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LRT Safety

I'm taking the head of ETS for coffee in two weeks to chat more about my/my coworkers/family and friends experiences of late and hope to relay that much of the LRT experiences are sub par at best, often require inhaling noxious substances, with stations and platforms having miscellaneous items too gross and disgusting to note.
 
Kosy123 said:
Seems like the moment Peace Officers or security aren't there as a presence, there seems to always be loitering of some sort by the LRT entrances (in my experience, today and yesterday in Corona and Churchill).

Not sure how much of it is the extremely cold weather and the lack of a day drop-in space in the core of the city, but it's essentially a game of whack-a-mole when it comes to keeping transit spaces clear.
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In the stations I go to regularly, it seems sporadic and oddly not related to cold weather as much as I would expect. So this leads me to believe either people aren't lingering or security is eventually dealing with them.

I realize there is a line between allowing people to stay for a while, particularly because of cold weather, and dealing with situations or behavior that is disruptive or not allowed.
 
Glenco said:
Trying to separate the wheat from the chaff becomes problematic
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I am sure it is not easy to deal with all of this, but still it does need to be dealt with. If the rules are not adequately enforced you know the problems will only become more severe like they were a few years ago.

And that will negatively affect the regular users of transit and the LRT.
 
Why isn't it a consistent issue in the lobby of City Hall, or the Stollery Children's hospital?

There are countless publically accessable spaces that wouldn't tolerate this for a second. But for some reason, transit becomes a dumping ground.

Someone smoking crack in a hospital lobby is unthinkable, but it's not viewed as the vile crime, and personal assault of passersby it is, when it's on transit property.

I don't deserve this more than nurses, doctors, patients, city councillors, city administrators. Students don't deserve this, women and children especially don't deserve this. I'm sick of the general treatment of transit users being so damn poor. I'm sick of worrying about my girlfriend getting home safely at night.
 
Barnaby said:
Why isn't it a consistent issue in the lobby of City Hall, or the Stollery Children's hospital?

There are countless publically accessable spaces that wouldn't tolerate this for a second. But for some reason, transit becomes a dumping ground.

Someone smoking crack in a hospital lobby is unthinkable, but it's not viewed as the vile crime, and personal assault of passersby it is, when it's on transit property.

I don't deserve this more than nurses, doctors, patients, city councillors, city administrators. Students don't deserve this, women and children especially don't deserve this. I'm sick of the general treatment of transit users being so damn poor. I'm sick of worrying about my girlfriend getting home safely at night.
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This. 100%.
 
Barnaby said:
Why isn't it a consistent issue in the lobby of City Hall, or the Stollery Children's hospital?

There are countless publically accessable spaces that wouldn't tolerate this for a second. But for some reason, transit becomes a dumping ground.

Someone smoking crack in a hospital lobby is unthinkable, but it's not viewed as the vile crime, and personal assault of passersby it is, when it's on transit property.

I don't deserve this more than nurses, doctors, patients, city councillors, city administrators. Students don't deserve this, women and children especially don't deserve this. I'm sick of the general treatment of transit users being so damn poor. I'm sick of worrying about my girlfriend getting home safely at night.
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That is the point I was trying to make. Who has the time and discretion to decide who is just getting warm and who is doing drugs. Transit is not a drop in shelter
 
Unfortunately, the de facto use of public transit as a homeless shelter is not at all confined to Edmonton. An article in La Presse yesterday noted that in 2024, there were 47 overdoses on Montreal transit, five overdose deaths, more than 12,000 people escorted out of metro stations at closing time*, and a 40% rise in disturbances, accompanied by a 10-percentage point drop in perception of safety. This is in a transit system where all sorts of people take transit regularly—rich and poor, white- and blue-collar, families with kids, etc.—so I'm not sure that driving up LRT ridership alone will fix things.

*I would assume that a single person could be counted more than once if they were escorted out on multiple days
 
constance_chlore said:
Unfortunately, the de facto use of public transit as a homeless shelter is not at all confined to Edmonton. An article in La Presse yesterday noted that in 2024, there were 47 overdoses on Montreal transit, five overdose deaths, more than 12,000 people escorted out of metro stations at closing time*, and a 40% rise in disturbances, accompanied by a 10-percentage point drop in perception of safety. This is in a transit system where all sorts of people take transit regularly—rich and poor, white- and blue-collar, families with kids, etc.—so I'm not sure that driving up LRT ridership alone will fix things.

*I would assume that a single person could be counted more than once if they were escorted out on multiple days
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It's honestly troubling that all major transit systems in Canada are facing this, all at the same time essentially. I just searched this up since I was curious about the drop in safety perception and I saw the a Montreal Gazette article that states 38% of riders feel unsafe in the Montreal Metro and that the marked change started happening five years ago. It's eerily similar, with the CAQ being blamed for funding cuts and the expansion of their EMMIS program.
 
Glenco said:
That is the point I was trying to make. Who has the time and discretion to decide who is just getting warm and who is doing drugs. Transit is not a drop in shelter
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There is only already a small army of security people there apparently often just staring at their phones and a regular parade of peace officers and police.

Its pretty obvious is someone is doing drugs or causing problems. So this does get responded too, but it the response may need to be improved.
 
If you want to know why young people are now voting conservative, all you have to do is look at crime, housing costs, GDP/capita vs US, skyrocketing immigration, and deteriorating downtowns. Some is perception, there’s stats that highlight improvements. But the general feeling of young adults is that Trudeau/liberals “broke” Canada.

Many who used to lean progressive have now flipped sides in hopes that improvements can be made.

Safety on transit/drug use is a huge part of this.
 
When you say "young people are now voting conservative," do you mean that young people are especially turning more conservative? Or that young people are now planning to vote somewhat more conservative than in 2021 or 2019, just as every age group is?

From 2022 on, it's been a brutal time to be an incumbent worldwide, and I don't know that any Canada-specific phenomena are required to explain the anti-Trudeau backlash. I'm sure the implementation of immigration policy hasn't helped, but in my mind the great failures of Canada in the last 20 years have all been housing-related, and nobody at the federal level has shown any real leadership in fixing it. I certainly don't think Poilievre has. I don't think the issues related to disorder and immigration would be nearly so bad if housing costs were more reasonable.
 
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