Ottawa Transit Safety Project

Police don't keep transit riders safe. Transit riders keep each other safe. Established by members of @CourageOttawa.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

Bold of them to offer this sort of free transit on the same day they beef up fare enforcement.

Spent $200 on a concert? Cool, here's some free transit.
Live on $200 a month? Walk, peasant.

[OC Transpo @OC_Transpo]

"🎶Let's go, girls!” @ShaniaTwain headlines night one @ottawabluesfest. Let us take you there for free! Just show your e-ticket or wristband.

✅Take Line 1 to Pimisi Station! Red-vested outreach staff will be at some Line 1 station to help you get through fare gates.

1/2

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@rjfauxwoke https://t.co/DFkEV9gAA4

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

Notice their uniforms too. Does no one remember how maybe a decade ago this job was done by a single person in a golf shirt and shorts? Now, they are virtually indistinguishable from cops.

[Sam Hersh @SamHersh01]

Have never seen this before, three fare inspectors just uselessly standing by a bus stop downtown waiting to catch someone.

Their 3 salaries combined is about $250,000 imagine how that money could actually improve our transit system if spent on something that actually mattered?

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@SamHersh01 Don't forget that they also get free transit for life in their collective agreement. Their spouses too. (Not that any of them ever actually ride they bus unless they have to for work.)

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

Oh my god, they are actually doing it. No one asked for this. It doesn't help anything. Someone is going to get arrested or worse simply because they can't afford $3.75. This is not a sustainable way to do society.

[Sam Hersh @SamHersh01]

Have never seen this before, three fare inspectors just uselessly standing by a bus stop downtown waiting to catch someone.

Their 3 salaries combined is about $250,000 imagine how that money could actually improve our transit system if spent on something that actually mattered?

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@OCFailspo Not to people with horrific views.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

You think excluding people who cannot afford $3.75 will reduce the prevalence of antisocial or violent behaviour. This suggests *strongly* that you think poor people are more likely to engage in antisocial or violent behaviour. If that's not what you meant, please do explain.

[Ready for Rail @OCFailspo]

@OttawaTSP What I meant by... what?

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@OCFailspo It won't. Not on its own. But people like you will never consent to funding the rest of the things we need to increase safety. Please get out of the way.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@OCFailspo Be less of a sociopath.

[Vivic Research @VivicResearch]

The article cites councillor @ShawnMenard1 who questions if fare enforcement is cost-effective. Fines are paid to the province, so OC Transpo won't get any money back. The trade-off is scaring enough riders who can pay into paying in the hopes it covers the cost of enforcement.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

🧵

[Vivic Research @VivicResearch]

Fare evasion poses no threat to public safety, but fare collection does - it increases profiling & discrimination of marginalized riders, subjects riders to surveillance from fare enforcement officers & Special Constables, & increases the # of assaults against operators.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@OCFailspo oh dear. we are going to need to see some actual data to back up that doozy.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@OCFailspo @freetransitott @WISEOttawa @OttTransitRider Cops don't prevent the bad things on the bus as it is. What stops people from doing the bad things is the presence of other people.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

At risk of engaging with what is probably not a particularly good faith question, here's what we think:

First, no, we do not reject that there is an issue. We held focus groups with transit riders last summer and everyone expressed some safety concern or other. We believe them.

[Ready for Rail @OCFailspo]

To the folks who are against #octranspo fare enforcement and special constables even existing:

How, specifically, do you propose improving safety and decreasing antisocial behaviour aboard moving transit vehicles?

Do you even admit there is an issue?

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@OCFailspo @freetransitott @WISEOttawa @OttTransitRider Because more people riding the bus is good actually. Do you think only antisocial or violent people would take advantage of free transit? No, lots of people would. More riders, more eyes, more intervenors.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@OCFailspo Everyone knows what you meant.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

That's a big yikes from us, bro. That's public space you're talking about. Those are your neighbours you're talking about.

Can't really think of anything more anti-social than coldly stating your desire to subject your poor transit riders to violent enforcement.

[Ready for Rail @OCFailspo]

@OttawaTSP "Undesirables" is your word, but yes, fares and enforcement of them help reduce antisocial and violent behaviour aboard transit vehicles.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@OCFailspo You didn't say it specifically but if you can't see that that is where your preferred method of increasing safety leads, well, that's something you need to sit with probably.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

Transit stations in Ottawa were built to be inhospitable so that 'the wrong people' don't linger.

We think transit stations can be community hubs, even sanctuaries for our neighbours with nowhere else to go.

We should want people to want to be in our transit spaces.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@biotechtoreador We're talking about Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Keep up.

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

@VanierDe Thank you.

https://t.co/3RBxSxZKTB

[Ottawa Transit Safety Project @OttawaTSP]

At risk of engaging with what is probably not a particularly good faith question, here's what we think:

First, no, we do not reject that there is an issue. We held focus groups with transit riders last summer and everyone expressed some safety concern or other. We believe them.