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Bradford resident Kevin Lacey loves to drive.
As a bus driver for the Toronto Transit Commission, he enjoys the social aspect of his job, greeting the regular riders on his route and chatting with them everyday.
Prior to the working with the TTC, he had his own business which required him to drive big trucks.
"I was familiar with driving a bus and I love driving," he said, which is what prompted him to apply for the bus driver job 11 years ago. "What better to get paid than to do what you love doing."
But over the past two months, Lacey hasn't been able to interact with them much. Besides the fact that there are hardly anyone using the transit system right now, the ones that do ride, he is not able to interact with them much at all.
"The world's changed," he said. "Before this all happened, it was just a regular day, our buses were full, we'd be very busy and now buses are empty and we have strict regulations now."
He said there are changes being implemented daily to help keep him and the rest of the staff and passengers healthy.
Before heading out on his route everyday, he makes sure to wipe down his bus with sanitizing wipes that are provided by the company, and throughout the day brings his bus back to the garage where it gets sprayed with hydro peroxide to help kill off any remnants of the virus.
When he picks up passengers along his route, they now must enter from the back of the bus and Lacey is protected with a vinyl barrier around him.
"I have regular customers who come on my bus route all the time, I know their schedule," he said. But now, he doesn't see much of them anymore, and if he does, he can't socialize and interact with them the way he is used to.
"Now since I'm completely blocked off, it's very weird."
"Everyday is something different now. It's a learning process," he said. "Because we're dealing with general public, we don't know their life or where they're from or if they have the virus."
To help eliminate the chances of virus transmission, passengers are to pay via their prepaid PRESTO cards or at a subway station.
Lacey said he is on a route where there are a lot of homeless people, which makes him extra cautious as they, along with seniors, are one of the most affected groups of the virus.
"I try and stay as far away from everyone else and keep my distance from people, which is hard to do, because you're so used to socializing and interacting and now you're so far from people and always have to remind yourself to keep your distance," he said.
He gets nervous sometimes when thinking about coming home to his wife and three kids after being out in public all day.
As soon as he gets home from work he puts his clothes right into the wash and Lysol sprays his jacket and has a shower. As of now, Lacey is still working as scheduled but worries about the months ahead with low ridership and what that could mean for his job.
For now, he and his wife Eve, and their three children are trying to keep as safe and as positive as possible. The family have been living in Bradford for the past five years and love the community feel of the town. "There's so many amenities here and there's great people," he said.
