Bus driver retires after 41 accident-free years

Jerry Olson took off into history on Wednesday.

After checking the tires on Metro Transit bus 1504, he took a quick look at the engine compartment, walked through a safety check and drove the Route 558 express bus.

When he returned to the South Garage at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, he retired.

Olson, 63, completed what Metro Transit officials say likely is the agency's best driving record of all time — and perhaps 1 million miles of memories.

For more than 41 years, Olson has piloted Metro Transit buses around the Twin Cities without so much as scratching the paint, an unmatched achievement for the state's biggest transit agency.

Every work day since October of 1972, he has completed a similar ritual, climbing aboard a bus and hitting the streets. His perfect driving record dates back to Richard Nixon's presidency.

"I really don't have a regular route. I used to work Snelling Avenue quite a bit," Olson said. "So I had quite a few regular passengers on that ... 66 too."

For the last 20 years, he has floated around the system, working routes all over the region.

"The reason I [could] do that is so that I stay up on all the routes," he said. "The only thing that they got me [on] is when they changed all the route numbers, changed the system up. That's where they messed me up. I could go anywhere in the metropolitan area under the old system."

That old system dated back to Metro Transit's beginnings, with a fleet half inherited from the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company. Back then, Olson said, buses had no heat or air conditioning. He recalls having to drive wearing a parka and winter boots to stay warm behind the wheel in the winter.

Olson got his start driving a cab, but switched to buses as soon as he turned 21, the required age for drivers. He drove an armored car during one transit strike and also spent years delivering newspapers. He married a fellow driver nearly 20 years ago.

Although Olson has spent a lifetime behind the wheel, he doesn't have any idea how many miles he has driven.

According to Metro Transit, he did have one accident early in his career, but has had 41 consecutive years of safe driving since.

"But I've been fortunate. I can't say that I haven't gone through maybe a yellow-red [light] in the early days where somebody saved me," Olson said of drivers who may have avoided his bus. "I think I saved a lot more because I take pride. You don't want to have an accident at all."

It's an amazing feat, said Brian Lamb, Metro Transit's general manager.

"When you think about the size of a 40-foot bus, which is roughly the square footage of your living room, and being able to move that through all the traffic for 41 years without a responsible accident, it's just an amazing accomplishment," Lamb said.

Olson already has been recognized once. In 2014, he was named bus operator of the year by the Minnesota Public Transit Association.

But on Wednesday, he began focusing on taking care a little differently. He's going to concentrate on being a grandfather to his toddler granddaughter and a sibling expected soon.