Driver had to boil down his warm mottoes

CHAPEL HILL -- He tells his riders "hello" and "goodbye" every weekday morning and afternoon.

"You're welcome, have a nice day," he says if they thank him as they step off the bus.

But that's about all Robert Moore, 59, says these days on his two Chapel Hill Transit routes.

Moore, known as "Robert the U-Bus driver" because he once drove a U-bus, used to say a lot more.

"Remember: Keep lovin' one another, keep smilin', and you'll live a long time. Trust me. If you do not live a long time, just see Robert.

"At this time, I would like everyone to turn to the person next to them, and with a positive, intelligent attitude, wish them, 'Good morning' and 'Have a nice day.' Let's try that."

In February, Moore said he was told to stop reciting his mottoes after someone accused him of turning off the heater so he could be heard over the intercom.

That's not true, Moore said. His voice can be heard over the noise of the heater, he demonstrated Tuesday. He would have no reason to turn the heater off, he said.

Now, the bus driver said, he's not allowed to "engage in long conversation while on duty" and can't use the intercom unless he is announcing a stop.

"I meant no harm to people. I never did," Moore said this week. "I try to be careful about what I say. It's hard to drive around and not talk."

He said that in his 10 years of driving a bus no one has ever complained to him. Passengers usually tell him they enjoy his sayings and that he brightens up an otherwise bad day, he said.

More than 20 people have written Town Hall asking that Moore be allowed to keep talking.

Steve Spade, director of Chapel Hill's transportation department, would not discuss Moore's situation, saying it's a personnel matter. "You get all kinds of feedback for our operators, on both sides of the fence," he said. "It's not fair for us to comment on those kinds of things, and it's not fair to the driver."

Spade said the system expects drivers to give safe, courteous rides on time. "And that's what our whole system is focused to do. ... Those are our three priorities."

UNC-Chapel Hill students and alumni liked riding Moore's buses so much they began a Facebook group, "Robert the U-Bus Driver," with the name "Robert" scribbled in a pencil-drawn heart. As of Wednesday evening, almost 530 members had joined Moore's group on the popular online networking site.

Dan Steele, an office assistant at UNC-CH's School of Medicine, said he noticed about a month or so ago that Moore had stopped talking as Steele rode to work about 7:45 a.m.

Steele's message March 21 started the stream of e-mail to Town Hall. In his Facebook statement, Steele told people to "get the message across that the complaints of one or two killjoys do not excuse trampling on a bright spot in the lives of everyone else.

"Remember: There is no one in this group who is too good to speak to another human being, especially about injustice," he wrote, echoing Moore's mottoes. "LET ROBERT SPEAK!"

Kimberly Perry, 23, a UNC-CH alumna and post-doctoral student at UNC-Greensboro, found out about Moore's situation on Facebook. She remembers riding with him during her freshman year. She was feeling overwhelmed, and as she made her way home, Moore told the riders to turn to their neighbors and say, "Hello. I am somebody."

"We heard his voice on the intercom, and it put a smile on our faces. And we weren't expecting that," Perry said.

"Most people just get on the bus and are thinking about their next test or what they're going to do when they get home, and they're not focused on the people around them," she said. "It was just a way of getting people to talk."

Moore said half the satisfaction of his job, besides getting people where they need to go, comes from being able to talk to passengers.

"Most of the people in Chapel Hill, I think they like what I do," he said.