photo by FrizzText

Have you ever wondered what kind of buses they drive over there in Adelaide, Australia? It’s a Volvo B58! Are you stunned and educated? Do you want to know more? Stop here at Transit World to find out everything you EVER wanted to know about public transportation vehicles worldwide.

Their knowledge is extensive. So if you’re ever traveling somewhere and are curious what kind of transit situation you’re coming up against. It’s a great site

Did you know that public transportation began in Montreal in 1848? How about the fact that the Montreal City Passenger Railway Company was created in 1861.

I bet you want to find out all about the evolution of Montreal’s public transit system. This is a lovely site that tracks the development of getting around in Montreal.

It seems crass to be talking about it, but as long as there have been there have been trains carrying the public around, there have been people throwing themselves infront of them. Think Anna Karenina.

People have been trying to figure out a way to stop people from offing themselves by way of train for quite some time. The video above shows a train in St. Petersberg. They’ve taken the “if you can’t get to the tracks, you can’t throw yourself onto them” approach.

Other countries, such as Japan have taken a more bureaucratic approach. Suicides have been a problem in Japan for the last few years. As a result they have started charging the family of the deceased for every minute that commuters have been delayed. That seems a little backwards to me. But I guess no one’s found an effective solution yet.

I love Jim Henson and his muppets. They were a staple of my childhood. They taught me my numbers and not to talk to strangers, but best of all they did it in a fun, yet realistic way.

Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon my favourite not-people singing a song about my new preoccupation. Somehow all of the bumps of commuting life seem endearing and silly when you watch muppets go through them.

photo by simplytaty

You walk onto the metro. You find yourself a seat. And you promptly enter the cone of oblivion.

What is this cone, you ask?

It is the numb uncaring and blindness that seems to close over everyone riding public transit as they try to pretend that they’re the only people in the car. Reading a book, listening to an iPod or simply staring dejectedly into space are the techniques I most often see employed.

What are the effects of this cone? Well, here’s a little story.

It was the end of the day and I was tired. I got onto the metro car only to discover that the only available seat was right in front of a crazy looking homeless man (I assume he was homeless due to his unwashed clothes and blood stained front. I assume he was crazy because of what happened next. If neither of these assumptions are true, my apologies). But I said, “fuck it!” I was tired and we would both just play the game. I would pretend that he didn’t exist and he would do the same.

Unfortunately, he had other things in mind. As my bum was about to touch the seat his big foot shot out and kicked me sideways. I was knocked over but managed to save myself by grabbing the pole before hitting the ground. I was shocked. I was confused. And because of the way this man kept glowering at me, I was a little bit scared too.

But what scared me more than this man’s erratic behaviour was the fact that not one person, in the relatively crowded metro car, batted an eyelash. I looked around me hoping for some sort of acknowledgment but no one would even meet my eyes. I would have thought it hadn’t happened, but for the fact that this man continued to give me the stink-eye.

He eventually got out of the car and shoulder checked me on the way out. Our encounter is now a story I tell among friends and laugh about. But I remain freaked out by the atmosphere of uncaring that pervades in public. What happened to Kitty Genovese made a lot more sense that day.

Being a girl, sexual harassment is an unfortunate but unavoidable part of my life. And it gets likelier as the space you occupy gets smaller. Doorways, elevators and yes, of course, metros. It makes you uncomfortable and it makes you angry. And judging by this letter to the Montreal Mirror, I’m not alone.

The video above was shot on the Montreal metro. It depicts someone being sexually harassed on the metro. My advice to anyone who finds themselves in a situation similar the photographer of this video. Next time, try putting the phone away and stepping in. It’s not fun to be cornered on the metro.

The Guy-Concordia metro always smells like urine and mold. Berri-QUAM always has that vestigial smell of body odour lurking in the air. These smells are always there and they really become part of the character of the metro station.

In New York someone has gone to the trouble of mapping out the smell of all the subway stations. Using Gawker, you can know ahead of time what odoriferous bouquet you have in store.

photo by josephp

Living in an urban environment, we’re bound to integrate the things we do and see during the day into what we make creatively. This is especially true of media. Pictures, books, and music videos.

Urban-ism, a fellow wordpress-er, has compiled a lovely list of their favourite subway inspired music videos. Take a look and see what you think. Are they missing anything?

photo by sallyjenn

You’ve been on the metro when some troubadour has strolled through the car playing music and asked for some change. Personally I find it a nice change to cone of oblivion that usually pervades in the metro car.

Well, it seems the London underground has come up with something new. Now, if you’re a bluetooth robot, you can tune everyone out more effectively. Undersound is a program that broadcasts music on a frequency so you can pick it up on your bluetooth head set.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. Sure, it’s kind of what everyone does already with iPods. And having it be a shared experience is a neat idea. But I’m still waiting for the day when people will start looking each other in the eyes again. Call me idealistic.

photo by redroom studios

We have busses.  We have the metro. And now it looks like we might have street cars in store! But the question that keeps picking at my brain is, why?

Why would a city invest in an entirely new infrastructure when they could just expand the service of its existing system? A bus can go anywhere a street car could go, and Montreal’s streets aren’t wide like Toronto’s. Besides we’ve already had street cars…and we got rid of them!

I don’t want to see my downtown sky obscured by a net of wires. This whole scheme seems like yet another money hole for Mayor Tremblay to sink the city’s money into.