Gross Commuters

 

I am not the king of etiquette.  I know that.  However, some people... or in this case, at least one person is worse than I am.  That person was riding the subway with me on Friday.

I was trying to read my book (Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux--in case you were wondering).  I heard a sound that I instantly recognized--but dismissed as impossible on the subway.  It was a metal clacking sound.  I looked up, and sure enough, it was what I thought.  A woman was trimming her nails on the subway.

Am I crazy?  Is this normal behaviour?

I know I am not the only one who thought this was wrong.  I looked over at the person next to me, and he shook his head in disgust too.

This wasn't some self involved teen, or some homeless person, or some princess type.  This was an average woman, holding a conversation with her friend--who, I might add, had supplied her with the clippers in the first place.  Her friend didn't seem to mind that she was littering the subway (and most likely her friend's coat and purse) with her DNA.

Fair is fair.  The subway is not a bastion of cleanliness.  There is probably already a fair bit of gunge and scum and other stuff floating around.  I can't really think she is making it any dirtier, but I still think what she did was gross.

I can't have been the only one...could I?

Amazingly, while searching for images for this post, I typed "clipping your nails on the subway".  Perhaps that was a mistake as so many pictures came up.

Yuck!

The Next Big Idea with the TTC

 

So, the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) wants to subsidized transit passes to low income users.  Additionally, they don't want to raise prices for typical (non subsidized) passengers.  In theory this sounds good.

However, I have a few concerns.  If the same people who are in charge of handing out the disabled parking stickers are in charge of this, there will likely be a lot of fraud involved in this.  I know that sounds bad, but you have to understand where I am coming from.  I have seen lots of people (and even talked to some of them) who are using another family member's parking pass to park in designated disabled spots.  They figure the pass is fair game for anyone who has it.  I can't disagree more.  If you're parking in a disabled spot when you don't need to, you're potentially blocking someone who really needs to be in that spot.

But I digress.

I am all for helping people out with transit.  I use it every day myself.  I still don't know why it is so expensive, or why it costs more when more people use it (I call this mismanagement--perhaps they are paying too much overtime).

I guess the problem that I have is that I don't believe that the people who really need the financial discount will get it, and people who have no need for a discount will somehow find themselves in possession of a discount pass--I am thinking of city councillors who already get a free pass, and then never use it.

Only time will tell if this plan works out.

May, one weird month.

What a weird month May has been in Toronto.  It snowed last weekend...It's May!!  What's going on?  Then this morning we had a small earthquake,  Then we go treated to the whole Rob Ford issue. (The twitterverse is already lit up)
I wonder if this is just some cosmic joke.  Maybe so, but why now?  Why couldn't we have a warm day in winter instead?   I guess life just doesn't work that way.
If nothing else, maybe the city will be the centre of attention for a few minutes.  Maybe we will get on some big news channels and people will be talking about us.... for all the wrong reasons.  There are still two weeks to go in May.  I wonder what the month has in store for us?

The Plastic Bag Debate

Recently Toronto city council voted to ban plastic bags some time next year (it could be January first, or June first--I am not really concerned with the date)  It was covered by all the major newspapers and found its way onto the local news for several days running.

I don't live in Toronto, so most people would argue that I shouldn't really think about it.  True, except that when Toronto passed a by-law requiring all stores to charge for plastic bags, it quickly became store policy.  So pervasive was this that most store clerks thought it was the law in the province, rather than store policy.  So, if this happens in Toronto, it is likely to be adopted by all stores province wide.

As for me, I don't really understand the resistance to the idea.  I remember when we didn't have plastic bags, and things worked out fine.  The only time there was any trouble was on sitcoms, where the main character had to struggle in the door with multiple bags, leaking fluids, fumbling with keys while the phone rang.  These days, they would just let it go to voicemail, and I would hope that you could put down your bags while you are opening the door.

I have embraced that bring your own bag to the supermarket, and so it seems have quite a few others,  It was difficult at first, but I always have some of the bags in the car.  When I am planning on going to the store I always manage to bring them with me.  If I forget, or don't have enough, I am sure paper will do. 

I realize that plastic is convenient, but I don't recall the last time someone tried to tell me that plastic was good for the environment. (though people are still debating global warming, it seems that we've all accepted that plastic will never go away)  Most people seem to have embraced the blue box concept.  Maybe a sensible first step is to force the blue box program to accept plastic bags......

I am prepared to lug paper bags home (or at least to the trunk of my car) and I am sure I will soon see bundle buggies full of paper bags being hauled across town.  Will the plastic bag go the way of the dinosaur?  Since the dinosaurs became oil, and oil gave us plastic, it seems only fitting.