Frustrated TTC rider took to the streets in protest after being kicked off an overcrowded bus
Many of us have been there before, waiting for a bus or train just to be denied entry because it was too full. Never fun, especially when you’ve been waiting in the cold and then have face even more waiting. This is exactly what happened to a Toronto woman on Friday night as she tried to board an overcrowded Route 47 bus at Lansdowne station around 5pm. But, instead of joining back into the queue to wait for the next bus, and maybe uttering a few choice words under her breath like many of us would do, she took to the streets in protest. Literally.
CBC’s Marketplace producer Andreas Wesley witnessed the incident and recorded it. After she was told to get off and wait for the next bus due to over crowding, the woman decided to walk in front of the bus, in protest. After a few minutes the woman came to an intersection and veered off the bus’ path.
"Some people were laughing and some people were kind of mad," said Wesley. "For me, I could sympathize with her."
According to Wesley the wait time for the bus was at least half an hour, and people were lined up "all down the sidewalk, into the subway, down the stairs of the subway station."
Spokesperson for the TTC, Susan Sperling, stated that nothing out of the ordinary should have caused the delay, and stresses that sometimes overcrowding happens at busy times.
"Sometimes buses get crowded on a Friday night. They're buses. They have limited space," Sperling told CBC Toronto. "For us, this is an issue of safety. This woman put herself in harm's way.”
She went on to say that walking in front of buses is not the best way to voice your frustrations.
"We have lots of avenues for customers to register their displeasure with either our service or employee behavior," Sperling said. "They can tweet @TTChelps, they can phone customer service, they can fill out a form on our website. But endangering your own safety and the safety of others isn't something we would suggest doing."