However, the Dunedin Tramways Union president Gary Bedford said the public needs to stop being so critical and give bus drivers a fair go.
Since July last year the council received more than 50 complaints every month from bus users.
Complaints peaked with more than 250 recorded by the council in February this year.
A staff report to the council’s public and active transport committee today said the majority of complaints related to driver behaviour were reports of dangerous driving.
These complaints included "near misses", "squeezing orange lights", and drivers failing to stop for passengers.
Mr Bedford said the public’s criticism was unfounded.
"I think people’s perception of what is dangerous driving and what we’re doing are two totally different damn things.
"I think the public should stop being so critical and stop criticising.
"The buses, they’re big vehicles and take a lot of handling."
The highest number of complaints received were about drivers failing to stop for passengers, those peaked in July last year.
The staff report said those complaints were related to 19 active roadwork notifications across the bus network which could cause confusion for both drivers and passengers.
Mr Bedford said the public also needed to pay more attention when waiting for buses.
"If they’re standing in the shelter and not doing a damn thing, how are we supposed to know they want a bus or if they’re just standing there on their phones.
"We don’t know if they want the bus or don’t, we’re not mind readers."
The staff report said drivers had also received 71 compliments: 55 of which were for Dunedin Drivers, 13 for Queenstown, and three were general compliments.
Feedback from passengers also only came from a very small number of those who used public transport.
There were 452,266 bus trips since July last year and there was 2292 pieces of feedback — representing 0.5% of the total trips operated.
Compliments related to safe driving and patience with customer inquiries and passengers.
Public and active transport committee chairman Cr Andrew Noone said the council had only been collecting customer feedback for about two years and it had been useful to take on board what customers were not satisfied with.
"It might seem a bit harsh but I think it’s important that we’re aware what the costumer is concerned about."
He said there were a range of factors that contributed to the complaints against driver behaviour including some that were out of drivers’ control.
The information from the feedback would be given to the bus contractors.
