A disgruntled twentysomething waxes poetic on her many travels aboard Tdot's very own public transportation system, the TTC.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Final Gumshoe



I am happy to note that for the last few weeks, TTC subway vehicles have been outfitted with this ad (notice the miniature note pad of gum disposal paper) in an effort to clean up the TTC and keep it above the current neglected-restroom standards it currently follows. I was saddened however to see a man remove the entire pad and put it in his knapsack. The following day, I was further crushed to see a teen, standing with a group of friends, over-dramatically remove a piece of bubble gum from his gabber, rip off a piece of gum disposal paper, scrunch the bolus into the paper and then animatedly throw the refuse over his shoulder - narrowly missing a co-passenger. I bet the campaign would do better in the zoo; in the primate cage, more specifically.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Hotter Than Hades

Do you know where I can find a cement room filled with snowcone ice so that I can roll around naked in it? Today I got on to a packed subway car and shock of all shocks: there was no air conditioning. Normally this would not be an issue, but today, on July 5th, it is, with humidity, 40 degrees Celsius (which is like 86 degrees Fahrenheit). To add an element of dire straits to this story, I am pregnant and very short tempered (not to mention short of breath). I strongly feel that the TTC should have people standing on the platform to advise if a street car’s A/C is broken and to offer an “at your own risk” warning carnival barker-style. I frankly would not care if this added a minute or two to the commute. They could even hang signs reading “SAUNA” on the windows to give us the heads’ up, I don’t care. Had I known that this were the state of the union, I’d have waited for the next train. As it was I got off at the next stop and bolted to the other car where it was more packed, yet icy cool, I’ll trade sardine-can riding for the armpit tango anyday. I don’t think it would make much sense for the TTC to disable an entire train due to one or two of its cars having malfunctioning A/C, but a warning would be nice. It smells of gym socks and rotten crotch on the average air-conditioned streetcar, so to step onto a muggy, sweaty, boiling one with an offensive odor just hovering there, is akin to being trapped in an elevator with a gaseous person or being caught in traffic when a co-passenger barfs.