Barking Space

Riding the subway every day usually creates a callous on the soul for most people. I don’t know why it doesn’t seem so for me. Most of the time I just like to watch people, and some of the things they do amuse me. Some things I see are plain stupid, and I’ll become a little annoyed. I can’t seem to turn the emotions off and become a zombie like some people. I’ll give some examples.

One thing that bothers me a little are some of the younger crowd that need to sit.

They make their way onto the subway, and seach for any available seat. This act is not something horrible in and of itself. It is the fact that a lot of these kids don’t get up when an elderly person enters the subway. I rarely take a seat, as I prefer to stand. But if I happen to be sitting, and someone wanders into the car who needs a seat more than I do, I’ll give it up. No questions asked.

Another thing that irks me are the people who have the need to get off the subway before everyone else.

Even before the final approach to the station, a lot of people will elbow and nudge their way past everyone else, just to be in front of the line to get out. What is funny is the fact that half the people they shove past are usually getting out at the exact same station.

In places like Japan and China, the trains are packed to capacity. But from what I understand there is still a fundamental respect for others. There is just a smaller zone of personal space. People pack themselves in like tuna, and flow into any and every empty space possible. No one really cares. People get off at their station when the train stops, because there is nowhere to go.

The worst are those fine, upstanding people who sit down, and then get up and try to get to the front of the exit queue halfway through the ride. This is just silly. And it’s almost always teenagers that do it. As far as I’m concerned a person waives their right to get out of the train first if they are too lazy to stand up near the door.

It’s only fair.

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Scenario A – I wake up in the morning (later than I should), and make my way through the morning rituals. I leave the house, and walk down the street to the corner, where my fellow commuters are waiting for me. The bus arrives, and we get on, and I get to work at a reasonable time.

Scenario B – I wake up in the morning (later than I should), and make my way through the morning rituals. I leave the house, and as I walk down the street to the corner, I see a bus go by. And I think to myself, I should be ok to make the next bus. And just as the thought is compelted, three more buses fly by, making their way towards the subway station. I shake my fist in the air because I know that the next bus will take longer to arrive than if I were to just walk to the station.

Scenario B happens a lot more than Scenario A, I assure you.

Now please, before fans or employees of the TTC become annoyed, I’d like to state a few things. I take public transit pretty much every day. I really admire a lot of the folks that work there. I am quite certain that most of the problem is because of scheduling and organization more than anything.

Why do buses seem to travel in herds? Why are most of my homeward-bound subway rides these days plagued by tons of delays and several declarations of my train being out of service?

A friend of mine commented that it takes her the same amount of time to bike to the airport as it does to take public transit. A direct ride would be quite fast, but add a bunch of transfers at connection points, and you are looking at significant delays.

How to solve the problem?

I am not really sure. I think that something has to be done to reduce the “herded bus” syndrome. It seems that there is a delay between the arrival of a bus to the station and the departure of it. If it is the matter of reducing driver fatigue, perhaps they could have a rotation. Have one spare driver waiting at the station who would replace the next driver. That driver could take a short break while waiting for the next bus, while the rested driver could immediately depart the station in the waiting bus.

I also think that it would be good to extend the subway up to the airport under Highway 427, and across Sheppard to the airport area as well. I think that this would reduce the number of cars on the road by a good number, and a lot of people would be able to go downtown a lot easier. However, his would require some funding, I would think.

There is always a struggle to fund our public transit system. I think that if we wanted to secure funding, we should force the members of Parliament to attend a series of important meetings in Toronto, and make them take public Transit to get there. They would be late, and grumpy. I am certain that this tactic would secure the funding we need.

Keep in mind that my ideas could be totally wrong. Most of them are based on playing a PC game called Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Perhaps not the best research tool for the job…

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