ttc – truly trying commuting

The best advertising campaign the auto industry never ran was the public transit experience.   Nothing has pushed more people toward car ownership as well.

I complain a lot about the TTC.  My friends will attest to this.  But when you look at my beefs about 70% of the have to do with people's behaviour and the balance with the service itself, so while, yes we are dealing with, on a daily basis a system that essentially stopped developing in the 70s and tries to cover massive territory; that doesn't explain the lack of manners. 

On a recent trip, using the Greyhound bus to Kitchener, to visit a friend I overheard two students discuss the lack of manners on the transit in Toronto and posit how bad it might be in NYC.  Difference, in my experience on NYC subways - which is limited yes - is that people don't do the things Toronto riders do. On my midday travels in NYC no one blocked doors or tried to get on before everyone got off, people moved into the cars and only stood for their stop after leaving the prior station.  C'mon Toronto.  We're better than this.

Aren't we?

It is said that in a dense populous one needs to be more polite to make the society function.  And while Canadians do have an apologetic reputation it all seems to get dumped into the fare box and out comes the dufusness. 

In dealing with this old infrastructure with narrow platforms, stairs and mostly not working escalators and nonexistent elevators, could we all just use a little common sense.  Remember ‘Walk Right, Stand Left’?  It was removed because someone managed to successfully sue the TTC after falling on an escalator.   So we all suffer the fool who decides to buck the trend and stand on the left in spite of the fact that everyone else is standing to the right.  Arguably sometimes the outcome of these suits is great.  Those station arrival announcements that started a few years ago?  The end result of a case ruling outcome of a visually impaired rider trying to navigate the system with his disability – and in the end really quite useful. 

There are places where the needs of the few result in change that assists the many.  On the other hand, does anyone remember when the TTC tried to do away with WheelTrans, the service for people confined to walkers and wheelchairs who had difficulty with the main system?  Those affected protest in the form of showing up at rush hour to Bathurst Station and attempting to board streetcars with their assistance gear.  The result was a very long rush hour, and they got to keep their WheelTrans after very effectively showing that they really couldn’t use the system the way it was.

Unfortunately this is what also lead directly to those new low floor buses that the TTC is outfitting their entire fleet with.  For those of us, like me, who end up using the outer edges of the system – my damn office moved to the very edge of the suburbs – and civilization – but that’s another rant – we’re stuck, on those awful buses with no recourse.

I may be exaggerating but I firmly believe that no one actually test ran these buses.  Test ran as in piled a large crowd of people carrying a variety of oddly shaped and sized packages, closed the doors, hit the gas and stopped abruptly every 200 or so yards, let half of them off, and piled on as many or more people.  In software we’d call this a ‘test use case’.  I’m not sure what is it in the public service vehicle milieu, but very much seems to be a missing step.  Also no one tested the outward opening back doors in a snow bank.  And as you know if you ride these buses, the only recourse the driver has is to ‘reboot’ the bus, which means turning off and then on the engine to reset the computer chips.  Apparently our last fleet of buses lasted over 50 years – call me pragmatic, but I’m not seeing these doors last more than 10 at the current rate of failure.  Then again, we all have to enter and exit from the front door during any type of weather, so perhaps by being saved with lack of use, I’ll be proved wrong.

Recently on one of those internet trolls where one story you read links you to another and on and one, I found an article about a tongue and cheek set of Manners Cards make by an individual in NYC.  Of course, I can’t find the article again, and in the interview the creator admitted he was a little too chicken to actually hand them out.   Although not limited to public transit and including some suggestions, like not walking 4 abreast and blocking the entire sideway to the exclusion of all other pedestrians, the cards included violations for blocking the escalators by standing on the left.

In the end it’s all pretty simple.  Pay attention to your surroundings and acknowledge that you are in a crowd and not in isolation. 

• For instance don't stand at or block with your ‘insert here’ stroller, bundle buggy, 60 bags of groceries or big fat ass,  the top of; the bottom of; or in front of any escalators, and/or doors.
• Don’t put your nasty dirty shoes on the seats just because the car isn’t’ full. 
• Let everyone off the vehicle and THEN get on. 
• Don’t ‘tsk’ when the system is slowed down or stalled – you’re not the only one frustrated and it doesn’t help the atmosphere. 
• Don’t play your iPod without headphones- nobody wants to hear your horrible taste in music. 
• Don’t hit other people. 
• Don’t spit (anywhere, ever). 
• Keep the smelly foods to a minimum.  Yes we call smell it when you open a can of beer.
• Please, please do not clip your nails, especially toes on the transit. 
• Most people are pretty good with the offering of seats to the elderly and expecting, but don’t nip in and take their offered seat for yourself you selfish prat.  Or as I once witnessed by a 60ish year old woman, complain loudly that no one will give up a seat while standing there is 5 ½ inch stilettos – if you can wear those shoes, you can stand. 
• Don’t sit aggressively, blocking access to inside seats, or even worse, take up an entire seat with your precious bag of lunch.  Unless you can show me it paid $3 to get on, it doesn’t deserve that seat.
  

As an ending note I do think Andy Byford is trying, albeit with a very limited set of playing cards.  Although I do, regularly, consider joining Twitter, only to follow and harass… er… update Mr. Byford on the day to day taxes of the system.  I have, to date, resisted this urge. 

And to my fellow travelers, happy travels!

P.S.  Apparently I'm not alone.  I don't know this guy, but he's got some of the same pet peeves I do, and he uses pics as evidence. http://ihopeyourbagiscomfortableasshole.tumblr.com/