Like the Toronto Maple Leafs in game seven of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the TTC is reliably disappointing.

It can be counted on to make you late, to make you feel like you need a shower, to make you surface at the subway station where your train is stalled, at which point you have no choice but to grab an Uber in order to arrive at your destination on time — adding another 10 bucks to the $3.25 you’ve already coughed up.

In short, there’s no more obvious civic scapegoat than a big city transportation system.

Every city dweller has at some point been inconvenienced by it and Toronto’s provides daily material for commuter backlash.

And yet, though I am a frequent rider of the TTC myself, and a rider frequently inconvenienced by its uneven service, I feel the need to defend my transit system this week.

More specifically, I feel the need to defend the Torontonians whose job it is to ferry us from stop to stop.

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On Wednesday, the website BlogTO published a story called “People Keep Getting Mad at TTC Bus Drivers for Getting Coffee.” And it’s true. They do.

This week, a TTC rider took to Twitter to air her grievance with a bus driver she claims stopped mid-shift to grab a coffee at Tim Hortons.

The rider surreptitiously photographed the TTC driver, a woman pictured walking toward the bus holding what looks like a Tim Hortons beverage.

The Twitter user captioned the photo: “The TTC driver just went to get a coffee while a bus of people is waiting for her #TTC #Unbelievable”

Social media is rife with these types of complaints and sometimes they’re deserved. For example in 2010, a TTC bus driver was suspended when a passenger uploaded video footage of the driver taking a lengthy Country Style coffee break in the middle of a late night shift — behaviour the rider said was a pattern.

But what many TTC riders don’t know, and what they ought to know, is that on average, TTC drivers work eight-nine hour shifts, in many cases, with only one official break. This is why, according to TTC communications specialist Stuart Green, the TTC allows drivers to make unscheduled stops for bathroom breaks.

Drivers are also permitted to grab a coffee on one of these breaks, provided they are able to stay on schedule.

“What would not be acceptable,” says Green, “would be stepping out only to grab a coffee and waiting in line to grab a coffee.”

He says “the challenge of the social media age is that there’s a lot of cellphone vigilantes who are more than happy to snap pictures, who may not know the full picture.”

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Of course there are probably TTC drivers out there who stop for Double Doubles on the job and don’t care that they’re breaking the rules or inconveniencing their passengers.

But certainly there are also times when the “full picture,” as Green puts it, is a full bladder.

Do we really want to live in a city where we begrudge someone for relieving herself in the middle of a long shift, because she’s added three minutes to our travel time?

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TTC drivers aren’t commonly known for their people skills, but they are indeed people, and people have to use the toilet at inopportune times.

In journalism we’re told to avoid clichés, but there’s no other way to say it: When you gotta go, you gotta go. And if after you’ve gone you notice there’s no lineup at the Coffee Time, why shouldn’t you grab a drink?

Torontonians’ frustration with subpar transit service — with delays and short-turns, etc. — is warranted and understandable. But Toronto’s transit problems run deeper than unscheduled coffee breaks.

If you want to complain about poor transit service, pick on the big guys, not the little ones: leaders of all political stripes who time and time again promise to improve transit, but who seldom do because they value partisan politics more than meaningful change.

According to recent reporting by Ben Spurr in this newspaper, city officials warn that “the Ford government’s cancellation of a promised increase from gas tax revenues will set Toronto’s [transit] network on a path toward more crowded and less reliable service.” Drivers may contribute to delays, but they are nowhere near as culpable in this regard as politicians — who, it’s worth noting, can take as many coffee breaks as they like.