Daily BrewTTC investigating video of bus running red light, almost hitting pedestrian
Toronto's transit authority is investigating after a bus driver was caught on video running a red light and nearly striking a pedestrian, the latest recorded incident of apparent employee transgressions playing out amid a mayoral campaign focused on how to improve the transit system.
The video, which was posted to YouTube on Monday, is said to have been recorded on Eglinton Avenue earlier that day and shows two Toronto Transit Commission buses approach a light as it turns from green to amber. One bus crosses the intersection while the light is yellow, while the second appears to speed up and enter the intersection as the light turns red.
In the video, shot from the dashboard camera of another vehicle, the bus can be seen veering suddenly away from the curb after crossing the intersection as a pedestrian is forced to jump back from the crosswalk.
The Toronto Star reports that the video was recorded by Steve Taylor, 20, who was travelling to his job at an asphalt repair company with a co-worker when they captured the video.
“As soon as he got to the red light he just hit the gas," Taylor told the newspaper.
The time stamp on the video suggests the video was shot in February 2012, but that does not appear to be the case. For one, it is clearly not winter. For another, the advertisement on the side of the bus is for a movie set for release this weekend.
TTC officials have confirmed they are investigating the serious incident.
“I don’t want to speculate on what that discipline might be, but ultimately one could lose their job over something as serious as this, based on record, based on past performance and history," spokesman Brad Ross told CBC News.
TTC Union boss Bob Kinnear told the Star, meantime, that the driver was likely under “immense pressure” to stick his schedule – a task made more difficult by overcrowding and traffic congestion.
It is important to note that an incident like this is not indicative of how the majority of Toronto transit drivers behave.
Then again, it was along this same mid-town Toronto route where just two months ago, a busload of passengers was abandoned on the side of the road by a driver who declared his shift was over and simply went home.
The National Post has also recently run a series of articles titled "Streetcarnage" about the problems surrounding the TTC's streetcar system. In one article, a driver confessed, "We are not delivering the quality or the quantity of service we know we should be delivering out here. We know that. But we don’t get to decide how much we deliver how often."
Reports of employees misbehaving dot the TTC landscape at all times of years, but it is significant at this time considering the current political climate. We are less than four months out from a mayoral election in which transit will play a key role.
A recent Nanos Research poll found that transit was the number one issue in the Toronto mayoral election, with 34.8 per cent of Torontonians listing it as the top priority. Traffic and gridlock ranked fourth, with 14.1 per cent.
Mayoral candidates have shared their position on how to improve transit service, with several specifically drawing attention to the quality of bus service. Olivia Chow has promised to increase rush-hour bus capacity by 10 per cent, which would ease congestion and presumably the need for drivers to rush to maintain pickup schedules.
David Soknacki recently unveiled a plan to offer free TTC service before 7 a.m. in an effort to ease rush-hour congestion and end bus and streetcar "bunching".
That's not to say that a video capturing a Toronto bus driver running a red light and nearly striking a pedestrian needs to be an election issue. But whether it is a one-off incident or a problem caused by an overworked system, it is indicative of what frustrates Torontonians most about public transit.
And Toronto's next government could do worse than ensure it never happens again.
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