Commuting. Love it or loathe it, most of us at Snack commute every day to and from the office, with a few lucky ones who travel by public transit. I choose to travel by GO Transit, where I witness the wonderful, sometimes wacky, world that goes on inside train cars and bus rows.
Taking the train instead of driving in rush-hour traffic is a definite perk – plus, the upper-level “Quiet Section” is the perfect spot to catch a few extra Zs before work. But every public transit commuter can tell you it’s not always a pleasant ride – all it takes is a single journey next to a loud phone-talker to ruin your morning.
Thankfully, Metrolinx – the company that owns and operates all GO Transit systems in Toronto and across the GTA – took commuter etiquette standards into their own hands. In 2014, the company asked 1,000 GO Transit users to answer a survey about which bad etiquette habits of other passengers bother them the most. In response, Go Transit's agency of record, DDB Canada, created a poster campaign, titled #EtiquetteFail, depicting the scenarios that survey respondents claimed were the most intrusive to their commute. The posters can be found on all GO buses and trains, GO stations and on Metrolinx’s social media accounts.
Check out a few of my favourites below…
Images sourced from Metrolinx's Instagram page.
Although the campaign launched over two years ago, the bad behaviour still seems rather prevalent, but perhaps less so than before the posters went up. I can only speak for the past few weeks, when I began commuting to and from the city each day, and overall I’d say people are generally well-behaved, save for a few door-blockers and loud-talkers.
The #EtiquetteFail campaign portrays the most common forms of bad etiquette on GO trains perfectly – but I can attest to a few more that could be added to the list:
The lady in the corner filing her nails, a small pool of human dust forming on her knees an inch away from the man sitting in front of her. The man sneezing in the direction of other passengers for the third time since departure, mouth uncovered. The canoodling couple, back from some type of trip, taking up all three priority seats with their luggage and kisses.
Ah, commuter life at its finest.
Posted by Valerie.