SkyTrain safety is a real concern!
Posted on August 6th, 2008 in personal, transportation, vancouver |
I’ve been taking SkyTrain regularly for two years now, and I’ve never once seriously felt scared for my safety until last night. Putting that into context, realistically, it says the system is quite safe. However, that doesn’t mean improvements should not be made to ameliorate the transit experience for all users.
Maybe it was because I was going westbound at midnight on a Tuesday night Millennium Line train, a situation I’ve never been in, but three things happened last night that made me reevaluate my position on turnstiles and staff numbers. Up until yesterday, I had been a vocal opponent of turnstiles (cost to benefit ratio was too low), and I thought having more staff at stations was just a waste of money (considering how lazy most of them are). Here’s what made me change my mind.
1. Dead, empty SkyTrains. From Braid to New Westminster, there was two other people on the train with me - a very low number and enough to make me start to feel uncomfortable. See, it’s all about the ghost town effect. I feel safe walking around at night downtown because I know I’m going to see a few people each block. It’s the eyes on the street that make me feel protected. However, in the ‘burbs, where everything is eerily quiet and nobody is around after 10; that’s when I get freaked out. Anybody could pop out from a bush! If something happened, I seriously doubt anyone would come help.
That’s what happened on the SkyTrain. Normally returning eastbound on an Expo Line train, there’s at least 5 random strangers with me. We have a collective sense of protecting one another from creepers or hooligans. Once you go lower than that, it starts to get unnerving.
After New Westminster, I was completely alone on the train until Patterson. It was soooo scary! See, any weirdo could’ve hopped onto my train (and these were the MK I trains, so no walking from one end to another). I would’ve been stuck on the that train with this person until the next station. Anything could’ve happened and I had no exit strategy!
What was even more nerve-racking was stopping at a completely empty Metrotown station at night. That never happens!
2. Troublemakers. At Patterson, two rowdy teens ran up to my train as it was stopping and starting banging on the doors. Freaked the hell out of me, considering the likelihood of them joining my empty train and me being stuck with them till Joyce! Luckily, they hopped on the third car instead.
Once I got off at Joyce though, there they were again. Bouncing up and down and tagging walls, just as the female SkyTrain attendant wasn’t looking. Very alarming stuff - especially after hearing a story from my female high school counsellor that made her hate the SkyTrain: one night she and another lady got stuck on a train with a bunch of wild teenagers that starting roughhousing on the car - leaving herself and the other woman fearing for their lives in the corners.
3. Creepers. Rather than the teens joining me at Patterson, this old guy with a trench-coat came onto the train. Seemed normal enough and besides, he was on the other side of the train. He starts looking around and I assume he’s trying to find a good seat. Then, he starts coming my way. Walking slowly, scanning the ground with his feet. Brushing aside papers and garbage. He makes eye contact. He’s close now and I’m scared shitless. Trench-coat. Maybe he’s a pedo, maybe he’s a murderer, maybe he’s a psycho. I just don’t know. He continues scrounging the floor. Oh my god - I’m stuck on here with him until the next station!
He sits down in the middle of the train and pulls out a Bible-looking book. I see crosses hanging from his pocket and neck. Woo - maybe he’s just a weird religious guy. The next station is… Joyce. Okay, I’m finally here. Why is he getting up? This is my station not his. The door opens and he’s not moving. Oh my god, he’s waiting for me to go - maybe he’ll grab my bag, my wallet?! I quickly rush past him and towards the stairs.
I see him scan the station then get on the eastbound train. Weird. Maybe he’s just a scrounger - trying to collect lost items of value off the train. Still, he’s crazy creepy!
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So there’s my story. Those three experiences over one night have completely changed my opinion of safety both around and *on* SkyTrain. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post with my ideas on how to improve this horrific safety situation.
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6 Responses
Nice story, but I have to say that your concerns are less to do with fare gates, etc, and more a condemnation of the mode of Skytrain itself.
In Japan I often worked late and took the train home at night. The trip took more than an hour, and most times I would be alone (or nearly so) on the train. However, unlike Skytrain which has no drivers, anyone who feels uncomfortable on a *real* train can sit right behind the driver if they feel the need to do so. Drivers are obviously connected to authorities by radio, deterring any real criminals. Security without the need for cops roaming cars.
This is all beside the fact that building a society where people can feel safe should be a much bigger concern than just making the trains safe. Japan certainly gives very few people a reason to feel afraid, and that includes train travel. Maybe we should be asking why it is that kids are behaving like that and “old guys in trenchcoats” are wondering around late at night. I would argue that it’s because we no longer have an intact society like the Japanese do and have become increasingly fragmented, but maybe that’s a question for the sociologists.
Corey, to be fair, some people measure an intact society by safety while riding the train, and others measure it in the national suicide rate, so I would use such phrasing with caution. I feel that every society is a product of many interconnected factors. Many of the factors that shape the environment and resulting experiences in Vancouver simply don’t in other places, such as population density or cultural attitudes towards the mentally ill and personal autonomy.
You’ve got me thinking about my time in Hong Kong…it makes an interesting comparison. I did take a train or two late at night, but not super-late. And the simple fact of the matter is, in Hong Kong, you’re practically never alone. I’ve had the experience of late nights on SkyTrain that are pretty frightening. But there’s also the equally legitimate question of whether turnstiles actually make stations safer, or whether they just make feel people safer while not substantially decreasing (or possibly even increasing) risk or likelihood of harm.
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Hey man, you make some good points, but I think that your story about getting the late night creeps was more in your head than anything else.
Taggers and Juvenile kids exist everywhere and they are just trying to freak you out. You gotta stick it back at um, I mean, you got scared, but nothing really happened.. You allowed your fear to take control of the whole situation, and even got freaked out by an old guy in a trenchcoat. come on!!
To be honest, people aren’t always security. Me and a few queer friends of mine were on our way out to Surrey on a skytrain packed full of late-rush hour commuters when a couple of guys heard we were gay, and started talking to us and insulting us, making us rather uncomfortable. A few stations later we realized they were holding a knife, openly, on a packed skytrain. We tried to motion to someone to pull the silent alarm but nobody did. And nobody did anything about it. Finally we decided to get off, and when we walked past them the one with the knife said “If you so much as look at me I’ll jab this in your leg.”
But I don’t think turnstiles would do anything to keep them off. What would help is having a security person who you could go and ask for help with at each station. That would be nice, but I don’t see what turnstiles would do.
Either way, I know what happened there was a one in a million event: I’ve taken the skytrain thousands of other times without any problem. Yes, sometimes it’s a little bit eerie without any passengers, but what will turnstiles do about that? Strange, eerie situations aren’t really a problem. It’s those ones that are truly dangerous that are.