Crowdsourced public transit inspection
 

Interesting times here in Toronto. So this happened


It exploded over Twitter and other social networking sites and city blogs. The Union's first response was essentially "omg you guys are so mean, he could have been dead you know"

Then a second one showed up, and after that the focus started to switch to bus drivers who would, without announcing their intention, stop their bus midroute and go get a coffee for 5-10mins or to the bank machine. Also - there was a bit of photoshop.



TTC General Manager goes "WTF people????"

This has now turned into a battle between the Union and the public - the employees trying to claim the TTC bylaws don't say what they say they do (emphasis added)

Instead they claim that photography is banned because of terrorism and 9/11.

Then this morning the idiots set up a facebook group going "omg we're totally going to work to rule and screw them bastards photographing us not doing our jobs" but I think even the union leaders thought "baaaad idea" in an election year when going on strike would get a privatiser elected in a heartbeat.

The latest union comeback is to show pictures of people with feet on the seats, graffiti, litter etc. but the reality is that most of the people pissed at the union wouldn't have a problem shaming the people who do that either but don't reckon that's a get out of jail card for lazy employees, and would be just as happy to post a picture of such langers on the internet as a sleeping collector.

So keep an eye on this sort of thing folks - if the right incident came along and a sharp lad had his smartphone at hand it might shake things up in Ireland too. Just remember to have an upload function on it so it doesn't matter if they try and grab the phone and delete the picture :)

Great post.

I posted something similar about a tube worker abusing customers before and Boris Johnson even rode in via twitter.

Link Here

I think you are correct, there'll be some security / privacy type clampdown but how do you really suppress thousands of users with Smartphones in the end?

It's all gone Pete Tong since. #ttcsleeper became #ttcshagger when it turned out the Chairman of the Transit Commission, a 32 year old city councillor who had announced a mayoral run a few days before flanked by his live-in girlfriend (sorry - partner) had been having it away with a 19 year old (and others as yet unnamed).

Cue another Twitter, Youtube and mainstream media orgasm (not to mention a WTF from an adultery matching site who got refused permission to put ads on streetcars a few weeks previous)

Suffice it to say while the issue of employee-customer interface is still on the boil, people aren't quite as focused on whipping out their smartphone to record errant drivers so much as find out the latest episode in this trainwreck.

In a way the Chairman took a bullet because if he hadn't been outed as being a langer, we might still be enraged by the local answer to Brendan Ogle, who told us among other things that we should "stop harassing" drivers (i.e. "stop snitching") and that if drivers couldn't stop buses where and when they wanted to have a slash, we'd all be responsible for a rash of urinary tract infections. I wish I was making this up.

you mean taking the p*ss?