There are some things that maybe should be said, but aren’t for fear of being attacked by an emo high school kid.
This afternoon’s bus ride was held up for about 5 tense minutes as this guy argued with the driver, using such creative arguments like flawed logic, false generalizations, and profanity, over why he should be allowed on the bus with a student ticket. The driver parked the bus and radioed TTC security, and waited. The guy simmered throughout the stand-off, finally leaving the bus after failing to argue briefly, swearing as he did so.
That was about the only right move he made, as he would have likely been fined for much more than the cost of an adult fare, once a TTC officer showed up.
I can empathize with his situation, but I draw the line at committing a serious offense like harassing TTC personnel. I once attended summer classes downtown (I hesitate to call anything in the city a camp). I got dropped off at Warden station, and had my block of student fare tickets in hand, and for the first week and half or so, I walked through the turnstiles under the auspices of a smiling old man after I had dropped my ticket into the fare box.
Things changed once the smiling old man was replaced with a stern younger man with glasses, square jaw, and trimmed beard, not unlike this guy. That was entirely coincidental. It’s just what I remembered, and that was a bit of a traumatic experience so I deem my memory more credible than it usually is.
Description aside, he was the one responsible for locking the turnstile, and he ordered me to pay the adult fare because I didn’t have student photo ID. Now here’s where my situation diverges with the guy on the bus. First, I didn’t lose my head. If anything, I was confused, not looking for a confrontation. Second, I had change in my pocket. The guy claimed that he was a student and therefore had no money. I was 11 or 12 at the time, and I had change at least.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I could make up the difference between a student ticket and an adult (cash!) fare, but he was now down a student ticket, which was $1.40 before the fare increase, and with no means to make up the difference. I would also be freaking out, no doubt, but is there any point in getting belligerent?
First off, he was obviously in the wrong. What do the rules say? TTC Student Discount Card, or get the heck out. The driver kept pointing to that very sign posted on the bus and said, “I need photo ID.” The guy kept gesturing angrily at his high school student card and claimed that this was somehow valid ID. Learn to read. Never mind that the high school in question isn’t even a Toronto high school, but a York Region high school, neither kind of student card is issued by the TTC. Toronto high school students should, in theory, get a TTC issued discount card themselves. As an aside, the same driver later allowed a Toronto student to board when he showed his student card, so there is some hypocrisy involved.
That he had previously paid a student fare with his non-Toronto high school student card “like a hundred times” (yeah right) and thus it is perfectly legal is fallacy number one. I’m sure people have exceeded the speed limit on hundreds, thousands of occasions throughout their lives, and have never been caught. That doesn’t make it legal, either. The guy was probably capitalizing on the fact that drivers were either nicer than the one he encountered today, were too busy to check his card, or were just ignorant of the rules themselves.
“All you bus drivers are the same.” I don’t understand this. If all previous bus drivers encountered let him get away with breaking the rules, and this one didn’t, they are clearly not all the same because we have found a counter-example. Stop spewing trash already. I wasn’t the only passenger staring at him with a “Need a tissue?” expression.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but it turns out that York Region students can, in fact, get a student discount card. This is progress because way back, I didn’t even go to a high school, let alone a Toronto high school, so I wound up buying tokens. In retrospect, I should have just bought child tickets, even if I did look a little tall for an elementary school kid. Maybe my birth certificate could substitute for photo ID that no elementary school would issue? Who knows. The past is in the past.
What would I do in that situation? If I knew about as much as that guy did, I’d probably try the same argument with the student card, minus the yelling and profanity. Knowing what I know now, I’d have added that York Region students can also pay student fare, and have the driver radio an inquiry if he insisted on TTC issued ID. If the answer was “Nice try”, that’s game and I’d have to leave, minus $1.40. But the ticket was already in the collector box so there was nothing more to lose, except my pride.
Of course, knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t even be in that situation. I’d have gone down to Sherbourne station or to the temporary facility in Richmond Hill and gotten my discount card. The $5 fee is recovered in several two-way trips.
(Title from one of the TF2 Soldier’s trash talk lines)
Tags: logistics, toronto, ttc
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