I went through Coliseum Station this past Friday on my way for some brewskies downtown with some friends. A side from a drunk/high girl following me up the escalator and trying to start a fight, it wasn't that bad... then I got to Central Station and made the mistake of trying to exit out onto 101 street by Bistro Praha. What a sad, disgusting scene the stairwell up to the street is. I'll never do that again
That stairwell is probably the worst one in the system, I've seen enough people loitering at that entrance over the last few months. I'm not sure why they haven't flagged that area for patrols more.
What I find irritating is how councillors and the Mayor keep saying how these incidences keep effecting the ‘perception of safety’ around transit. No, there is a *reality* problem with transit safety. It’s not just ‘in our heads’.
Unpopular take, but I actually I sort of agree with them. Statistically, things have been getting better incident wise. But that doesn't affect perception of LRT safety as much as these incidents do. Does that mean we don't do anything? Nope. We need to do more and invest more in security, safety, etc for transit. I'm all for increasing that and focusing more on that, but there is a disconnect after a while.
One example that I found of this was someone from the Western Standard (yes that Western Standard) coming here from Calgary trying to write and tweet a hit piece about our LRT, obviously based on the news reports and the perception from rural/suburban conservatives about transit. The end result was that it wasn't as bad as they expected and didn't really tweet more about it. (Weirdly enough, I think they mentioned it was better than the C-train but that's a different discussion altogether, and probably indicative that Calgary's issues will eclipse ours as their housing market shatters and increases.)
Peak hours in the weekdays, I've had no issues at all, and there's intense security at stations along that time and I don't feel anything weird. I mostly ride the trains off peak hours (so my experience is different than others, and others have different experiences which is par the course) and while there's been some issues I've noticed, it's still quite safe. Granted, I think they need to allocate more security and presence during off peak hours since that's when we seem to be getting these incidents. There really isn't as much enforcements on the weekends.
Perception does become reality though, and I think that's what needs to be understood by all parties. It's why turnstiles (while not really being that more effective tbh) should be put in for perception purposes rather than actual deterrence.
Is it time we look at having transit police like Vancouver does? That's two big incidences at Coliseum station within a month. Something has to give here at some point! Like, come on!
I'm all for it but you'll have to convince people that a property tax increase is needed for that.
