridden. This is all part of the new "no fare, no ride" rule," he wrote to Our Town Reno.
After he got into an argument with the guards, he says he was told he had to leave for 24 hours or be arrested.
"Even shorter story, I asked to be arrested, they waited and waited. I was belligerent and yelled profanities at them. I kept putting my hands behind my back, begging to be arrested. Why? To prove a point about civil rights and public transit. Finally I was threatened with trespassing and a three year ban from RTC Ride and the bus station. I started acting very belligerently because I wanted to get arrested. And they said I was acting erratic. But it was a performance."
He says one of the guards then handcuffed him after a physically painful interaction, and he was put in a padded room "where I was under video and visual observation with my hands cuffed behind my back, and watched the three guards for over 40 minutes get their body cam videos uploaded, etc..."
At first he wanted to refuse to sign the citation, "but when RPD officers arrived they explained I'd be booked and sent to different holding facilities until I was seen by a judge."
He's had a first court appearance during which he says he pleaded not guilty, with a trial now set for May 13th, according to his own account.
He says he's trying to move out of the country, looking at different options in Eastern Europe as he says he's fed up with Reno and the United States in general. "I don't play a rigged game and that's what America has become more and more over the last 50 years. You can't win a rigged game, ever, unless you're the one rigging it," he said despondently.
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