They have emergency cutoff's, just like racecars, to stop fuel flow if there is an accident. This has to be easily and quickly accessable, or else pointless. I'm not sure how safe it is to lock the compartment, though I don't know how else they're supposed to stop vandals.

and the bus parking does not have barbs ppl can climb the fence,unplug the battery for gas buses and then piss off ppl

would it not be simple enough to add a small switch to tell the driver that his shutoff switch door has just been opened ?? And as for aresting them, well the city just writes out a new BY-LAW and give it a $5000 fine and they can do this in a day. And then transit cops and bylaw officers can simply charge them.... (( They more then likely fine under a by law for smoking on the bus so why not for screwing with saftey systems ))

The operators in that yard complained they got the bad buses as they go through the poor (bad) neighbor hoods. Well the exec's agree and send the nice new buses there. So hmm what happens ? Ok heres the deal the shut off on the regular buses are on the street side not curb side! Once again the transit agency shows its ineptitude (is that a word?). The bus requirements are set by operators and engineers not by technicians. Muni's last fiasco was to enclose drivers ($'s) to protect them as requested by the operators. Well when delivered the operators complain of glare, so screens are installed ($'s) on O.T., then the operators rip them off and throw them away ($'s). Next after a few accidents the operators say the enclosures cause blind spots (DUH). Take them out and throw them away ($'s) on O.T. . Can you say budget short fall! End of Rant ;) .

here's a simple fix. a camera. the busses here already have them. i've counted 5 in total. 4 facing pasengers and doors and a fifth one facing directly ahead. One question though. how do you charge someone for shutting off a bus? the busses here in south florida have plenty of unlocked panel's. a bus actually came up to the bus stop with a couple open once. and the driver, clueless.

hahaha they could add a bunch of other compartments and i mean BUNCHES of other ones so they would have no clue which one but they would still obey the law.

All coaches and buses, no matter what their power source, have an emergency cut-off switch under an unlocked panel, in case of accident. It has been a legal requirement for quite a few years, yet never seems to have caught on as a target for vandals. Maybe the difference is the location of the panel - they tend to be low down near the ground, or on the back, hard to reach casually from a bus-stop.

hey say that they're working on locking the compartments...

People just kill me LOL